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Cigar Sizes Explained: Length, Ring Gauge and Smoking Time
A cigar's size tells you how long it lasts and changes how it tastes. Length, ring gauge and the seven shapes on the Cigar Counter, in one page.
Walk up to any cigar counter and the cigars are sorted by size before anything else. Size, the vitola, is the first thing a roller decides and the first thing a smoker should: it sets how long the cigar lasts, how it draws and, more than most people expect, how it tastes.
How a cigar is measured
Two numbers describe every cigar. Length is measured in inches. Ring gauge is the diameter in sixty-fourths of an inch: a 50 ring gauge cigar is 50/64 of an inch across, a little over three quarters of an inch. A cigar listed as 5 x 50 is five inches long with a 50 ring gauge.
Why size changes the taste
The wrapper is the outer leaf, and it carries a large share of a cigar's flavor. On a thin cigar the wrapper makes up more of what you smoke, so its character comes through clearly and the flavors feel concentrated.
On a thick cigar the filler inside dominates, the smoke runs cooler and the flavors shift more slowly. The same blend rolled as a lancero and as a gordo can taste like two different cigars.
Length is mostly about time and evolution: a longer cigar gives the blend more room to change from the first third to the last.
The seven sizes on the Cigar Counter
- Corona, about 5.5 x 42, 40 to 50 minutes. The classic proportion: balanced, slim and quick to show what a blend is.
- Robusto, about 5 x 50, 45 to 60 minutes. Short and wide, a full blend in under an hour, and the size most smokers come back to.
- Toro, about 6 x 52, 60 to 75 minutes. A robusto with an extra inch, and more time for the blend to develop.
- Churchill, about 7 x 48, 75 to 90 minutes. Long and elegant, made for an evening with nowhere to be.
- Lancero, about 7.5 x 38, 60 to 75 minutes. Long and thin, the most wrapper-forward size there is.
- Gordo, about 6 x 60, 75 to 90 minutes. Big and cool-smoking, filler-forward and slow to change.
- Figurado, around 6 x 52, 45 to 75 minutes. Any shape that is not straight: torpedoes and belicosos with a pointed head, perfectos tapered at both ends. The taper concentrates the smoke, and the flavor opens as the cigar widens.
These are typical sizes. Every maker cuts its own, and two robustos can differ by a quarter inch or a couple of ring gauges.
Choosing a size
- Start with the time you have. Count on roughly ten to fifteen minutes per inch, more for a thick cigar.
- New to cigars? A corona or a robusto is long enough to enjoy and short enough to finish.
- Outdoors, in the wind, a thicker cigar burns more evenly and forgives a gust or two.
- Found a blend you like? Try it in another size. It is the easiest way to discover something new.
Cutting by shape
A straight cigar takes a straight cut just above the cap line, the faint line where the cap meets the wrapper; cut below it and the wrapper can unravel. On a torpedo or a belicoso, take a little off the point first and cut again only if the draw is tight.
On every cigar page at Cigar Smiths, the profile draws the cigar to scale with its length and ring gauge, and each size's collection lists its smoking time, so you know what you are reaching for before you light it.
