Cigar sizes have names that sound like a secret code and mean two plain things: how thick, and how long. Here is how to read them, what they change in the smoke, and which of our three to reach for when.
Two numbers describe every cigar. The ring gauge is the diameter in sixty-fourths of an inch, so a ring of 42 is a cigar two-thirds of an inch across and a ring of 52 is a little over three-quarters. The length is given in inches or millimetres. A vitola is the name the trade gives to a particular pairing of the two, and the names are old, Cuban and only roughly standard: one house's Corona is another's Petit Corona. What matters is what the two numbers do.
What thickness changes
A thicker cigar holds more filler leaves, so the blender has more room to build a taste in layers, and it burns cooler, because the smoke travels through more tobacco before it reaches you. A thin cigar has fewer leaves, so the wrapper counts for more of the taste, and it burns warmer and faster. Thin does not mean weak. It means more direct: you taste the leaf with less in the way.
What length changes
Time, mostly. A cigar burns at roughly the same rate whatever its length, so a longer one gives you more minutes and a longer arc: the first third is the wrapper and the light, the second is the blend, and the last third is where the strength gathers. A short cigar gets to its last third quickly. A long one lets you wait for it.
“Choose the cigar for the hour you have, not the hour you would like to have.”The house · the first rule of the tasting guide
The Corona: ring 42, 5½ inches, thirty-five minutes
The classic format of the nineteenth century and the one we use to introduce the valley, because there is so little between you and the leaf. Our Corona wears a Connecticut wrapper and reads as cream, hay and cedar. It is the cigar for eleven in the morning, for a coffee, for a walk, and for anyone who has never smoked a Manila and wants to know what the fuss is about.
The Robusto: ring 50, 5 inches, fifty minutes
The most popular format in the world for a reason: it gives the thickness of a big cigar in a length that fits a lunch break. Our Robusto Maduro wears a dark Habano wrapper over the same valley leaf and is the fullest thing we make, the one lounges order first and the one to reach for after dinner when you want weight without a long evening.
The Toro: ring 52, 6 inches, an hour and a quarter
The evening format. Our Toro wears a natural Habano wrapper and takes its time: cocoa and roasted coffee from the leaf itself, arriving in the second half. It is the cigar for a terrace after dark, a long conversation, or a whisky that deserves company.
Which one to buy first
If you are choosing one box, the Robusto Maduro pleases the widest range of smokers. If you are choosing for yourself, take the Corona first and the Toro a month later, and you will have tasted the valley twice, once plainly and once at length. All three are on the Cigars page, with the technical sheet of each, and the lounges and boutiques that carry them are on the Find page.
