“Fat people tend to smoke relatively thin, extra-long cigars; skinny people smoke fat cigars; black people tend to favor the light, green-wrapped [candela] cigars; white people smoke dark cigars; short people smoke tall cigars, tall people smoke short cigars; young people smoke thin cigars and older people smoke thicker cigars.” —Lew Rothman, founder, JR Cigar
It can be a little confusing to discuss the “size” and “shape” of cigars, because size and shape are often used interchangeably. The word for the overall type of cigar is vitola (a term denoting the length, diameter and overall shape of a cigar). The words format and model are also used in place of vitola. For instance, if I say, “I’ll have a Monte 2,” that single condensed word (short for “Montecristo”) + one number convey the size, shape and brand. The following terms will help clarify matters:
LENGTH: A cigar’s length is listed either in inches, in centimeters or both. Since Americans never learned the metric system, SIG CULTURE cigars references are all listed in inches.
DIAMETER: The basic unit of measurement of a cigar’s diameter—or girth—is the ring gauge (rg), which is based on increments of 1/64 of an inch. For example, a standard toro size is “6 inch x 50rg,” which means it is six inches long and 50/64ths of an inch thick.
SHAPE: If you’re searching for common denominators to use as a starting point for shape, consider that all cigars can be divided into two main categories:
- PAREJOS, or straight-sided cigars. Standard hand-rolled premium long-filler cigars typically range from 3.5 in / 8.9 cm to 9.25 in / 23.5cm. While the body of the cigar is straight, parejos can have round, flat, conical or pigtail heads.
- FIGURADOS, or irregular shapes such as a pirámides (pyramid), torpedo, perfecto, salamone, diademas, belicoso and petite belicoso are all examples of figurado cigars. An haute figurado cigar is a Fuente OpusX BBMF.
BOX-PRESSED: Parejos all start out rounded and straight. However, some become square-ish cigars known as box-pressed. Originally box-pressed cigars achieved their namesake shape by being placed into a tight-fitting box. Today various techniques, including the traditional one, are employed to achieving this squaring-off.
FANCY CAP HEADS: Both parejos and figurados can be finished off with the flourish of a fancy cap on the head, of which there are many: pigtail cap, fantail cap, twisted rope tail (e.g., La Flor Dominicana TCFKA “M” Collector’s Edition) and unique BBMF cap (OpusX Serie Heaven and Earth BBMF). There are many variations of this, as master rollers can do all manner of fancy finishes. This is not to be confused at all with a Cuban-style triple cap, which—while impressive—is a classic, simple cap and head. Fancy finishes are nice for roughly a second . . . right before you chop off the cap.
