Blog & Cigar News | Mardo Cigars

Hi, and welcome to another episode of Mondays with Mardos. I'm Gerard and this week we're going to talk about cigar shapes 101. But before I get going, I need to click on that subscribe button, click on the bell to be notified every single week of new episodes on Mondays with Mardos.

All right, so when it comes to cigar shapes, fundamentally and most commonly used is a basic round shaped cigar as you see right here in my hand. Now, another common cigar is a box press. There are all kinds of crazy other cigar shapes I have seen, but the most commonly used are what I have right here on a table. But more than anything, I'm interested in talking to you guys about cigar sizes today. As you can see right here, size does matter, and it will affect the flavor of the cigar. So, this is a JFR Lunatic, eight by 80. This is the same exact cigar with the same blend. This is four and three quarters by 70, and a lot of people usually ask me, "Gerard will a size of a cigar really make a difference in the flavor if it's the same blend?" Usually they think it doesn't. Logically, by just looking at these two cigars with the same blend, it's going to make a big difference in the flavor.

And, I'll get into it little bit more specifically. Now, here we have two cigars that are very close in size when it comes to the ring gauge and in the length. They're both six inches, however one has a regular cap and the other one has a tapered cap. The ring gauge on this one is a 52 ring gauge and this one is a 56 ring gauge. The difference is a value of four. Now, is that going to make a difference in the flavor and will it be as drastic as a differentiation between these two? You bet, and I'll tell you exactly why. All right, so for demonstration purposes, I'm going to use this very large cigar here, eight inch by 80. So, there are three parts of this cigar. You have the filler, the binder is what binds the filler together. You place it in a press and then once you have the shape, you bring it out and then you finish it with a beautiful wrapper.

40% of the flavor of a cigar comes from the wrapper, but when you have filler ratio that is so great, that can overpower the flavor of the wrapper, it's going to make a big difference in the flavor of the cigar. So, when the size is like this and like this, the differentiation is going to be very, very big. So, let's come to a more traditional size difference. This is a six and six inch right here, but this is a 54 ring gauge and this is a 52 ring gauge. The difference between these two is a value of four. How could it possibly be any different in flavor? Well, as small as one leaf in a cigar either added or removed can change the flavor of cigar entirely, let alone a value of four here. So, this Herbert Spencer, excuse me, Belicoso six by 52 compared to the Herbert Spencer Toro six by 54 in flavor does have a very big difference.

Now, when you go down to a Corona, which is going to be a much smaller ring gage, it's like a six by 46, a Robusto five by 50, a Gordo six by 60, and so on, the sizes of a cigar is going to have a very, very big difference in flavor. It being, again, because you always have to consider the ratio of filler to wrapper. So, the smaller ring gauge cigar, you're going to taste more of the wrapper because the ratio is going to be greater than the filler like in a Lancero.

Lanceros have become very popular these days because today's consumers are very educated knowing that the wrapper is the most expensive part of a cigar because of the quality of it, making sure that it looks really good. So, therefore it brings the price very high. Now, the farmers want to make sure they give you a very, very good product and therefore we want to taste more of the wrapper because that is the epitome of a cigar when it comes to flavors because I already mentioned it makes up 40% of the flavor. So, let me hear in the comments what you've found today in this video, what you learned from it and what you can add to it. Other than that, I'll see you guys next week. Remember to follow us on Instagram, watch us on Facebook and remember and tell your friends to subscribe to our YouTube channel. See you guys.