Cigar Fillers

Cigar Filler is the tobacco at the heart of the cigar. 98 percent of the cigar is made from this portion of tobacco, and most of its flavor comes from it as well.

What makes cigar fillers different from cigarette fillers?With cigars, you have a leaf wrapper wrapped around leaf fillings. With cigarettes, you have finely cut tobacco that has paper wrapped around it.

Are different kinds of fillers used in making cigars?Many cigars, especially the world-famous brands, use different kinds of tobacco for cigar filler and the cigar wrapper. High quality cigars are often called long filler cigars, meaning that they use long leaves throughout.

They also use a third kind of tobacco leaf called a binder that lies between the filler and the outer wrapper. This layer allows the makers to make wrappers out of more delicate and attractive leaves. Such cigars almost always blend different types of tobacco. Even Cuban cigars will use tobacco grown on different parts of the island to blend multiple flavors.

Lower-grade, machine-made cigars will often rely upon chopped tobacco leaves for filler. Long leaves or even a paper-like substance made from tobacco pulp is used for the wrapper that keeps the cigar together. This causes these cigars to burn differently, and they are therefore less sought out than hand-rolled cigars.

How are cigar fillers prepared?Cigar fillers and binders are removed from tobacco leaf bales and inspected. If necessary, they are aired on racks to get rid of excess moisture. They are then stored in wooden barrels until they are ready to be used.

How is the cigar filler rolled? In a hand-rolled cigar, the filler will be made of several different blends of long tobacco leaves. In machine made cigars, short filler is used, and it contains chemicals and other substances along with remnants of tobacco leaves.

The cigar filler creates about half of the overall flavor. The cigar wrapper leaf of tobacco creates the rest of the flavor. The binder itself has little or no flavor at all.

Where is cigar fillers grown?Filler tobaccos are grown throughout the world. In Cuba, cigar manufacturers only use filler that is grown in Cuba. Other cigar manufacturers will use filler that comes from several different countries.

There are tobacco fields throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. A great deal of cigar filler tobacco is also grown in Mexico. Of course, the most famous and beloved leaf comes from the Vuelto Abajo region of Cuba. Its volcanic soil produces a tobacco that is rich, smooth, spicy, and sweet.

Jamaican cigar fillers are known for being light in body and sweet in taste.

Dominican fillers feature a wide range of flavors because The Dominican Republic has so many different climates, altitudes, and soil types.

Honduran filler has something of a coffee tone to it. Nicaraguan cigar fillers are known for spicy and earthy tones.

Mexican filler is strong, sweet, and spicy. Much of it, in fact, is often blended with Jamaican and Dominican tobacco.