The holy trinity of a cigar is its filler, binder and wrapper. All parts of a cigar work together to create handmade art that cigar smokers love. Hear how master blenders combine tobacco and techniques to make premium cigars taste so good.

Guest: Altadis Cigars’ National Education Manager and Smoke Tester, Travis Pappenheim

Boveda Box Hosts: Rob Gagner and Nate Beck

More with cigar smokers, Travis, Rob and Nate here:

1. What contributes to cigar flavors and tastes?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cErxW...

2. How Cigar Flavor Stimulates Memory https://youtu.be/ZgY7PtTlMu4

3. How to Taste Cigars—Using What's in Your House! https://youtu.be/_Tzvh_XcasQ

4. Should You Smell Your Cigar? https://youtu.be/hflfQBLokXQ

5. Going to a Cigar Lounge—What to Talk About https://youtu.be/AZFmCPlNF48

Learning How to Taste Cigars at a Higher Level https://youtu.be/qTmd4tzi_x4

Cigar talk highlights:

00:00 Cold open

00:03 How much of a cigar’s flavor comes from its the wrapper?

00:58 How do master blenders pick what tobacco to use in a cigar?

03:32 There’s a tobacco stem in my cigar—here’s why

04:06 What’s an entubado cigar and why you need to try one!

Just getting into cigars?

When you pick up cigars from a tobacco shop, grab some Boveda cigar humidity packs. They protect cigars until you’re ready to smoke them. Boveda works automatically to maintain humidity to keep cigars fresh, so they won’t dry out or get too damp. https://store.bovedainc.com/collections/boveda-for-tobacco

Website: https://store.bovedainc.com/collectio...

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bovedausa/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/bovedainc

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bovedainc/

(soft instrumental music)

[Rob] How much of the wrapper plays an effect on the flavor?

And you said 68%, but is that because the brands,

like Altadis' brands like Romeo Y Julieta,

Trinidad, Montecristo, the blenders blend that way?

Because other blenders will say, "No, I put more effort

into the binder flavor in this one or the filler.

Actually, I use some different types of tobacco

in the filler to really make this flavor come out.

You know, the more bitterness

or the more creaminess I wanted out of it."

So is it just kind of like a rule of thumb

that you guys are trying to do that, or-

- [Travis] Really, that stat, that 60, it's 60 to 80%,

not 68 specific percent.

But that 60 to 80% is kind of the average

amongst all blenders.

When you have the wrapper, that should be your-

It's typically gonna be your predominant.

Now your binder can make a big influence

if that's the way the chef,

the master blender, wants to put that in with the blend.

Sometimes they'll actually put in more concerted effort

into the fillers.

But the fillers, their real job is to add strength into it.

So if you've got a wrapper with really big flavors,

you're probably gonna want to bring in

a little more of that strength level

to help give it balance.

But there's not always the case

because sometimes we, a specific brand like Onyx,

where it's a super dark cigar,

but we make that to be a more of a mellow strength out of it

because we don't need the strength to overpower it.

We wanna keep that little bit lower

to really highlight that nice rich chocolate

and sherry notes that come out of that.

So it's up to really the master blender

on how they want to do it,

and nobody knows their tobaccos better.

Like a chef who's putting a dish together,

he gets his raw products

and he does his nurturing with all the ingredients

and all the stuff that's going into that plate.

When he creates that plate,

and I could hand each one of us

a filet mignon cut from the same tenderloin.

That's that we all get the same thing.

We just cut three pieces side by side, take it home.

We're all gonna create this different unique-looking dish

using our style, but it's still a filet.

It's still tobacco.

It's how do we go through the curing,

fermenting, preparing, aging process

with the tobaccos that we know that we're getting,

how we do our grading.

And there's little things that we all do a little different,

but we're all creating the same.

So is it a guaranteed rule of thumb, 60, 80%?

No, it's kind of a guideline

because even with us, the Habano wrapper,

that's one where the fillers can actually influence it

because there's a lot of complex flavors

that come off of a Habano wrapper.

Sometimes you want to tone down some flavors.

Filler leaves can sometimes do that.

They'll help tone down some of those.

We want to highlight some of those,

depending on what we're doing with it.

And we do a lot with Habano.

Most manufacturers do use a lot of Habano leaf now.

And the need to kind of exchange and change

to create all these different blends that we've got,

well, they do that through the binder fillers.

And that's one that can be highly manipulated.

So that flavor could actually be in that 60, 80,

but we're manipulating it.

So is it a direct influence?

Well, you might say it's more of a 50/50 now, as a direct

because you're toning some down, highlighting others.

So it really depends on the manufacturer

and how they want to do it.

- [Nate] Sure. - [Rob] Good.

- [Travis] I've seen some manufacturers

where they put some of the leaves in backwards or the stem.

It's intentionally left in there,

for those who didn't know that.

But we leave those stems in there because they have

a lot of nutrients can concentrate within that area.

Well, they can reverse them, giving those big impacts

of the flavor profile to hit at certain times.

And maybe that's their way.

Well, that is gonna create a different flavor,

a more impact of the filler than the wrapper

by doing certain times and hitting at certain areas.

So every manufacturer may do a little bit different things.

Construction on the interior, entubado,

I don't know if you've talked about entubados yet.

But most times the tobaccos and the fillers are rolled

in an S shape or they're they're crinkled up

like an accordion style. - [Nate] Like an accordion.

- [Travis] And then they put the binder leaf

around the outside.

Well, there's other one called entubado,

which is a very expensive way of rolling it

because you think that roller,

instead of just taking that leaf and going like this

or grabbing that accordion and rolling it up,

they have to take each leaf and roll it up

in a tiny little straw.

Hold it, grab the next leaf, roll it up

in tiny little straw, break those off.

So now let's say if you've got five leaves

in the filler, break in half.

Now you got 10 little straws all put together.

Then lay them down on the binder,

and then roll that up.

- [Nate] Sure.

- [Travis] We're gonna lose between 35 and 40%

of their production

by doing one that's entubado.

- [Rob] Because it's not as fast. [Nate] Yeah, yeah.

- [Travis] Correct, but the cigar is gonna smoke-

- [Rob] Totally different.

- [Nate] A lot longer.

- Most people think it's gonna smoke fast.

Most entubados, I can grab a toro, smoke it

for an hour and 45 or an hour and a half.

An entubado, toro, same size, same girth.

I can smoke it for over two hours, two 15.

But the flavors are intense.

- [Nate] Sure.

- [Travis] So if you see one that's entubado

or it's labeled entubado

I would say try it. - [Nate] Give it a whirl?

- It's definitely different.

- [Nate] Interesting. - It's definitely unique.

- [Rob] Interesting.