Types of Cigar Wrappers

A cigar is a 100% natural product and consists of three parts: the wrapper, binder and filler. The wrapper is the outside leaf – it is what you see when you look at a cigar. Its color and texture are the physical embodiment of the cigar's character and it provides 30% to 60% of the cigar’s flavor.

Types of cigar wrappers

Cigar wrappers are typically distinguished by two broad categories: Natural (lighter wrappers,) or Maduro (dark wrappers)

Natural cigar wrappers

Natural Cigar wrappers are Connecticut (or Connecticut Shade) Educador Connecticut, they’re produced from tobacco grown under shade.

The shade-grown technique helps to prevent the leaves from becoming too oily or coarse, as they would in direct sunlight. Shade-grown tobacco also produces larger leaves which are ideal for wrappers.

Shade can occur in two ways: either by shielding the tobacco in a tent with a thin cloth on top, or organically, as in Ecuador, where the natural cloud cover shades the tobacco.

Interestingly, Connecticut Shade is one of the finest and most expensive wrappers in the world, and it is grown on just 1,200 acres of incredibly rich topsoil along the Connecticut River Valley.

CAO Gold, Macanudo Cafe, Partagas Classic and Punch Grand Cru are examples of natural wrappers.

Maduro cigar wrappers

Maduro cigar wrappers are darker, and not because it’s a unique style of tobacco. Maduro simply means “ripe” and nearly any type of leaf can become maduro. It’s simply a point of time during the fermentation process.

Many countries offer leaves that are ideal for a flavorful wrapper. Some of the most popular wrappers hail from Cameroon, Connecticut, Brazil, Ecuador and Honduras, to name a few.

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