The Impending Death
of Thin Ring Gauge Cigars
Size matters. Especially when it comes to a cigar. The feel of it in your hand and in your
mouth. The amount of smoke it produces. The complexity of flavours in that smoke.
All of these are affected by size. At one end of the spectrum are large ring gauge cigars
like double robustos - powerful, full of smoke, intense. At the other end are thin cigars
like lanceros - subtle, elegant, complex. But your freedom to explore those differences
in Cuban cigars is disappearing because the thin ring gauge cigar is on the verge of
extinction.
Some numbers. In the last 60 years, Cuba has
created 200 regular production cigars under 40
ring gauge. 170 of those have been discontinued.
One third of those discontinuations have occurred
since the year 2000. Right now, of the 177 cigars in
current production, only 17% are thin. Meanwhile,
about 25% of current production cigars are over 50
ring gauge. Two thirds of those have been created
in the last decade alone.*
There are a couple of reasons why we are moving
from thin to thick. The first is economics. The
profits are much smaller the thinner the ring
gauge. They require more skill to make, thus more
waste. But thin cigars also have a lower price tag
because less tobacco is used. The obvious choice,
then, are larger, easier to make cigars for which
you can charge more money.
The second reason is social. Many new cigar
smokers want a bang for their buck - a bigger cigar
delivers mor