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The Scent of a Good Cigar

What comes through the deepening dusk,
Something sweeter than jasmine scent,
Sweeter than rose and violet blend,
More potent in power than orange or muse?
The scent of a good cigar.
-Kate A. Carrington-

The Experts

Our authority for this discussion is Richard DiMeola, Executive V.P., CEO of Consolidated Cigar Corporation and President of the company's premium cigar subsidiary, Tabacalera de Garcia in the Dominican Republic. Consolidated employs 1,200 skilled experts there and in Honduras who fashion fine, handmade cigars under trademarks as H. Upmann, Don Diego, Dunhill, Montecruz, Royal Jamaica, Por Larranaga and many others.

Richard DiMeola is distinguished by being one of only a very few cigar connoisseurs in the world whose experience spans almost four decades, back to the era when Cuba was the mecca of premium cigar making. He continues to be actively involved in refining and elevating the fine art of rolling extraordinary premium cigars.

Judging a Good Cigar

What is the single, most important factor in determining the quality of a fine, all natural tobacco, long filled, hand made cigar?

Consistency !

There are two general elements involved in the making up of a fine, handmade cigar: quality tobacco and quality construction . They are of equal importance. But the interweaving thread that is the primary consideration in judging a good from a not-so-good cigar is consistency.

Consistency then, as in many human endeavors, is key. The sports world provides so many examples of this. The free throw contest in basketball is measured by the number of consecutive baskets achieved: consistency. The golfer gets rated by the number of times his ball lands in the fairway from the tee and the number of greens reached in regulation: consistency. The highest paid baseball sluggers receive enormous salaries because they can hit the ball more often than others. Again, consistency. Performance at an extremely high level, time after time, is the primary measure of excellence.

Any producer cigars can occasionally make a smooth burning, rich tasting product. But the truly excellent producer will do it every time, or almost every time.

If a skeet shooter cannot hit 100 out of 100 "birds," he'll never reach world class ranking, and that's 100 of every 100 he tries. A cigar must be judged by similar standards. Even the weekend golfer will par a few holes during a round. But the real measure of excellence is how close a certain cigar brand, and any shape within that brand, comes to being that good drawing, good burning, good tasting product time after time.

Is Judging only One Cigar Sufficient?

Since consistency is an integral to quality of a cigar, reason suggests that sampling only one cigar cannot judge the quality of that type. How many cigars should be tested? Statistically, the greater the number, the greater the accuracy. To be practical, since cigars traditionally come in boxes of 25, it would seem that one box of 25 would enable one to adequately judge. Besides, acquiring 100 cigars of a given size could get too expensive and, if they do not smoke very well, rather frustrating.

Why is Construction Important?

If a cigar is under-filled, constructed by skimping on the number of leaves in the filler, it will draw easily. Now that's often considered a benefit, but the ultraeasy draw will be offset by hot burning and harshness, because, in an underfilled cigar, there are too many air pockets causing a fast burn, thus a hot smoke.

If a cigar is over-filled, it will draw hard, and sometimes be impossible to draw (plugged). This is the cause of the greatest number of complaints by premium cigar smokers. A hard-to-draw cigar means a lower volume of smoke, thus much less taste and aroma, and frustration to the smoker.

Therefore, good construction is essential to achieving good taste and aroma. You can use the best, most expensive tobacco in the world, put together by the most creative and knowledgeable blenders. But if the cigar is not constructed properly, none of the intrinsic quality of that tobacco can be brought home to the smoker.

And again, consistent quality construction should be there if a cigar is good smoking.

Other Construction Characteristics?

Taste and aroma are the most important attributes of the consistently well constructed cigar. Others characteristics are aesthetics, other indicators of a well made cigar:

It should burn evenly all the way down, assuming the cigar is properly lit. An uneven burning cigar is caused by an improper roll. If frequent cigars burn unevenly, the cigar should be judged as poor. Such cigars would not taste good.

Ash should be relatively firm and be an inch long without difficulty (except in small ring gauges). A falling ash is not necessarily a sign of a poorly constructed cigar. A firm, even ash while smoking is an indication of well made. And if consistent, your impression will be reinforced. Besides, a cigar ash in your lap is really annoying. A consistently flaky, loose ash is sign of a poorly constructed cigar.

The cigar should feel good in the mouth, firm and resilient. If not, if the cigar is soft and mushy, it won't feel good, thus reducing the overall pleasure.

The cigar aesthetics should look good and feel good to the touch. It should not show too many blemishes; the color in the box should be consistent from one to another.

The cigars in a given box, wrappers even from the same crop, can vary thirty shades of color. Color variance is not in itself bad; but a manufacturer who is detail attentive ensures the color in one box of cigars are all alike. Cigars should look and feel smooth rolled between the fingers. This is just another indication of good construction and a reassurance of quality.

Quality of Aesthetics

Think about it, does a fine wine taste better from a paper cup or from a beautiful crystal glass? While draw and burn are the most important factors affected by construction, the aesthetics of that construction reflect the quality, taste and aroma of a particular cigar. If a company places so little importance upon aesthetics, then is it reasonable to expect that it places little importance upon quality?

Importance of Tobacco

When considering the quality of a good cigar, tobacco content is often the only thing considered. Certainly tobacco is very importance, but moreso construction. That's why construction is first in this inquiry.

Tobacco consistently high quality must also be correctly processed. To maintain taste and aroma consistency, a cigar producer ensure a consistent supply of the same tobaccos blends. Availability of the various types of tobaccos yielded vary with crop years. A sufficiently large stock of a particular leaf must be purchased as is available to diminish adverse short-supply due to drought, heavy rains, too much or too little sunshine, political upheaval in tobacco growing regions of the world, etc. Sufficient financial resources are required if high quality and consistency are to be maintained.

A Manufacturer Stockpiles Supply

Quality tobaccos, taste and aroma will vary from year to year, even sometimes from month to month. And, if inferior quality is used, the cigars will produce a harsh, rough, musty taste with an unpleasant, penetrating aroma, the kind wives tend to dislike.

Financial resources are not enough. A manufacturer must be experienced to know good tobacco from bad. This comes only from experience. The best tobacco men today have been in the business for decades and travel the world buying leaf stock for their companies. They know whether to accept or reject an offer and they have their particular trusted farmers and processors to whom they return year after year. If, in a given year, one traditional source has had a poor crop, chances are another will make up for it. If not, the knowledgeable and experienced tobacco man will have provided the necessary protection in leaf stock to get his company through to the next crop and enable overlapping one crop to the other for slow integration. Again, this means a lot of money becomes tied up in leaf inventory, but it's the only way to ensure having the supplies of high quality leaf necessary to produce tasty, aromatic cigars consistently.

How does Fermentation Affect the Tobacco?

In addition, the proper tobacco processing before use is imperative. For all the types which make up a cigar (filler (the guts of a cigar), binder and wrapper), the process known as fermentation must be carefully monitored and completed before the tobacco is rolled into a cigar. After the cigar is made, fermentation ceases.

Tobacco fermentation means laying the leaves into huge "bulks" the centers of which develop heat. The heat in the center of a bulk should not exceed about 115 - 130 degrees F. depending upon tobacco type, otherwise it will be ruined. The rise of temperature occurs in its own time. Depending upon the leaf and its condition, the bulk is turned inside out, and the fermentation (heat) begins again. fermentation is complete when the heat moderates. This could occur after four turns or eight turns, referred to in the Trade as sweats . Over fermentation will ruin the leaf, cause it to become spent and lose its flavor and aroma.

During sweating, the fermentation process causes emission of nitrogen and other chemical compounds and somewhat reduces the nicotine content . After fermentation, further aging in bales helps to settle the leaf and enhances flavor and reduce burning quality.

Manufacturers who don't wait for this process to be completed produce inferior cigars.

If after smoking your box of 25 cigars you find any of the following, chances are the leaf has not been fully fermented or aged:

The manufacturer is not consistent in the use of his tobaccos. If it happens with a majority of them, he is not making the investment in fully aged leaf and is using the tobacco before its time.

Once the cigar is made, fermentation of the tobacco stops. Some cigar people say that natural wrapped cigars properly kept in the box without cellophane will "mature" and become more mellow. Maybe, and that is a matter of taste and judgment, but, if unfermented or "raw" tobacco has been used, no amount of aging or maturing in the box will cure it. Cigar tobacco is unlike wine.

This is the importance of leaf processing to produce a consistently high quality cigar.

When and Where a Cigar is Smoked

Whenever smoking cigars from a certain box, determine any significant variance in taste and aroma. But, be careful. A cigar will taste different at morning or evening, after a meal, with coffee, or cognac, indoors or outdoors. Slight variances are acceptable. It's the wide swing in quality that's objectionable. Remember, the bad cigar costs as much as the good one. You're entitled to some assurance of getting value for your money.

What's the Best Storage and Humidity Temperature?

At 70% relative humidity and 70· F. cigars will dry out over time. Use a decent humidor. At room temperature, add moisture to the humidifier in the humidor regularly, and it will be no problem. After rolling a manufacturer equilibrates cigars at room temperature and about 72% relative humidity. At this level, the three parts of the cigars are allowed to equalize moisture ever so slowly dry. So room temperature and 73% humidity will keep cigars perfect forever.

As temperature drops, the humidity must rise to sustain cigars freshness. Never allow temperature to rise. High temperature and high humidity incubates little bugs and/or a white mold. Dry cigars have less flavor and aroma, are less mild and flake off in the mouth. Dryness, the second most frequent complaint among premium cigar smokers, is the major cause of unraveling wrappers.

So when you purchase that box of cigars, ensure your source has kept them properly. If not in good condition, they will never be good or consistent.

Does Cigar Size Affect Taste and Aroma?

Generally, a cigar smoker likes a particular size. The same cigar blends in different sizes taste different, sometimes vastly different especially of ring size and length. This is because a big ring gauge, say 50 or 52, produces an immense volume of smoke compared to a 28, 36 or even a 42 ring. Naturally, taste and aroma are influenced by this.

To a lesser extent, length also influences taste, but not so seriously as ring size. A 7 inch cigar when accustomed to one at 5 1/2 inches long will taste a little different than the one that starts at 5 1/2 inches.

Thus, if a manufacturer excels at making a great cigar 42 ring x 6 1/2 inches, it does not necessarily follow that the same brand in other sizes will be as good or as consistent. You'll have to try a box of each. But if you're not accustomed to smoking a certain size, enlist the cooperation of a friend who does smoke that size regularly.

1 Ring = 1/64" diameter; thus a 50 ring cigar is a bit more than 3/4" in diameter.

Is Price Indicative of Quality or Consistency?

Regardless of the price, you still have to smoke those 25 cigars to determine consistency. High price does not guarantee a good cigar. The highest priced cigars are still hand made products, subject to the same construction idiosyncrasies as their less expensive brethren.

Generally, the biggest cost of a fine cigar is the tobacco, assuming packaged packed in the common box type. Fancy packaging can add greatly to the overall cost. Individual aluminum or glass tubes, polished and beveled cedar or mahogany boxes, gift selections of 5 or 10 cigars, etc. are very expensive and significantly increase the price per cigar.

Prices varying greatly. Some cigars cost 8 or 10 times more than others of the same size. It's the smoker's dilemma to judge relative worth. Price of an object can affect our psyche and attitude toward it. Practice caveat emptor and you'll be all right.

Epilogue

You can't test one cigar and from that singular experience label it good or not so good. Notice, you are the judge of how a cigar should taste or smell. That is personal and subjective. As with food and wine, if you like the cigar's taste and aroma, then it's good. And, if that pleasing taste and aroma is delivered every time, then the cigar is good.

It's something akin to all those people in the world who
do not enjoy caviar. The subjectivity of taste is one of life's fascinations and it definitely applies to cigars as well.

Gathering of Cigar Authorities

A charity event attracted 160 prominent cigar lovers, such as comedian Milton Berle, actor James Coburn and others from entertainment, journalism and business.

The Ruth Berle Memorial Foundation, meeting at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Southern California, was an event conceived by Consolidated Cigar Corporation's Henry E. Schielein, VP and General Manager, and by Richard DiMeola, Executive VP.

Henry Schielein knows how to judge a good cigar; what to look for in judging the quality of a premium cigar:

Henry Schielein, noted hotelier, food and wine expert and cigar connoisseur, is President and Chief Operating officer of the famous Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, California. The Balboa Bay Club, 50-year worldwide reputation as the "Host of the Coast" waterfront location and extensive resort have been home to presidents and celebrities. Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush have enjoyed the club and its many recreational facilities.

Long known as a lover of fine cigars, Mr. Schielein, as General Manager of the flagship hotel, The Ritz-Carlton Boston, created quite a stir among proper Bostonians when he converted the ladies tea room into a special lounge each evening for the enjoyment of cigars, brandies, coffee and dessert. To inaugurate his smoking lounge he staged a formal dinner-smoker, which developed into an instant success. He brought this popular event to California where he managed the five-star diamond Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel.

The Gentlemen's Cigar Smoker has become a tradition which continues today annually at The Balboa Bay Club and Ritz-Carltons throughout the U.S. and the world. National and international press coverage of this event has helped bring acceptance for cigar lovers and indelibly carved a place for Henry Schielein in the cigar world.

Richard DiMeola's entire business career has been in cigars. In 1956, prior to the Castro regime in Cuba, he began in an administrative capacity with the most prominent firm of the day importing the ten best Cuban cigar brands and distributing them in the United States. It was there that he became intimately familiar with the distinctive taste and aroma of the world's best.

Enjoy!.