Nice to Know

What is a Cuban Sand­wich Cigar?

The­re are dif­fe­rent types of cigars: long fil­lers, short fil­lers and tho­se that are rol­led using the so-cal­led Cuban sand­wich process.

Cuban Sand­wich cigars com­bi­ne long and short fil­lers and are some­ti­mes refer­red to as medi­um fil­lers. The­se cigars have a wrap­per and a bin­der made of lar­ge tob­ac­co lea­ves (long fil­ler). The fil­ler con­sists of smal­ler pie­ces of tob­ac­co (short fil­ler), which in turn are rol­led up into lar­ger pie­ces of tob­ac­co like a sand­wich. This design allows for more cost-effec­ti­ve pro­duc­tion. In the hig­her qua­li­ty cigars, the smal­ler lef­to­vers from the pro­duc­tion of long fil­lers are used asfil­ler, so they are not infe­ri­or tob­ac­cos. As a rule, the­se cigars burn very even­ly with a good draw.

How is the pri­ce of a cigar deter­mi­ned in Germany?

We rese­ar­ched for a few hours, asked dea­lers, tax advi­sors and cus­toms.
As an exam­p­le, we took a Robus­to with a retail value of $ 10 from Nica­ra­gua. Cigars from Nica­ra­gua, Cen­tral Ame­ri­ca, the Domi­ni­can Repu­blic and Cos­ta Rica can be impor­ted into Ger­ma­ny duty-free. Cigars from the USA, Cuba or Indo­ne­sia, on the other hand, are sub­ject to an addi­tio­nal 26% tariff. The sel­ling pri­ce here in Ger­ma­ny is not varia­ble as we have a fixed pri­ce for cigars.
The dis­tri­bu­ti­on bet­ween trade and importer natu­ral­ly varies from com­pa­ny to com­pa­ny. If the trade gets more, the importer’s mar­gin is redu­ced and vice ver­sa.
The per­cen­ta­ges we roun­ded refer to the gross sales pri­ce inclu­ding the 19% VAT in the store.
So the sta­te has a 36% sta­ke in our cigars!

Cigars from the USA, Indo­ne­sia and Cuba, among others, are sub­ject to an addi­tio­nal cus­toms duty of 26% when impor­ted into Ger­ma­ny. This increa­ses sta­te taxes to 40%. If we stick with our exam­p­le of a cigar with a sales pri­ce of $ 10.00 and assu­me all other para­me­ters as for the duty-free ver­si­on, only 25% or $ 2.50 remains for production.

Names such as “Haba­no Seed”, “Kuba” and “Hava­na” are not per­mit­ted in Ger­ma­ny for cigars made from non-Cuban tob­ac­co.

In respon­se to a lawsu­it filed by Cor­pora­ción Haba­nos S.A. after the Munich Regio­nal Court in the first ins­tance, the Munich Hig­her Regio­nal Court has now also deter­mi­ned as an appeal aut­ho­ri­ty that “Cuba” and “Hava­na” and deri­va­ti­ves the­reof are geo­gra­phi­cal desi­gna­ti­ons of ori­gin with a spe­cial repu­ta­ti­on in rela­ti­on to cigars and enjoy cor­re­spon­din­gly exten­ded pro­tec­tion under trade­mark law.

Addi­tio­nal infor­ma­ti­on such as “from Ecua­dor” or “Jala­pa – Nica­ra­gua” does not chan­ges this result. As has now been con­firm­ed in the appeal ruling, such infor­ma­ti­on is inad­mis­si­ble, even if the tob­ac­co grown out­side of Cuba ori­gi­na­ted in Cuba, with seeds taken from the­re to other count­ries after the Cuban Revolution.

Back­ground:

Tob­ac­cos are annu­al plants and adapt stron­gly to soils and cli­ma­tic con­di­ti­ons; very dif­fe­rent pro­per­ties deve­lop from the same seeds in dif­fe­rent gro­wing are­as in a short time. Genui­ne Cuban seeds have been bred exclu­si­ve­ly for Cuban tob­ac­co pro­duc­tion for many deca­des and are not exported.

The Ame­ri­can Cuba embar­go and its effects for us in Germany

In 1959, Fidel Cas­tro over­th­rew the then Cuban dic­ta­tor Batis­ta and sub­se­quent­ly estab­lished a socia­list sta­te. In the cour­se of the revo­lu­ti­on, US com­pa­nies and citi­zens were expro­pria­ted, and the USA respon­ded with a per­ma­nent blo­cka­de against Cuba.

The first mea­su­res were impo­sed in 1960 by Pre­si­dent Dwight D. Eisen­hower and were tigh­ten­ed by John F. Ken­ne­dy in 1962 when an embar­go was impo­sed on all trade bet­ween the United Sta­tes and Cuba. On the eve of the embar­go coming into force on Febru­ary 7, Ken­ne­dy orde­red a deli­very of 1,200 Cuban cigars for hims­elf — a pro­duct that has been ban­ned for US citi­zens sin­ce then. In 2014, Pre­si­dent Oba­ma rela­xed the tra­vel and trade bar­riers to Cuba. Ame­ri­cans are now allo­wed to take home goods worth up to $400 from their trips to Cuba. Alco­hol and tob­ac­co tog­e­ther may not exceed a value of $100, and Cuban cigars may only be impor­ted for per­so­nal use. In 2021, Pre­si­dent Trump with­drew the­se con­ces­si­ons and Ame­ri­cans are now again not allo­wed to bring Cuban cigars into the USA.

In 2024, Pre­si­dent Biden signed a law that pro­hi­bits US courts from reco­gni­zing rights to trade­marks that have been “ille­gal­ly sei­zed” by the Cuban govern­ment sin­ce 1959 wit­hout the con­sent of the ori­gi­nal owners.

In con­trast to many other count­ries, the USA has not reco­gni­zed Cuba’s trade­mark rights. As a result, the­re are iden­ti­cal brands of Cuban cigars in the USA that are par­al­lel to the Cuban cigar brands, but they are not pro­du­ced in Cuba. Sin­ce the Euro­pean Uni­on, and the­r­e­fo­re also Ger­ma­ny, reco­gni­zes Cuban trade­mark rights, only the Cuban vari­ants are available here and the Ame­ri­can ones may not be impor­ted into Ger­ma­ny becau­se they vio­la­te Cuban rights. Cuban cigar brands such as Cohi­ba, Mon­te­cris­to or Par­ta­gás are pro­tec­ted in the EU by the Cuban govern­ment or the sta­te-owned tob­ac­co com­pa­ny Haba­nos S.A. If ano­ther com­pa­ny uses the­se brand names wit­hout owning the rights to them, as hap­pens in the USA with US com­pa­nies, this is con­side­red a trade­mark inf­rin­ge­ment in the EU.

The same appli­es to Cuban rum such as Hava­na Club.

Tob­ac­co varie­ties used for cigars and their origin

Ori­gi­nal­ly, the tob­ac­co plant comes from the Ame­ri­cas. Cul­ti­va­ti­on and con­sump­ti­on were alre­a­dy wide­spread in South and North Ame­ri­ca long befo­re Euro­pean con­que­r­ors set foot on the con­ti­nent. Even the ear­liest form of the cigar was alre­a­dy known: peo­p­le smo­ked small rol­led tob­ac­co lea­ves wrap­ped in lar­ger ones, as well as crum­bled tob­ac­co stuf­fed into reed tubes. The word tob­ac­co is thought to come from the Antil­les, whe­re the smo­king pipe was cal­led toba­go. Euro­peans first encoun­te­red tob­ac­co during their ear­liest cont­acts with the Indi­ge­nous peo­p­les of the Ame­ri­cas. When Chris­to­pher Colum­bus lan­ded in the Baha­mas on Octo­ber 12, 1492, the island­ers pre­sen­ted him with gifts—among them tob­ac­co leaves.

The Latin name for the tob­ac­co plant is Nico­tia­na, named after Jean Nicot, the French ambassa­dor to Por­tu­gal, who in the 16th cen­tu­ry sent the plant to the French king Fran­cis II to tre­at his migraines.

The genus Nico­tia­na com­pri­ses about 75 spe­ci­es, but only two are used for tob­ac­co pro­duc­tion: Nico­tia­na taba­cum (Vir­gi­ni­an tob­ac­co) and Nico­tia­na rusti­ca (com­mon­ly known as Rusti­ca tob­ac­co or Aztec tobacco).

Vir­gi­ni­an tob­ac­co (Nico­tia­na taba­cum) is the result of a natu­ral cross bet­ween wood­land tob­ac­co (Nico­tia­na syl­vestris) and Nico­tia­na toment­o­si­for­mis. It is the foun­da­ti­on of all modern smo­king tob­ac­cos. A mem­ber of the nights­ha­de fami­ly (Sol­a­naceae), it grows as an annu­al her­bace­ous plant, rea­ching heights of 30″ to 7′. All abo­ve-ground parts of the plant are cover­ed with sti­cky hairs. The stems are thick and only slight­ly branched.

The name “Vir­gi­ni­an tob­ac­co” is deri­ved from the U.S. sta­te of Vir­gi­nia. Alt­hough the plant ori­gi­na­ted in South Ame­ri­ca, it found par­ti­cu­lar­ly favorable gro­wing con­di­ti­ons in Vir­gi­nia, which ulti­m­ate­ly gave its name to the enti­re species.

Rusti­ca tob­ac­co (Nico­tia­na rusti­ca) con­ta­ins a very high level of nico­ti­ne and is not sold in Germany.

In Cuba, the ori­gi­nal, natu­ral­ly occur­ring strain of Vir­gi­ni­an tob­ac­co is cal­led Taba­co Negro Cuba­no. This plant is con­side­red the ances­tor of all Cuban tob­ac­co varie­ties. At the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tu­ry, Cuban gro­wers deve­lo­ped a more pest-resistant varie­ty from it, known as Taba­co Haba­nen­sis. In the 1930s, with the rapid growth of the cigar indus­try, they crea­ted the impro­ved Criol­lo varie­ty, and short­ly after­ward the Coro­jo, a hybrid of Criol­lo deve­lo­ped espe­ci­al­ly for wrap­per leaves.

Nico­tia­na taba­cum is nota­ble for its adap­ta­bi­li­ty and the wide ran­ge of varie­ties used for dif­fe­rent fla­vors and blends. Tob­ac­co is cul­ti­va­ted in many count­ries around the world. The trade in seeds of various strains has spread almost all varie­ties across near­ly all tob­ac­co-gro­wing regi­ons. The spe­ci­fic cli­ma­te and soil con­di­ti­ons of each gro­wing area, howe­ver, dif­fer signi­fi­cant­ly. Even within a sin­gle coun­try, gro­wing regi­ons can vary wide­ly. Becau­se the final pro­duct is hea­vi­ly influen­ced by cli­ma­te and soil, the very same strain can dif­fer mark­ed­ly depen­ding on whe­re it is grown. A Con­nec­ti­cut tob­ac­co from the United Sta­tes will not have the same smo­king cha­rac­te­ristics as a Con­nec­ti­cut grown in Nica­ra­gua or Ecua­dor. Like­wi­se, a Coro­jo from Cuba is not iden­ti­cal to a Coro­jo from Hon­du­ras. This is why both the gro­wing regi­on and the tob­ac­co varie­ty must be con­side­red tog­e­ther to form a meaningful impres­si­on of flavor.

Cigar tob­ac­co gro­wing regi­ons, cul­ti­va­ted varie­ties, and their profiles
  • Cuba – Vuel­ta Aba­jo (Pinar del Río), Semi-Vuel­ta, Part­ido (La Haba­na), Vuel­ta Arriba/Remedios (Vil­la Clara)
    • Criol­lo 98
      Pro­fi­le: spi­cy, ear­thy, balan­ced, medi­um-bodi­ed
      Use: fil­ler, occa­sio­nal­ly wrapper
    • Coro­jo 99
      Pro­fi­le: sweet-spi­cy, stron­ger than Criol­lo
      Use: fil­ler, wrapper
  • Domi­ni­can Repu­blic – Cibao Val­ley (Sant­ia­go, Vil­la Gon­zá­lez, Navar­re­te), Bonao, Cotuí, La Canela
    • Pilo­to Cuba­no
      Pro­fi­le: full-bodi­ed, spi­cy, medi­um strength, slight­ly sweet
      Use: fil­ler
    • Olor Domi­ni­ca­no
      Pro­fi­le: light, flo­ral, ele­gant, excel­lent com­bus­ti­on
      Use: fil­ler, binder
    • San Vicen­te
      Pro­fi­le: mild-spi­cy, balan­ced, cre­a­my
      Use: fil­ler, binder
    • Criol­lo 98
    • Coro­jo 99
    • Haba­no 2000
  • Nica­ra­gua – Estelí, Con­de­ga, Jala­pa Val­ley, Ome­te­pe (vol­ca­nic island)
    • Criol­lo 98
    • Coro­jo 99
    • Haba­no 2000
  • Hon­du­ras – Jama­strán Val­ley (El Paraí­so), Talan­ga Val­ley, Copán
    • Criol­lo 98
    • Coro­jo 99
    • Haba­no 2000
  • Bra­zil – Bahia: Mata Fina, Mata Nor­te, Recôn­ca­vo; Ala­goas: Arapiraca
    • Mata Fina, Mata Nor­te
      Pro­fi­le: sweet, cocoa- and cho­co­la­te-like, aro­ma­tic
      Use: fil­ler, wrap­per (often Maduro)
    • Ara­pi­ra­ca
      Pro­fi­le: dark, sweet, ear­thy, rustic
      Use: Madu­ro wrapper
    • “Cubrá” (Cuban seed cul­ti­va­ted in Brazil)
    • Suma­tra
  • Ecua­dor – Los Ríos (Que­ve­do), Man­a­bí and sur­roun­ding val­leys (clou­dy, litt­le direct sunlight)
    • Con­nec­ti­cut Sha­de (grown wit­hout sha­de tents due to cloud cover)
    • Suma­tra
    • Haba­no 2000
    • Criol­lo 98
  • Mexi­co – San Andrés Tux­tla (Vera­cruz)
    • San Andrés Negro
      Pro­fi­le: dark, ear­thy, cho­co­la­tey, full-bodi­ed
      Use: Madu­ro wrapper
    • Suma­tra
    • Haba­no 2000
  • USA – Con­nec­ti­cut River Val­ley (CT Sha­de, Windsor/Hartford), Penn­syl­va­nia (Lancaster/York)
    • Con­nec­ti­cut Sha­de
      Pro­fi­le: mild, cre­a­my, nut­ty, very fine veins
      Use: wrap­per
    • Con­nec­ti­cut Broad­le­af
      Pro­fi­le: sweet, ear­thy, cocoa-like, strong
      Use: Madu­ro wrapper
  • Afri­ca – Bor­der regi­on Cameroon / Cen­tral Afri­can Repu­blic (e.g. Sangha-Mbaéré)
    • Cameroon
      Pro­fi­le: spi­cy, slight­ly sweet, pep­pery, fine veins
      Use: wrap­per
  • Indo­ne­sia – Suma­tra: Deli/Medan; Java: Besuki/Jember
    • Suma­tra
      Pro­fi­le: aro­ma­tic, balan­ced, rather mild
      Use: wrap­per, binder
    • Java (Besuki)
      Pro­fi­le: neu­tral, slight­ly sweet, thin
      Use: bin­der, wrapper
  • Phil­ip­pi­nes – Caga­yan Val­ley (Isa­be­la), Ilo­cos, Visa­y­as (his­to­ri­cal)
    • Haba­no 2000
  • Cos­ta Rica – Puris­cal, Pérez Zele­dón, Car­ta­go (smal­ler areas)
    • Haba­no 2000
    • Criol­lo 98
    • Coro­jo 99
  • Colom­bia – Bolívar/Sincelejo (Carib­be­an), Santander
    • Criol­lo 98
    • Coro­jo 99
    • Pilo­to
  • Peru – San Martín/Tarapoto, Amazonas
    • Haba­no 2000
    • Criol­lo
  • Ita­ly – Tusca­ny (Val­ti­be­ri­na), Umbria, Veneto
    • Ken­tu­cky
  • Ger­ma­ny – Baden-Würt­tem­berg, Rhi­ne­land-Pala­ti­na­te, Brandenburg
    • Geu­dert­hei­mer
      Cha­rac­ter: mild­ly spi­cy, slight­ly bit­ter, sweet vanil­la note
      Use: Fil­ler, wrapper
The tob­ac­co plant and the importance of the dif­fe­rent levels of the lea­ves.

Tob­ac­co plant and the indi­vi­du­al flo­ors: Media Tiem­po, Lige­ro, Viso, Sec­co, Vola­do and Sand Leaf.

Tob­ac­co plants are annu­al win­ter plants. Cul­ti­va­ti­on beg­ins bet­ween Octo­ber and Novem­ber and is then har­ve­s­ted bet­ween March and April. The rea­dy-to-har­ve­st plant will then have rea­ched a height of bet­ween 5½’ and 6’. As the plant grows, the side shoots are remo­ved by hand so that they do not stunt growth. The last bud is remo­ved after about 3 months to stop growth and so that the lea­ves con­ti­nue to impro­ve in qua­li­ty and strength.

Cul­ti­va­ti­on occurs in two ways. On the one hand, “Taba­co del Sol” (tob­ac­co in the sun), here the plants grow unpro­tec­ted under the sun. The lea­ves of the­se plants are used for fil­ler and bin­ders. From top to bot­tom the lea­ves have dif­fe­rent properties:

Medio Tiem­po, the two lea­ves at the top of the plant are the stron­gest. The­se get the most sun and have a high nico­ti­ne con­cen­tra­ti­on. They are often used for strong cigars.

This is fol­lo­wed by the lige­ro lea­ves. Spi­cy, strong and aro­ma­tic, so the lar­ger the pro­por­ti­on of lige­ro lea­ves in a fil­ler, the stron­ger the cigar is.

Viso lea­ves deli­ver more fla­vor and con­tain more oil than Seco, but the lea­ves are less inten­se than Lige­ro. Viso also burns slower than Seco but more even­ly than Ligero.

Seco lea­ves from the midd­le part of the plant are mild and par­ti­cu­lar­ly important for the aromas.

The lower ones (Vola­do) are par­ti­cu­lar­ly mild and have par­ti­cu­lar­ly good bur­ning pro­per­ties. They are often used as a binder.

On the other hand, “Taba­co Tapa­do” (cover­ed tob­ac­co), here the plants grow under white veils pro­tec­ted from direct sun­light. This method is cho­sen for plants inten­ded for wrap­pers. The dar­ker wrap­pers are obtai­ned from the upper lea­ves of the­se plants. The fur­ther down, the brighter.

When har­ve­s­t­ing, the lea­ves are picked by hand. The har­ve­st takes place in six rounds. Each round lasts appro­xi­m­ate­ly one week. First the­re are the lowest lea­ves, the sand lea­ves, then from bot­tom to top: Vola­do, Sec­co, Viso, Lige­ro and final­ly the top pair of lea­ves, the Corona.

Due to the dif­fe­rent pro­per­ties of the indi­vi­du­al “flo­ors”, the mas­ter blen­der can mix many dif­fe­rent vari­ants of the same plant.

The dif­fe­rent cigar shapes (Spa­nish: Vito­la).

Cigars are not only made in dif­fe­rent ring gau­ges (dia­me­ters) and dif­fe­rent lengths, but the shapes also dif­fer and the­r­e­fo­re the smo­king experience.

In gene­ral, the vito­las are divi­ded into two categories:

  1. The Figu­ra­dos. They taper on one or even both sides and the­r­e­fo­re have a chan­ging ring gau­ge bet­ween head and foot.

The tor­pe­do is pro­ba­b­ly the most popu­lar cigar shape. The most famous cigar of this for­mat is the Mon­te­cris­to No. 2.

The Pira­mi­des are very simi­lar to the tor­pe­does. Howe­ver, towards the head they beco­me slim­mer and more poin­ted, like a pyramid.

The chisel is a rare and spe­cial shape. The head is mode­led on a pipe mouthpiece.

Per­fec­tos have tape­red ends on both sides. This means that the ring gau­ge of a Per­fec­to cigar is very dif­fe­rent at every point.
The dia­de­ma is a lon­ger perfecto.

  1. The Pare­jos. They are rol­led straight in such a way that their sides are par­al­lel to each other, like a cylin­der. They have a con­sis­tent ring gau­ge from head to toe.

A spe­cial form of Pare­jos are “box-pres­sed” cigars. Box­pres­sed cigars are available as both pare­jo and figu­ra­do. The term “box­pres­sed” comes from the past, when as many cigars as pos­si­ble were pres­sed as clo­se tog­e­ther as pos­si­ble into their boxes. The­r­e­fo­re, they took on a rec­tan­gu­lar shape and were no lon­ger round. Today this con­di­ti­on is imi­ta­ted by pres­sing into rec­tan­gu­lar shapes. The­se types of cigars are par­ti­cu­lar­ly popu­lar in the USA.

Ano­ther spe­cial form are the cule­bras. This form also has a his­to­ri­cal ori­gin. A cule­bra (Spa­nish for sna­ke) is a braid made from three indi­vi­du­al thin cigars. The fac­to­ry workers were entit­led to a cer­tain amount of free cigars (cigar allo­wan­ce). At that time, the aim was to pre­vent fac­to­ry workers from resel­ling cigars and they wan­ted to be able to tell imme­dia­te­ly when a worker was smo­king one of the more valuable cigars. Howe­ver, the Cule­bras were a huge suc­cess when sold on and were so sought after that they have sin­ce been pro­du­ced spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for the trade.

Com­mon names for the dif­fe­rent sizes of Pare­jos (cylind­ri­cal cigars) and their dimensions
to enlar­ge: dou­ble click

The names of the dif­fe­rent cigar for­mats have evol­ved over cen­tu­ries. They are the result of the cul­tu­ral and artis­a­nal tra­di­ti­ons in the count­ries whe­re cigars were made, par­ti­cu­lar­ly Cuba, the Domi­ni­can Repu­blic and Honduras.

Many of the com­mon names come from Cuba, the his­to­ric cen­ter of cigar pro­duc­tion. Manu­fac­tu­r­ers such as Haba­nos S.A., the umbrel­la orga­niza­ti­on for Cuban cigars, have stan­dar­di­zed the for­mats, such as “Coro­na”, “Robus­to” or “Chur­chill”.

Some names reflect local tra­di­ti­ons or his­to­ri­cal figu­res. such as “Chur­chill”, named after Win­s­ton Chur­chill, who was known for his love of lar­ge cigars. Over time, cer­tain for­mats have beco­me estab­lished as they have pro­ven popu­lar with cigar lovers. Terms like “Pan­a­te­la” (thin and long) or “Gordo” (thick) are based on gene­ral descrip­ti­ons. In the modern cigar indus­try, for­mats are often defi­ned by brands and manu­fac­tu­r­ers them­sel­ves in order to stand out from others. Examp­les are fan­ta­sy names like “Dia­de­ma” or “Per­fec­to”.

Con­s­truc­tion of a Cigar – Short­fil­ler, Medi­um­fil­ler, and Longfiller

Longfil­ler

Longfil­ler cigars are made with who­le tob­ac­co lea­ves in the fil­ler and are typi­cal­ly hand­craf­ted indi­vi­du­al­ly. The way the lea­ves are fold­ed and rol­led is cru­cial for crea­ting the smo­ke chan­nels, ensu­ring a con­sis­t­ent­ly good draw and an even burn throug­hout the cigar.

Medi­um­fil­ler, also known as the Cuban Sandwich

Every cigar rol­led using the Cuban Sand­wich method starts with a blend of the fil­ler tob­ac­co (Short­fil­ler). This mix­tu­re is then hand-rol­led into who­le Longfil­ler leaves—much like a sandwich—before being finis­hed with a bin­der and a wrap­per leaf. This tech­ni­que allows for the effi­ci­ent use of tob­ac­co rem­nants pro­du­ced during Longfil­ler cigar manu­fac­tu­ring. The­se rem­nants are usual­ly high-qua­li­ty tob­ac­co trim­mings, not was­te material.

Short­fil­ler

The fil­ler of a Short­fil­ler cigar con­sists of cut or shred­ded tob­ac­co lea­ves, or the lef­to­ver pie­ces from Longfil­ler pro­duc­tion. The­se small tob­ac­co par­tic­les are then wrap­ped in a bin­der leaf.

Short­fil­ler with a HTL-Bin­der (Homo­ge­ni­zed Tob­ac­co Leaf)

Most machi­ne-made Short­fil­ler cigars use a bin­der made from what is known as recon­sti­tu­ted or homo­ge­ni­zed tob­ac­co, ins­tead of a natu­ral­ly grown bin­der leaf. This bin­der is indus­tri­al­ly pro­du­ced from pul­veri­zed tob­ac­co lea­ves and stems mixed with bin­ding agents, cel­lu­lo­se, water, and burn enhan­cers. The mix­tu­re is pro­ces­sed into a con­ti­nuous tob­ac­co sheet—similar to paper pro­duc­tion. The pro­fes­sio­nal term is HTL tob­ac­co, short for Homo­ge­ni­zed Tob­ac­co Leaf. In Ger­ma­ny, tob­ac­co regu­la­ti­ons requi­re that HTL con­tain at least 75% actu­al tob­ac­co content.

Con­fu­sing ring gauge

The ring size of our cigars has not­hing to do with the usu­al ring size for jewel­ry rings in Ger­ma­ny. With a fin­ger ring, the cir­cum­fe­rence of the fin­ger is mea­su­red in mil­li­me­ters and this results in the inner cir­cum­fe­rence of the ring and thus the ring size.

The ring gau­ge of our cigars, on the other hand, is the dia­me­ter, mea­su­red in inches, i.e. the Ang­lo-Ame­ri­can mea­su­re­ment sys­tem. Howe­ver, it is a litt­le more com­pli­ca­ted. Sin­ce one inch is equal to 25.4 mil­li­me­ters, the unit would sim­ply be too lar­ge. The­r­e­fo­re the dia­me­ter is given in 64ths of an inch. So, for exam­p­le, the ring gau­ge 40 would actual­ly be cor­rect­ly cal­led 40/64″.

The Ame­ri­can cigar ring size 40 cor­re­sponds to 50 accor­ding to our Ger­man metric sys­tem of the jewel­ry industry.

The con­ver­si­on for­mu­las are:
(Dia­me­ter in cm x 64) / 2.54 = Ring Gau­ge
or vice ver­sa
(Ring Gau­ge / 64) x 2.54 = Dia­me­ter in cm

Tra­di­tio­nal Wrap­per Colors

In cigars, the color of the wrap­per is desi­gna­ted by stan­dar­di­zed color names deri­ved from Spa­nish-spea­king tob­ac­co tra­di­ti­ons.
The most com­mon names ran­ge from very light (almost straw-colo­red) to very dark (almost black).

Cla­ro Cla­ro (Dou­ble Cla­ro, Candela)Very light gree­nish or light brown
Cla­roLight brown, often from Con­nec­ti­cut Shade
Colo­ra­do ClaroLight medi­um brown, slight­ly red­dish tone
Colo­ra­doMedi­um red­dish brown
Colo­ra­do MaduroDark red­dish brown
Madu­roDark brown to almost black
Oscu­ro (Dou­ble Maduro)Almost black
Cigar Bur­ning Issues
The illus­tra­ti­on shows seve­ral unwan­ted bur­ning pro­blems that can occur when smo­king cigars.
Dra­wing: Can­te­ros, New Zealand

Most issues are cau­sed by impro­per sto­rage or humi­di­ty that is too high or too low. Some­ti­mes, it’s the envi­ron­men­tal con­di­ti­ons. If you take a cigar from a room or humi­dor at 70 °F and go out­side whe­re it’s 50 °F and light up, pro­blems may occur. And some­ti­mes, the tob­ac­co its­elf is to bla­me — or the rol­ler sim­ply had a bad day.

1) Tun­nel­ing
This hap­pens when part of the inner fil­ler burns fas­ter than the outer part. The­re are seve­ral pos­si­ble reasons: If the insi­de of the cigar is drier than the out­side, it may indi­ca­te too much humi­di­ty in the humi­dor or that the cigar wasn’t given enough time to accli­ma­te — espe­ci­al­ly after rehy­drating a pre­vious­ly dry cigar.
Tun­nel­ing can also hap­pen if you smo­ke too slow­ly. In some cases, the torce­dor (cigar rol­ler) may not have dis­tri­bu­ted the fil­ler tob­ac­co even­ly during rolling.

Tun­nel­ing cau­sed by mois­tu­re is hard to stop once it starts. You can try gent­ly pres­sing the sof­ter area of the cigar whe­re the tun­nel is forming, which may some­ti­mes fix the problem.

To be continued!

The import of cigars into Ger­ma­ny is sub­ject to cer­tain legal regu­la­ti­ons. The fol­lo­wing peo­p­le or com­pa­nies are allo­wed to import cigars:
  • Pri­va­te individuals

For per­so­nal use: Pri­va­te indi­vi­du­als can import cigars from other count­ries into Ger­ma­ny as long as the allo­wan­ce is not exceeded.

Within the EU, the gui­de­line quan­ti­ty for pri­va­te use is:
200 cigars. Imports are tax-free if they come from an EU coun­try and the goods are inten­ded for per­so­nal use. 

From non-EU count­ries:
The allo­wan­ce is: 50 cigars, as long as the total value of € 430 ($ 450) is not excee­ded (only appli­es to air or sea tra­vel). Only a maxi­mum of 10 cigars may be sent by post and only from pri­va­te indi­vi­du­al to pri­va­te indi­vi­du­al with a total value of no more than € 45. Ship­ments from for­eign dea­lers to pri­va­te indi­vi­du­als in Ger­ma­ny are con­fis­ca­ted by customs.

  • Com­mer­cial dealers

Com­mer­cial dea­lers may import cigars, but must:
Be regis­tered and have a tax warehouse per­mit,
pro­per­ly decla­re and pay the tob­ac­co tax,
be able to pre­sent all import docu­ments (e.g. cus­toms papers, pro­of of ori­gin),
mark the goods in accordance with legal requi­re­ments (e.g. tax stamps, warnings).

  • Licen­sed importers

Com­pa­nies that spe­cia­li­ze in tob­ac­co imports requi­re:
A licen­se or per­mit from the rele­vant aut­ho­ri­ties,
regis­tra­ti­on with Ger­man cus­toms,
com­pli­ance with the legal requi­re­ments for ingre­di­ents and pack­a­ging in accordance with the Tob­ac­co Pro­ducts Act.

Vio­la­ti­ons of tob­ac­co tax and cus­toms regu­la­ti­ons can result in high fines.

  • Important regu­la­ti­ons

All cigars must com­ply with Ger­man and EU stan­dards (e.g. war­nings on pack­a­ging, ingre­di­ent restrictions).

Fur­ther­mo­re, the so-cal­led “Trac and Trace” legis­la­ti­on (T&T), which has been in force throug­hout the EU sin­ce 2024, must be obser­ved. T&T in con­nec­tion with tob­ac­co pro­ducts is a sys­tem for the tracea­bi­li­ty and moni­to­ring of tob­ac­co pro­ducts along the enti­re sup­p­ly chain.

Tob­ac­co importers must ensu­re that each tob­ac­co pro­duct is uni­que­ly iden­ti­fia­ble. This is done through a uni­que iden­ti­fier code (UIC) assi­gned by an inde­pen­dent body. This allows each pro­duct to be tra­cked from the manu­fac­tu­rer to the importer and retail­er. For importers, this means that they must ensu­re that their pro­ducts are only pas­sed on by regis­tered and appro­ved ope­ra­tors. All move­ments of tob­ac­co pro­ducts must be digi­tal­ly recor­ded and repor­ted to a cen­tral data­ba­se. Aut­ho­ri­ties can veri­fy the move­ments of the pro­ducts. Vio­la­ti­ons, such as the lack of a UIC or incom­ple­te reports, can lead to hea­vy fines.

  • All state­ments wit­hout guarantee
Whe­re are cigar smo­kers wel­co­me? Tips from our members:

Schnei­der­wind
Due to the cur­rent legal situa­ti­on in North Rhi­ne-West­pha­lia, unfort­u­na­te­ly neither ser­vice nor ser­ving is per­mit­ted in the lounge. Howe­ver, the lounge bar has a lar­ge sel­ec­tion of soft drinks and cof­fee that cus­to­mers can and may con­su­me self-ser­vice. Spe­cial­ties pre­vious­ly purcha­sed in the store such as whis­key, rum, cognac, etc. are of cour­se per­so­nal pro­per­ty and may also be con­su­med on the pre­mi­ses.
Lin­den­platz 11–12, 52064 Aachen
Mon — Wed & Fri 10:00 a.m. — 6:30 p.m
Thu 10:00 a.m. — 8:30 p.m
Sat 10:00 a.m. — 3:30 p.m
Pho­ne: +49 241 943 77 60
Web­site

Pfei­fen Hein­richs
Vol­tas­tras­se 17, 50129 Berg­heim-Nie­der­aus­sem
Mon — Fri: 9:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m
Sat.: 9:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m
Pho­ne: +49 22 71 — 56 88 90
Web­site

HEMMY’S
approx. 12 seats, with ter­race in sum­mer
Small but excel­lent sel­ec­tion of cigars.
The ope­ning times can vary, bet­ter call in advan­ce!
Wel­fen­al­lee 6, 13465 Ber­lin-Fronau
Mon & Tue 12 noon — 8 pm
Wed — Fri 12 noon — 10 pm
Sat 10 am — 8 pm
Pho­ne: +49 30 / 40 10 77 74
Web­site

Vox Bar im Grand Hyatt Ber­lin
You can bring your own cigars or buy some the­re
Mar­le­ne-Diet­rich-Platz 2, 10785 Ber­lin
Sun — Thu 5:30 p.m. — 1:00 a.m.
Fri & Sat 5:30 p.m. — 2:00 a.m.
Pho­ne: +49 30 2553 1566
Web­site

Zigar­ren Her­zog
La Casa del Haba­no Ber­lin am Ost­ha­fen

ONLY Cuban cigars
In sum­mer with a ter­race on the Spree
Stra­lau­er Allee 9, 10245 Ber­lin
Tue-Fri 10 a.m. — 6 p.m.
Sat 10 a.m. — 4 p.m.
Pho­ne: +49 30 29 04 70 15
Web­site

Restau­rant Habel am Rosen­eck
(no lounge, restau­rant with side room for smo­kers)
No cigars for sale, you have to bring your own
with ter­race in sum­mer
Hohen­zol­lern­damm 93, 14199 Ber­lin
Mon — Sat 3 p.m. — mid­night
Pho­ne: +49 30 826 12 60
Web­site

House Of Cigars
For­mer ice hockey play­er Ron Noack has been run­ning the lounge sin­ce 1998. The sel­ec­tion in the humi­dor is huge.
Wall­str. 10, 47051 Duis­burg
Tue 11:00 a.m. — 7:30 p.m
Wed & Fri 11:00 a.m. — 7:00 p.m
Thu 11:00 a.m. — 8:00 p.m
Sat 10:30 a.m. — 4:00 p.m
Pho­ne: +49 203 28 40 48
Web­site

Cigar­world Tabac Ben­den
huge lounge with a huge sel­ec­tion of cigars, pri­va­te par­king
Burg­hof­stra­ße 28, 40223 Düs­sel­dorf
Mon — Sat 10 a.m. — 10 p.m.
Pho­ne: +49 211 159 39 85
Web­site

Cigar­ren Bay­dar & Sahin Lounge
70 squa­re meters of com­for­ta­ble sea­ting for 26 cigar lovers
Hol­le­straße 1, 45128 Essen
Tue – Sat 12 noon – 10 pm
Pho­ne: + 49 201 8432 34 86
Web­site

La Casa del Haba­no
Ham­burg Chi­le­haus C
Bur­chard­stra­ße 15, 20095 Ham­burg
Mon — Sat 10 am — 7 pm
Pho­ne: +49 40 30 70 48 80
Web­site

David­off Cigar Lounge Ham­burg
Cigar lounge in Leos Café
Colon­na­den 9, 20354 Ham­burg
Pho­ne: +49 176 41 48 64 50
Insta­gram

Pfei­fen Hein­richs
Hah­nen­stra­ße 2, 50667 Colo­gne
Mon — Fri 9:00 a.m. — 7:00 p.m.
Sat 9:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m.
Pho­ne: +49 0221 25 62 31
Web­site

Zigar­ren­traum
Buch­hei­mer Str. 50, 51063 Colo­gne-Mühl­heim
Mon — Wed 9:00 a.m. — 6:00 p.m.
Thu & Fri 9:00 a.m. — 10:00 p.m.
Sat 9:00 a.m. — 2:00 p.m.
Pho­ne: +49 0221 820 82 46
Web­site

Mephis­to Bar in Auer­bachs Kel­ler
in the Mäd­ler Pas­sa­ge
Grim­mai­sche Stras­se 2–4, 04109 Leip­zig
Mon — Thu 12 noon — 10pm
Fri & Sat 12 noon — mid­night
Sun 12 noon — 6pm
Pho­ne: +49 341 21 61 00
Web­site

Restau­rant Zigar­re
Bar­fuß­gäß­chen 10, 04109, Leip­zig
Tue – Sat 12 noon – mid­night
Pho­ne: +49 341 961 50 35

Tabak-Kon­tor & La Casa del Haba­no
with cigar lounge on the upper flo­or 25 seats
Hain­stra­ße 11, 04109, Leip­zig
Mon — Sat 11 a.m. — 5:30 p.m. — last ent­ry 5 p.m.
Pho­ne: +49 341 962 89 82
Web­site

Cigar Lounge by Zech­bau­er
in the Hotel Vier Jah­res­zei­ten Kem­pinski
Ent­ry: € 35.00
Maxi­mi­li­an­stras­se 17, 80539 Munich
Mon — Sun 8 a.m. — mid­night
Pho­ne: +49 89 2125 1745
Web­site

Casa del Puro
Lar­ge sel­ec­tion of cigars, no alco­hol ser­ved
Haupt­markt 9, 90403 Nurem­berg
Mon — Fri 10:30 a.m. — 7:00 p.m.
Sat 10:00 a.m. — 7:00 p.m.
Pho­ne: +49 911 974 66 90
Web­site

Stef­fen Brink­mann
BRINK­MANN­fi­nest
Open for events (infor­ma­ti­on on the web­site)
AHCC Pre­fer­red Shop (ash­ho­les espe­ci­al­ly wel­co­me)
Meck­len­burg­stra­ße 13
19053 Schwe­rin
Web­site

Les Pri­va­tiers Zigar­ren­lounge
Strand­al­lee 90, 23669 Tim­men­dor­fer Strand
Mon & Thurs from 4 pm
Fri – Sun from 2 pm
Pho­ne: +49 4503 898 55 60
Web­site

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