Blog & Cigar News | Mardo Cigars

Hi, and welcome to another episode of Mondays with Mardo's. I'm Gerard, and this week we're going to discuss does a ring gauge of a cigar really make a difference in the smoke and the flavor. But before I get going, I need you to click on the Subscribe button, click on the bell to be notified every single week of new episodes of Mondays with Mardo's.

All right. Today we're going to do a little experiment, and we're going to see if the ring gauge of a cigar really makes a difference within the smoke and the flavor, obviously. Today we have put together here a Jake Wyatt Herbert Spencer, a full portfolio of every single size of their cigar that they make in the Madura wrapper.

All right. The Jake Wyatt Herbert Spencer and the core line offers five different ring gauges. We have the 60-ring gauge, the 54-ring gauge known as the Toro, the 60 is known as the Gordo, the 52-ring gauge, which is a Belicoso, the 50-ring gauge, which is the Robusto, and then we have the 46-ring gauge, which is the Corona. For the sake of the video today, what I'm going to do is I'm going to start smoking the 60 and we're going to go all the way down to the extreme, to the 46 Corona, and see if there's a differentiation within the smoke and the flavor. This is going to be fun so stay tuned.

All right. We're going to start off with the 60-ring gauge, the Gordo, and we have been educated in the cigar industry that the larger ring gauge, the more flavor you're going to get of the filler. Because, obviously, the ratio to the wrapper is much greater and, therefore, you're going to notice a little bit of a milder smoke. It's not going to be as impactful of a ring gauge that's much smaller.

What we're going to do here is, obviously, toast this foot pretty good. Get it nice and cherry. Okay. Now we got the cigar nice and cherry. What I'm going to do now, after a couple puffs, I'm going to go ahead and light the Corona and see the big difference change, and it's going to be a lot of fun.

In the 60 I'm noticing that it takes a little bit more effort to get a nice combustion of the tobaccos. I do feel a lot of air movement within the smoke. I'm generally not a 60-ring gauge smoker, so I do feel that it's a little bit more work than something smaller ring gauge. Right now we're going to go to the Corona size and see the big difference.

All right. I'm toasting the foot of the Corona. Now, this is a 46-ring gauge. That's a 60. I'm thinking about the size difference. This is about a third smaller of a ring gauge, about a third, so that's a huge difference, and I'm really curious to see what the big difference is going to be, so let's check it out.

Okay. So right off the bat the draw is a lot easier. The retrohale is a lot more intense. It burns a little bit hotter. However, in the 60-ring gauge, on my lips, it's a lot spicier. It is hard to differentiate in words what I'm experiencing here. Let me take a few more puffs. There's definitely a lot more air movement in here, even though it creates a lot of smoke. But the viscosity of the smoke is more dissipated, meaning the color. You can see that it's not a puffy gray cloud of smoke. Whereas in the Corona, you can see that the density is greater, and the flavor is definitely more amplified in the retrohale, and the burn is a lot, lot hotter. Wow. I could feel that down my throat. Now on a 6 x 60, there's a lot more air movement.

This is truly an experiment, so it's hard to differentiate which one I want to go with. If I'm at a barbecue and I have a lot of time to kill and I want to smoke something, I don't want to have to really focus on the complexity of the cigar. I'm probably going to grab something with a much larger ring gauge because it gives you a lot of flavor, and it's not as intense of a hot draw so, therefore, I'll go with a 6 x 60. But if I want to truly gather the essence of a cigar, I like to go with a smaller ring gauge. It's a lot more complex. It's a lot hotter. There's more things going on within the heat of the smoke because the density is greater. Yeah, for me, this is much more of a focused cigar.

In between these sizes, we have, obviously, the 54, the 52 and then the 50. For me, I would probably go with a 52 in general.

Anyways, that's it for this week. Very short and sweet. Just want to experiment and let you guys see what the difference is. If you have never done this experiment, let me know in the comments if you have or if you haven't, and if you look forward to it.

Anyways, I will see you guys next week. Remember to follow us on Instagram, like us on Facebook, and remember to tell your friends to join our YouTube channel. See you, guys.