What is a Connecticut cigar?

What "Connecticut" means on a cigar

On a band or a spec sheet, "Connecticut" names the wrapper. It doesn't tell you where the cigar was rolled, how big it is or how strong it is. The binder under the wrapper and the filler inside are separate choices by the blender.

The name comes from the Connecticut River Valley, where cigar tobacco has been grown for centuries. The valley's tobacco land runs from Connecticut north into Massachusetts. Two main wrapper leaves grow there, and both carry the state's name.

The light one is Connecticut Shade, so called because it's grown in shade. Valley farmers started growing it under cloth tents around 1900, and the seed bred for it is now called Connecticut seed. Leaf grown from that seed in other countries is still sold under the Connecticut name. That's why a cigar can have a "Connecticut" wrapper that grew in Ecuador.

Most of this page is about Connecticut Shade, because that's the leaf most people mean.

How Connecticut Shade is grown

Around 1900, Valley farmers were facing stiff competition from Sumatra tobacco. So they planted Sumatra seed themselves. The sun scorched the first crops. Growers noticed that Sumatra's growing season was mostly overcast, and they put cheesecloth tents over the fields to copy it. A seed bred for shade growing was released to farmers around 1910.

Nylon netting has mostly replaced the cheesecloth. It filters the sun and holds in heat and humidity, which keeps the leaves from getting too thick, dark or dense with nicotine. The leaves are picked in primings, a few at a time from the bottom of the stalk up. A leaf's priming is where on the stalk it grew. In Connecticut the pickers usually take three leaves at a time, every seven to ten days.

The result is a thin, supple leaf with very fine veins that cures to a golden tan.

It's an expensive leaf to grow. Labor and production cost more in the Valley than in places like the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, and the growing season is shorter.

Connecticut Shade vs. Ecuador Connecticut

Ecuador Connecticut is Connecticut-seed wrapper grown in Ecuador. Around 2012, Cigar Aficionado reported that most cigars sold with a Connecticut wrapper already used it, and U.S. shade growing kept shrinking after that. The growing region's near-constant cloud cover does the job the netting does in Connecticut, so the plants grow in the open. Land and labor cost less. Davidoff switched its signature wrapper from U.S. Connecticut Shade to Ecuador Connecticut in 2001.

The two leaves come from the same seed and look nearly identical. Whether they taste different, and which way, is where the sources split. Henke Kelner, then Davidoff's master blender, told Cigar Aficionado that U.S. shade "starts out with a more bitter taste and takes longer to improve with fermentation and aging," while the Ecuador leaf is "more mild" and "develops faster for use." Rocky Patel told the same magazine nearly the opposite: "U.S.A. Connecticut is creamier and milder, but Ecuador Connecticut is thicker, more pliable and has more body."

Labels don't settle it either. Strictly, only leaf grown in the Connecticut River Valley is Connecticut Shade. But Foundation's spec sheet for Charter Oak CT Shade lists the wrapper as Connecticut Shade, and Holt's says the Charter Oak line comes in "a light-blond Ecuador Connecticut wrapper."

If it matters to you where the leaf grew, look for a country on the spec. Cigar Aficionado's ratings, for example, list Ashton Cabinet Selection's wrapper as "U.S.A./Conn. Shade."

Connecticut Broadleaf is a different leaf

Connecticut Broadleaf grows in the same valley, sometimes in the next field over from shade tobacco. It's a genetically different plant, and the older of the two in the region. Broadleaf was grown in the Valley for much of the 1800s before shade arrived.

It's grown the opposite way. Broadleaf gets full sun and no netting. Growers snap off the flower at the top, so the plant puts its energy into big, thick leaves with heavy veins. At harvest the whole plant is cut at the base of the stalk in one chop, instead of being primed leaf by leaf. The cured leaf is dark and rugged.

Those dark wrappers go on maduro cigars. Broadleaf is one of the two leaves most often processed as maduro, which is why you'll see names like Charter Oak CT Broadleaf Maduro. For what maduro processing does to a wrapper, see what is a maduro cigar?.

The Valley also grows Havana-seed tobacco, sold as Connecticut Habano. Drew Estate puts Broadleaf on the Liga Privada No. 9 and stalk-cut Connecticut Habano on the T52, and we compare the two in Liga Privada No. 9 vs. T52.

What a Connecticut cigar tastes like

Guides commonly describe Connecticut Shade cigars with the same few words: cream, cedar, nuts and coffee. The sources disagree about how much of that comes from the wrapper.

Cigar Aficionado's guide to wrapper colors is blunt about light, shade-grown wrappers: "Flavorwise, these wrappers have little to offer, and allow the flavors of the filler tobaccos to dominate the taste of the cigar." The same magazine calls lack of flavor "one of the most common criticisms" of Connecticut Shade cigars.

Blenders put it more kindly. Ernesto Perez-Carrillo told Cigar Aficionado that "though most people think it doesn't add anything to the blend, it complements and rounds out the smoke perfectly."

Both views leave most of the flavor to the tobaccos inside. So when you compare two Connecticut cigars, compare the blends.

Are Connecticut cigars mild?

Many are, and the leaf's reputation matches. Cigar Aficionado calls Connecticut Shade "synonymous with mild flavor."

But on our pages, strength means nicotine: the physical effect you feel. It comes from the blend of tobaccos inside the cigar. Put a Connecticut wrapper over a strong blend and you get a stronger cigar than the reputation suggests.

The makers' own strength ratings show the range. Foundation rates its Charter Oak CT Shade Mild to Medium and its CT Broadleaf Medium to Full. Some makers publish a body rating instead. Drew Estate rates Undercrown Shade's body as Medium and doesn't list a strength. On our pages, body means the weight and texture of the smoke, which is a separate scale from strength.

For how strength, body and flavor differ, see cigar strength, body and flavor, explained.

Connecticut vs. maduro and Habano

People weigh Connecticut against maduro and Habano, but the words describe different things.

Connecticut vs. maduro. Connecticut names a leaf. Maduro names what was done to a wrapper after harvest: fermented longer in more heat, or toasted under pressure, until it's dark. The usual contrast is a light Connecticut Shade wrapper against a dark maduro, and most guides describe the maduro as sweeter. But Connecticut Broadleaf is itself one of the most common maduro wrappers, so a cigar can be both.

Connecticut vs. Habano. Both name a kind of leaf. Retail guides commonly describe Habano wrappers as darker and spicier than Connecticut Shade. Neither name sets the strength.

Choosing a Connecticut cigar

These are the makers' and reviewers' descriptions, not our tasting notes. A Connecticut is a common first cigar, but check the strength line before you buy.

U.S. Connecticut Shade. Ashton Cabinet Selection. Cigar Aficionado lists the wrapper as U.S.A./Conn. Shade. Its tasters rated the Trés Petite Mild-Medium in 2021 and found nutmeg, vanilla, citrus and cedar.

Ecuador Connecticut, mellow. Oliva Connecticut Reserve. An Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and filler. Oliva calls it "mellow" and "medium-bodied," with "subtle notes of wood."

Ecuador Connecticut, medium body. Undercrown Shade. Drew Estate lists an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper, Medium body, and "earth, vanilla, caramel, and pepper." On the product page, choose a Connecticut Shade size.

Shade and Broadleaf from one line. Charter Oak. Foundation makes it in both leaves. It rates the CT Shade Mild to Medium and the CT Broadleaf Medium to Full, with "rich earth" and "natural sweetness." On the product page, choose Connecticut or CT Broadleaf Maduro.

The Jessup shop sells singles, so you can smoke a Shade and a Broadleaf side by side without buying a box of either.