Three are three essentials to keep in mind while buying cigars – size, origin and strength. If you’re on the ball with these you can impress anyone with your cigar skills – even if you smoke one in three years or less.

SIZE
It may or may not matter in your sexlife but size is important when it comes to cigars. That’s mainly because it tells you how much tobacco has gone into creating and what kinds of flavors it will give off.

Name/ Length (inches)/ Ring Gauge (diameter in 64ths of an inch)
Double Corona: 7.5–8/ 47–52
Churchill: 7/ 46–50
Torpedo: 6.5/ 50–52
Toro: 6/ 50
Belicoso: 5–6/ 49–54
Robusto: 4.5–5/ 48–52
Lonsdale: 6.5/ 40–44
Corona: 5–5.5/ 40–44
Petit Corona: 5/ 40–44
Panatela: 6/ 26–38

ORIGIN
Unlike McDonald’s burgers the place of manufacture of a cigar has a huge influence on it’s taste and characteristics.

These countries are currently the most popular manufacturers: Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua and USA.

Cigar characteristics differ because of the dofferent soil and leaves in these countries and also basis the types of rollers who stuff the harvest.

STRENGTH
This one’s a difficult feature to figure out – but generally the rule is that a darker-colored cigar is likely to be more potent than a lighter-colored one.