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Home | Cigar Glossary | F

Cigar Glossary - F

Fermentation

The fermentation process reduces the ammonia, tar, acidity, and nicotine content of the leaves, which enhances both flavor and aroma. This makes cigar tobacco much more pleasant to smoke than cigarette tobacco.

After harvest, the tobacco leaves are gathered in large bulks or piles, then moistened and allowed to ferment. The temperature inside the bulk of tobacco will naturally reach up to 140°F before the bulk is broken down and restacked, temporarily halting the fermentation process but providing for an even and higher quality fermentation. This process, called working the bulk, releases ammonia from the tobacco.

Figurado

A shaped cigar, typically 5 1/2 inches long with a 52 ring gauge, rolled with a point at one end.

Figurado is a Spanish term that refers to cigars with shaped sizes such as Belicosos, Torpedos, Pyramids, Perfectos and Culebras.

There also exists double-figurado cigars that are pointed at both ends, referred as a Piramide, Campana or an Exquisito.

Filler

The individual tobacco leaves used in the body of a cigar.

This core of blended tobaccos is held together by the binder and then covered by the wrapper. Filler can either be cut filler (short pieces) or long filler running the full length of the cigar.

The filler provides a significant portion of a cigar’s taste. High-grade cigars are made with long fillers, or whole leaves, which are hand-rolled. Low-grade cigars use cut fillers, or scraps of lesser quality tobaccos, which are fed into a machine.

A fine cigar usually contains between two and five different types of filler tobacco.

Finish

A term which refers to the taste that lingers on your palate after a puff.

Mild cigars do not have much finish, either in terms of length or complexity. Stronger, more full-bodied cigars have distinctive flavors that linger for a while.

Flag

An alternative to a cigar cap. An extension of the wrapper leaf shaped to finish the head of a cigar so that it secures the wrapper in place. Flags are sometimes tied off in a pigtail or a curly head.

See also Cap.

Flat Top

A flat rectangular cigar box most commonly used today. Also called a 13-topper, a flat-top cigar box holds 13 cigars on the top and 12 on the bottom.

See also Cigar Box.

Foot

The end of the cigar that is lit.

Also called the tuck, very often the foot is pre-cut except for Torpedo and Perfecto cigars.

Fortaleza

The strength of a cigar. The three degrees in order from 1,2,3 are synonymous with the terms volado, seco and ligero.