A cigar wrapper is the outer leaf rolled around the cigar, and wrappers are described two ways: by colour (from pale Claro to near-black Oscuro) and by the seed and growing region (such as Connecticut Shade, Habano or Sumatra). This White Birch Post guide explains both naming systems, how wrappers are grown and cured, and what machine-made cigars use instead.
What is a cigar wrapper?
The outermost of three layers. Every cigar has filler at the core, a binder leaf that holds the filler together, and a wrapper on the outside. The wrapper is the leaf you see and touch. Our guide to cigars vs cigarillos covers the three parts in more detail.
Chosen for appearance and elasticity. Wrapper leaf has to be thin, flexible and free of large veins and blemishes so it can be rolled tightly without tearing. Growers and manufacturers treat wrapper as the most demanding leaf on the plant to produce.
What are the cigar wrapper colours?
The cigar industry uses a rough colour scale, from lightest to darkest. Names and boundaries vary between manufacturers, so treat these as approximate.
Candela (also called Double Claro)
Green. Candela leaf is cured quickly with heat, which locks in the chlorophyll and keeps the leaf green. It was common in North America in the mid-20th century and is now relatively uncommon.
Claro
Pale tan. Usually shade-grown, picked early and air-cured.
Colorado Claro
Medium brown. A step darker than Claro, often with a reddish tint.
Colorado
Reddish brown. Often grown in sunlight and given a longer cure.
Colorado Maduro
Dark brown. Between Colorado and full Maduro.
Maduro
Very dark brown. "Maduro" is Spanish for "ripe" or "mature." Maduro leaf goes through a longer, more intensive fermentation, which darkens it.
Oscuro
Nearly black. The darkest wrapper, usually from leaves high on the plant that get the most sun, fermented for a long time.
What do names like Connecticut and Habano mean?
Alongside colour, wrappers are named for the seed variety and where they're grown. The same seed grown in a different country can be sold under the same name, so the name often describes the seed rather than the farm.
Connecticut Shade
Grown under cheesecloth tents that diffuse the sun, originally in the Connecticut River Valley. Shade-growing produces a thin, pale, even-coloured leaf. Connecticut-seed shade leaf is also grown in Ecuador.
Connecticut Broadleaf
Grown in full sun in the same region. Broadleaf is thicker and is commonly fermented into a dark Maduro wrapper.
Habano
A Cuban-seed variety now grown in several countries, including Nicaragua, Ecuador and Honduras. Habano wrappers are usually in the Colorado range.
Corojo
Another Cuban-origin variety, traditionally grown as a wrapper. Corojo and Habano are often confused, and the names are used loosely across the industry.
Sumatra and Cameroon
Sumatra-seed tobacco originally comes from Indonesia and is now grown elsewhere, including Ecuador. Cameroon wrapper comes from West and Central Africa and is known for being thin and delicate.
San Andrés
Grown in the San Andrés Valley in Mexico and frequently used as a Maduro wrapper.
Sun-grown vs shade-grown: what's the difference?
| Shade-grown | Sun-grown | |
|---|---|---|
| How it's grown | Under cloth tents | In open fields |
| Leaf | Thinner, paler, more even | Thicker, darker, more variation |
| Common colours | Claro, Colorado Claro | Colorado through Oscuro |
Does the wrapper colour tell you anything else?
Mainly how the leaf was grown, picked and fermented. Darker wrappers generally come from more sun exposure and longer fermentation. Colour isn't a reliable signal of nicotine content or of how a particular cigar will burn, since the filler makes up most of the tobacco in any cigar.
What wrapper do cigarillos and machine-made cigars use?
Often homogenized tobacco sheet. Many cigarillos and machine-made cigars use a wrapper made from processed tobacco — ground tobacco formed into a continuous sheet, sometimes called HTL (homogenized tobacco leaf) or reconstituted tobacco. It's consistent and easy to run through machines.
Some use natural leaf. Other machine-made lines use a natural leaf wrapper. Packaging usually says which. Our cigarillo vs little cigar explainer covers the small formats in more detail.
White Birch Post's cigar range is mostly cigarillos and machine-made cigars such as Dumont, Talon and Century Sam; we don't carry premium hand-rolled cigars.
How should you care for a natural leaf wrapper?
Keep it at steady humidity. A natural wrapper that dries out becomes brittle and cracks, especially when the cigar is cut. One that's kept too moist can struggle to stay lit. See how to store tobacco and our explainer on humidity packs.
Handle it gently. Wrappers are thin. Don't squeeze cigars hard, and cut carefully above the cap line — see how to cut a cigar.
The bottom line
Wrappers are named by colour (Candela through Oscuro) and by seed and region (Connecticut, Habano, Sumatra and others). Colour mostly reflects sun, harvest timing and fermentation. Many cigarillos and machine-made cigars use a homogenized tobacco wrapper instead of whole leaf. Browse the current range in our Cigars section.
White Birch Post sells to adults 19 and over only. Smoking is harmful to your health. If you're thinking about cutting back or quitting, our responsible use page lists free Canadian support services.