Construction

A cigar is constructed of three parts.  The innermost core is the "filler".   "Long-filler"   means that the inside of the cigar is constructed from long sections of leaf bunched together in a pleated fashion.  "Short filler" cigars are made from shorter pieces of tobacco, often the scraps leftover from the construction of long-filler cigars.  "Sandwich-filler" is a combination of both longer pieces and shorter pieces.  "Chopped filler" is shredded tobacco that is often used in the better dry-cure cigars.  "Scrap filler" is the leftovers from all of the above.  It is often used for the inexpensive "convenience store" cigars.  The filler is wrapped with a "binder" leaf.   The binder must firm enough to contain the filler, yet delicate enough to impart it's own character to a blend. The binder on most of the inexpensive, mass-marketed cigars is made from reconstituted tobacco scraps and cellulose. On the outside of a cigar is the "wrapper".  The wrapper accounts for 30% or more of a cigar's flavor and is responsible for the visual appeal of the cigar.   For a premium cigar, the wrapper must be of the highest quality, free of blemishes, well-veined, and uniform in texture and appearance.

After a cigar roller removes a cigar from the mold and rolls it in the wrapper, the cigar is cut flush on both ends. A thumbnail section of leaf , called the "cap", is cut from the excess wrapper leaf and glued to one end of the cigar, the "head".  Some manufactures will add sweeteners to the gum that is used to adhere the cap to the cigar.  The other end of the cigar, the end which is lit, is called the "foot"or "tuck".  Experienced rollers know to roll the leaf with the tip toward the foot of the cigar because the tips have less oils and produce a milder smoke.  Therefore, as the cigar is being smoked, it will build in richness as it progresses toward the richer-flavored base of the wrapper.

Types of cigars

Premium cigars are, for the most part, handmade using long-filler.  However some manufactures have been relying on machinery for the bunching process since the fifties.  Other than by price, it is hard to tell which cigars have been bunched by hand and which are "machine-bunched".   Some cigars made using short or sandwich filler are also machine-bunched with the binder and wrapper applied by hand.  Inexpensive cigars are completely assembled by machine from shredded, recycled tobacco scrap.  The worst of these do not even use natural leaf for the wrapper.  Instead, they use this chemically treated and flavored "homogenized" tobacco "paper".  These "machine-made" cigars are more closely related to cigarettes in construction than they are premium-quality handmade cigars. 

European style, dry-cured, cigarillos and small cigars are machine bunched, short-filler cigars.  Some are wrapped with a homogenized binder and even wrapper, while the better ones use a natural leaf binder and wrapper that are applied by hand.