What is the difference between a vitola and a module?

In everyday use, none: both name a cigar's format, its pairing of length and diameter. “Vitola” is the historic term, borrowed from Spanish; “module” is its French commercial equivalent. Strictly speaking, a vitola can also designate the cigar itself in a factory's nomenclature, which “module” never does.

Is a dark cigar necessarily stronger?

No, and this is probably the most widespread misconception. The wrapper's shade (from claro to oscuro) speaks only of the maturity and sun exposure of that single leaf, which represents a fraction of the blend. Strength comes first from the filler, and notably from its proportion of ligero leaves. There are very powerful pale cigars, and maduros that are all roundness.

What does the word “puro” mean?

Strictly speaking, a puro is a cigar whose wrapper, binder and filler all come from a single country: an all-Dominican, an all-Nicaraguan. In Spain and Latin America, “puro” is the everyday word for any cigar. Context settles the meaning, but on a product sheet the word commits to origin.

What is a cigar band actually for?

Historically, to identify the manufacture and, so the legend goes, to keep tobacco stains off gentlemen's gloves. Today it authenticates the cigar and tells you its line. Remove it once the cigar has warmed up (the glue yields more readily) and only if it is in the way: no rule of the lounge obliges you to take it off.

Cigar Glossary: Wrapper, Filler, Vitola, Ring Gauge

Every passion has its language, and the cigar’s borrows from the Spanish of the plantations, the French of the salons and the jargon of the rolling rooms. This glossary gathers the terms you will meet in our guides, on boxes and in lounge conversation, arranged by theme rather than alphabet, because a word is best learned next to its neighbours.

Anatomy: the three leaves of a cigar

A handmade cigar (totalmente a mano, entirely by hand) is an assembly of three layers, from the inside out:

Filler

The heart of the cigar: tripa in Spanish, tripe in French. It is the aromatic engine: a blend of leaves chosen to compose strength, aromas and the rhythm of the burn. Long filler (tripa larga) is made of whole leaves folded along the full length of the cigar, the signature of premium vitolas; short filler (tripa corta) assembles leaf fragments, an honourable technique used in cigarillos and some budget formats, not to be confused with the reconstituted tobacco of industrial products.

Binder

Capote in the rolling rooms, sous-cape in French. One or two sturdy leaves that hold the filler together and give the cigar its structure. Discreet on the palate, it nonetheless decides the draw: too tight, the cigar labours; too loose, it overheats.

Wrapper

The cigar’s robe, the capa. A single leaf, thin, elastic and flawless, most often shade-grown to stay silky. It dresses the cigar, contributes more to its taste than people assume, and carries most of the aesthetic demands: even colour, discreet veins, an oily feel. It is the wrapper that splits when a cigar dries out badly, and the wrapper that a clumsy cut unravels.

Head, cap, shoulder, foot

The head is the closed end, the one you bring to your lips once it has been opened; it is sealed by the cap, a small disc of leaf glued in place. The shoulder is the line where the cap meets the barrel, the border never to cross when cutting. The foot is the open end, the one you light.

Band

The decorated paper ring that circles the cigar near the head, anilla in Spanish and bague in French. The manufacture’s identity card, and a collectible in its own right (vitolphilia is to the cigar what oenophilia is to wine, on the paper side).

Formats: vitola, module, ring gauge

Vitola

A cigar’s format, defined by the pairing of length × diameter and, by extension, its silhouette. “Robusto”, “corona” and “churchill” are vitolas. The word is Spanish and remains the connoisseur’s term.

Module

The French trade equivalent of vitola; French-speaking catalogues happily speak of a “module robusto”. In conversation the two words are interchangeable.

Ring gauge

A cigar’s diameter, expressed in sixty-fourths of an inch (cepo in Spanish). A 50 ring gauge therefore measures 50/64 of an inch, or 19.8 mm. It is the measurement that dictates the choice of cutting tool and, for many, comfort in the mouth. Ring gauges have grown markedly in twenty years: the classic corona’s 42 looks slender next to today’s 54s and 60s.

Parejo and figurado

The two great families of silhouettes. The parejo is the straight cigar, parallel-sided with a rounded head, and the vast majority of production. The figurado covers all the sculpted shapes: torpedo and belicoso with tapered heads, the perfecto closed at both ends and swollen in the middle, the pyramid a continuous cone.

The vitolas worth knowing

Vitola	Length	Ring gauge	Character
petit corona	~10 cm (4 in)	40–42	the brief, dense format, half an hour
robusto	~12.4 cm (5 in)	50	the modern benchmark, 45 to 60 minutes
corona	~14 cm (5.5 in)	42–44	the classic balance
toro	~15.2 cm (6 in)	50–54	the generous contemporary
churchill	~17.8 cm (7 in)	47	lordly length, more than an hour
lancero	~19 cm (7.5 in)	38–40	long and slender, the wrapper front and centre
gordo	~15 cm (6 in)	58–60	the very thick ring gauge, voluminous smoke

The craft: from leaf to cigar

Ligero, seco, volado

The three tiers of the plant, which are also the three roles in a blend. Ligero, the sun-drenched top leaves, brings strength and nicotine; it burns poorly, so it is placed at the centre of the filler. Seco, the middle tier, carries the aromas. Volado, the lower leaves, keeps the burn going. The art of blending (ligada) lies in balancing these three voices.

Torcedor

The roller. Torcedora in the feminine, and the finest hands in the great factories are often women. Years of apprenticeship for a single gesture: rolling filler, binder and wrapper into a cylinder with a constant draw, to a tolerance of a few tenths of a millimetre.

Fermentation

The step that separates raw tobacco from smokable tobacco: stacked in pilones, the leaves heat naturally, shed their ammonia and harshness, and gain their aromas of earth, leather and cocoa. Some tobaccos ferment for years. It is also why a cigar keeps refining in a humidor: the chemistry never quite stops, provided the humidity holds steady.

Wrapper shades

From lightest to darkest: claro (pale blond), colourado claro, colourado (russet brown), colourado maduro, maduro (deep brown, long fermentation), oscuro (nearly black). The shade describes the wrapper, not the strength of the cigar; that myth dies hard.

Tasting: talking about what you smoke

Draw

The resistance a cigar offers when you pull on it. The classic image: drawing on a cigar should take the effort of a straw in a milkshake: neither open air nor a struggle. The draw is decided at the rolling table, at the cut and in storage.

Body, strength, power

Three words everyday usage blurs and tasting keeps apart. Body is the density of the smoke in the mouth, its texture: light, medium, full. Strength is the effect of the nicotine. A cigar can be full in body yet gentle in strength; the reverse exists too, and surprises more.

Retrohaling

Exhaling part of the smoke through the nose, gently: the volatile aromas find receptors there that the mouth does not have. It is the gesture that turns “wood, pepper” into an entire palette, to be practised in small touches, as the nasal lining does not forgive excess.

Ash, burn, tunneling

A firm, pale ash signals well-nourished tobacco and a settled burn; let it hold for two or three centimetres, since it regulates the temperature. A lopsided burn (canoeing) is corrected with a stroke of the torch; tunneling, the filler burning alone down the centre, betrays a cigar that is too humid or smoked too fast.

Puro

A cigar whose every leaf comes from the same country. In Spanish the word also means, colloquially, any cigar at all; on a label, it commits to origin.

The vocabulary of the Moroccan market

A few words found in no Cuban glossary that come up in all our guides.

Price list

The official list of retail prices for manufactured tobacco in Morocco, set by ministerial order and identical across the entire legal channel: a cigar has a price there, not a price range. Our guide to cigar prices in Morocco goes through it brand by brand.

Circular

The customs administration’s text publishing each revision of the price list; two circulars rebuilt the prices in 2026, on 1 January and then on 1 April.

Official counter

A point of sale approved by the exclusive distributor of Havanas: the Casa del Habano shops in Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech and the Habanos Especialist in Marrakech, detailed in our guide to where to buy. Outside that channel, a cigar “cheaper than the price list” is a fake or a badly stored cigar.

Traveller’s allowance

The quantity of cigars a traveller may bring into Morocco duty-free: 25 cigars or 100 cigarillos per adult. Beyond that, declaration and duties.

A final word

This glossary makes no claim to completeness: every factory, every terroir, every lounge adds words of its own. It covers the essentials: enough to read a product sheet without footnotes, follow our guides without detours, and hold your own in a conversation among initiates. The vocabulary of storage (humidor, two-way action, set point) is explored further in our guides to choosing a humidor and humidity.