Cigar Shapes
Cigar size names originally specified the exact physical size and shape of affordable cigars, but after a dozen decades of manufacturer individualizing, these original standards are long gone. Only Cuban manufacturers have stayed with these original standard shapes and sizes.
Premium cigars can be divided by shape into two broad categories: Parejos, which have straight sides, and Figurados, which include all "irregular" shapes.
Parejos
Parejos include three basic divisions by the relative proportion of their dimensions: Coronas, Panatelas and Lonsdales.
Coronas
This is a broad category including Coronas, Double Coronas, Presidentes, Robustos, and Churchills. All Coronas are characterized by an open "foot" and a rounded "head".
Panatelas
Longer than Coronas, Panatelas are usually considerably thinner.
Lonsdales
The third division is Lonsdales - thicker than Panatelas, but generally longer than Coronas.
Figuardos
Figuardos, or "irregular" shaped cigars are better defined. Figuardos are very hard to make - a master roller's job.
Belicoso
The smallest of the Figuardos, the Belicoso is a small tapered cigar with a rounded head and a larger foot.
Pyramids
Pyramids taper from a large foot to a small, pointed head. Although many smokers call a large pyramid a torpedo, a true torpedo has a slight bulge in the middle. Next to the Torpedo, the Pyramid is probably one of the most recogonized of the Figuardos.
Perfecto
A premium cigar that tapers at both ends and is closed at the head and foot. Once very popular in the early half of the 20th century, this cigar has fallen hard out of favor. As a result it has lost popularity with smokers and is hard to find, although many major brands still produce it.
Diademas
The Diademas is the giant of cigars, measuring eight inches or greater in length.
Culebras
Culebras cigars are an odd size not often found on the market today. It involves three smaller affordable cigars being "snaked" together into a braided final product. In fact, the word culebra means "snake" in Spanish.
Culebras first appeared when trouble arose around workers being able to take complementary cigars home at the end of the work day. It was soon discovered that they were taking premium cigars and putting their lesser-quality gift cigars into the the premium cigar boxes. To stop this, the practice of twisting the workers' cigars together when they were still moist to identify what was a daily gift and what was the real thing was begun.
This unique cigar eventually found public demand, but such demand has dwindled recently. Hoyo De Monterrey dropped its production of Culebras in 1998, leaving Davidoff as the only manufacturer outside Cuba that still produces the shape.