Everyone has a little section about cigar wrappers, but they mostly just list the wrapper color spectrum (Candela – Oscuro). But that doesn’t help you select a cigar, does it? How does the color of the wrapper help you decide what cigar you want to smoke?
So I made a list, of what I could remember, of all the wrapper types available, what I like about them and any general flavor profiles associated with them. A lot of the specific information I gleaned off the web (and especially from Perelman’s CigarCyclopedia site, which is a great site by the way, and Smoke Magazine).
There are a ton of different wrapper types and almost each wrapper can be grown in a different country and taste different. Below is a comprehensive list of the more common wrapper types and country origins.
Through my research the most important fact I found is that cigar makers tend to generalize their wrapper descriptions or have different names for the same type of wrapper. So hopefully in here I can help explain some of the inconsistencies. I also included an example of a cigar, after each description, which best embodies that particular wrapper.
When I describe flavors I am trying to generalize over lots of cigars that feature that wrapper, knowing that the wrapper is not responsible for the flavor of the cigar alone, and how much a does the wrapper contribute to a cigar’s flavor is another discussion in its own.
Click on each wrapper name to gain access to its page.
Cigar Wrappers A-Z
Arapiraca – from Brazil with love.
Besuki - includes Besuki TBN.
Cameroon – includes Cameroon Ligero, Sun Grown Cameroon, Cameroon Maduro and Ecuadorian Cameroon.
Connecticut Broadleaf - includes Costa Rican CBL and Pennsylvannian CBL.
Connecticut Shade - includes Ecuadorian & Honduran Connecticut varieties.
Corojo – includes Costa Rican, Honduran andNicaraguan Corojo. Also San Adres & El Corojo.
Criollo – includes Honduran and Nicaraguan versions as well as Medio Tempo and San Andres.
Habano 2000 – includes Honduran Ecuadorian and Nicaraguan examples.
Sumatra – includes Dominican, Ecuadorian and other versions.
Wrappers by Color
Candela – green eggs and ham, please.
Colorado – the red-headed stepchild of cigars.
Maduro - includes Brazilian, Costa Rican, Nicaraguan and Mexican maduros as well as Connecticut Broadleaf, Aripiraca and Mata Fina wrapper types.
Oscuro
Wrappers by Origin
Brazilian
Costa Rican
Dominican
Honduran - Many different types of wrapper leaf are grown in Honduras. I’ve listed as many as I could find.
Mexican – A little info about the much maligned Mexican leaf.
Nicaraguan
“Extinct” Wrapper Types - these are wrappers I rarely see anymore or are from plants no longer grown or used for wrapper leaaves.
El Corojo – The forefather to the modern day Corojo plant.
