Cigar 101 : Long Filler vs Short Filler

Short-filler cigar tobaccos

The Difference between the two types of Tobacco filler can be summed up in just this:

Whole vs Chopped

Long-filler, known as tripa in Spanish, consists of whole tobacco leaves that run the length of a cigar. This is the stuff that the vast majority of premium, handmade cigars use. This takes skill and understanding on how to build a cigar by hand to successfully create.

Short-filler, known as picadura, or chop, is the main tobacco type used in machine-made cigars. This tobacco is sometimes called “scraps” of tobacco leaf that tend to burn quicker and hotter than its long filler counterpart.

Due to the nature of short filler,  it’s far less expensive and far easier to create a cigar using this method.  This is the primary reason this is used for nearly all Machine made cigars.

Cigars made with long filler have a distinct taste and are typically far more desirable.  Though some machine made cigars are of decent quality in their own right, nothing beats a masterpiece premium long filler cigar that is hand made.  Traditionally these are how cigars have been made over hundreds, if not thousands of years.

These cigars are time honored,  whereas machine made cigars started in earnest in the 1800’s.

At Best Cigar Prices we do offer both types of cigars,  with all the machine-made cigars here and the premium cigars and rated cigars here and nearly everywhere else on our site.

If you have any questions at all regarding what cigar best fits what you are looking for, please contact us.


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