Hi everybody. Today we are going to sacrifice a cigar to show you the components broken down. Everyone's familiar with wrapper/binder/filler, but I think very few people have ever split open a cigar to take a look at how they come together as one.

Cigar Wrapper

Starting out, the first thing that can be seen on a cigar is the wrapper. This is the last component to be added after the binder and filler are put together. The wrapper leaf is normally the prettiest of all the components. This seems a bit blasphemous, but we're going to cut the cigar open and take a look deeper inside.

All right, so now we see this beautiful wrapper leaf apart from the rest of the cigar. It's pretty brittle and fairly thin, but the composed binder and filler combination is much smoother overall. When tobacco leaves are graded, they're typically graded for filler quality, binder, and wrapper quality, respectively. The wrapper grade will be sorted and used solely for the wrapper, even if it's the same leaf as the binder.

Cigar Binder

So let's cut into the binder and see what this filler looks like. So a binder, while a similar leaf as the wrapper, definitely serves a different purpose. It very much helps to hold the cigar together, but it also imparts just as much flavor, if not more flavor, than the wrapper. So a binder, while also holding the cigar together, is super important for combustion. While blending a cigar, it's essential to make sure that it will burn correctly. And while you may not even think about it while smoking it, the binder is a vital part of that.

Looking at them side by side, the wrapper leaf is obviously much more visually appealing, but this binder leaf, while the same varietal, is much more rugged with a couple more sunspots; It doesn't have as even of a texture or color. It's not something that most people would want to see on the outside of their cigar, but it's tasty nonetheless. Also, when breaking open a cigar like this, you can really smell the differences. And that binder leaf smells great. You couldn't necessarily pick that up on the cold draw or by simply smelling the cigar. These internal components have an aroma to them like nothing else.

Cigar Filler

And last but not least, we're going to break into this filler tobacco and see if we can get a better idea of how it is composed. So now that we've got this filler broken apart, I think it is super interesting to see the differences in color and the differences in texture amongst this filler.

This cigar, to me, looks to be rolled Accordion style. There's a couple ways to roll a cigar. For the most part, it is either Entubado or Accordion style. Entubado is where each leaf is individually rolled and then palmed. Accordion style is where the leaves are stacked and then folded upon themselves. As you can see, these are whole leaves. This very middle section looks to be partial leaves. When rolling a cigar, the leaves are obviously a little bit too long to roll into a 6-inch Toro. The tips of the cigar are snapped and folded back into the cigar. And that's not necessarily short filler. It is still a long-filler cigar, yet those pieces have been purposely put in certain portions of the cigar for flavor, strength, and complexity.

Cigar Components

It's cool to do a deep dive and see how these cigars are composed. It's still incredible to me that this amount of thought can be put into a product and that it goes through so many hands, and for $10, it is at your door and ready to light.

So hopefully you learned something today about how a cigar is composed, and thankfully, we sacrificed one of ours so you didn't have to do it yourself. Maybe it will impart a better appreciation the next time you cut and light a cigar.