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Learn · FundamentalsWhat Is a Puro?
A puro is a cigar whose wrapper, binder, and filler all come from a single country.
What counts as a puro
The word is Spanish for "pure." If every leaf in the cigar... the wrapper outside, the binder holding the bunch together, the filler inside... grew in one country, it's a puro. (The anatomy of a cigar page breaks down those three parts.) Put an Ecuadorian wrapper on an otherwise all-Nicaraguan cigar and the word no longer applies.
Cuban cigars are puros by definition, since Cuba rolls only Cuban tobacco. Everywhere else it's a choice. Nicaragua makes the most common non-Cuban puros, and Honduran and Dominican puros are easy to find.
Why blenders go single-country
A puro is a terroir statement... the cigar version of a single-vineyard wine. It says: this is what our soil, sun, and curing barns taste like, with no outside help. Multi-country blends are the industry norm for the opposite reason. Mixing origins lets a blender balance traits, say an Ecuadorian wrapper's polish over Nicaraguan power. A puro gives up that safety net. When it works, the cigar has a strong sense of place. When it doesn't, there's nowhere to hide.
What it means for taste
One country, concentrated. Nicaraguan puros tend toward strength and pepper. Honduran puros lean earthy and rustic. Dominican puros get described as smoother and more aromatic. Broad strokes, but broad strokes are the point: a puro is the country's accent, undiluted.
WSA has reviewed a few. The Asylum 13 Corojo Robusto, a Honduran puro, rated a Five-Pack (3/4). The My Father Flor de las Antillas Toro, a Nicaraguan puro, rated a Hand-Me-One (2/4). And the two Perdomo Double Aged Epicures, both Nicaraguan puros from the same factory... the Maduro a Box Buy (4/4), the Sun Grown a Not Even Free (1/4).
The misconception
Puro is not a quality tier. It describes sourcing and nothing else... those two Perdomos came from one factory and one program and landed at opposite ends of the WSA scale. One more wrinkle: across much of the Spanish-speaking world, "un puro" simply means "a cigar," so the word gets used loosely. On a spec sheet, it means one country.
Keep reading
Reviewed at WSA since this page was written
AJ Fernandez New World Gobernador Toro Review
Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4). Good flavor the whole way through... but good, not great, and that's what keeps it out of box territory. The draw didn't help its case either, running a touch too tight and tightening up toward the midway mark. At $8.70 street, and closer to six bucks a
Perdomo Legacy Nicaraguan Shade-Grown Epicure Review
Verdict: Box Buy (4/4). Sweet cream, roasted cashew, and a baking spice retrohale that never turned harsh... I already own a box of these, and I'd pay full retail for the next one.
Room101 Johnny Tobacconaut 10th Anniversary (JT10) Toro Review
Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4)... the flavor is box-worthy start to finish, but a burn that needed five touch-ups and constant attention has to cost something, and this is what it costs.
Foundation The Wise Man Corojo Toro Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4)... a pleasant, mild tobacco-sweet smoke that never develops and made me work a lighter for it the whole way. The flavor is fine... light tobacco sweetness, some baking spice, a nutty stretch late... but it barely changes over the whole cigar, there's a
My Father Le Bijou 1922 Torpedo Review
Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4)... for this stick, on this night, and just barely over that line. I've smoked a bunch of these, I have a box in my humidor right now, and most nights this cigar smokes like a Box Buy... which is exactly why this site rates the cigar in my hand, not the re