Views from a Smoke-Filled Room

Making sense of cigar shapes and sizes

---

LOS ANGELES – What’s a Churchill?

Is it a specific cigar? Yes.

Is it a specific cigar size? Yes.

Is a Churchill always the same size? No.

Are all cigar sizes and names this confusing? Yes.

Welcome to the world of cigar shapes and sizes, where anything goes!

If this sounds confusing, that’s because it is, and it is not a recent phenomenon. For more than a century, cigars of the exact same shape have had different names and cigars of different shapes have the same names.

Take the "Churchill" for example. A Winston Churchill cigar line was recently introduced by Davidoff, but the name "Churchill" is also a famous cigar shape, said to originate in the Romeo y Julieta factory when Winston Churchill visited Cuba in 1946. He was said to be an enormous fan of the Romeo y Julieta "Clemenceau" size of seven inches in length and 47 ring gauge. So, brand owner Pepin Fernandez renamed that size "Churchill" and it’s been part of the Romeo line ever since.

Today, that size – 7 inches and 47 ring – is known in Cuba as the "Julieta 2" size. But cigars of that size, even in the centrally controlled Cuban cigar industry, are known as Coronas Gigantes in the Bolivar line, Esplendidos from Cohiba, Monarchs or Sir Winstons from H. Upmann, Tainos from La Gloria Cubana, Imperiales from Quai d’Orsay and so on. But they are also called Churchills in the Hoyo de Monterrey, Partagas and Punch lines in addition to Romeo y Julieta.

Confused yet? Outside of Cuba, where nothing is standardized, it gets worse. Some makers such as Davidoff, have cigars of seven inches and 48 ring which are generally identified as Churchill-sized but have another name, such as Aniversario No. 2. But "Churchills" from many brands also come in sizes of seven inches and 50 ring (actually a double corona), or 7-by-54 or even larger.

Then there’s Altadis U.S.A.’s Churchill in its Dominican-made H. Upmann line. It’s 5 5/8 inches long by 46 ring! It’s not a size, it’s just a name.

And that’s a key to ensuring you’re getting the size you want of a new brand. Don’t be afraid to ask for a size chart or to look in a standard reference. The confusing mass of brands, sizes and shape names was one of the reasons we started our Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars back in 1995. It now classifies each shape in more than 1,200 brands into a grouping such as "robusto" or "churchill" so that no matter what the name is, you’ll know where it belongs among the many sizes now available.

After all, if you’re comfortable with a classic grand corona of 6 1/2 inches and 46 ring, you’d be lost asking for that size in the famous Padron 1964 Anniversary Series. You’d want a Monarca instead! Unless you prefer Puros Indios . . . in which case you’d have to ask for an Especial No. 2. Or . . .

---

Want more? Join us for daily coverage of cigars, accessories, people and issues at www.CigarCyclopedia.com.

---

Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2008; All rights reserved.

Rich Perelman

3/3/08

NO COMMENTS YET

You must sign in to add comments.