How to Prepare the Wrap for Hand Rolling Cigars

The English word cigar comes from the Spanish word cigarro, which, in turn, comes from the Nahuatl word for tobacco itself. In fact, the Meso-american cultures have been harvesting and smoking cigars since the 10th century, wrapping their tobacco in maize husks. Nowadays, cigar smoking has evolved into an almost ritualistic male activity, associated with alcohol and billiards, complete with a system of etiquette.

In this free video series, our expert Matthew Driggers will teach you how to smoke, select, and roll your own cigars. Matthew will teach you how to prepare the wrap, use the filler, use the mold, use the press, and wrap a cigar. Matthew will also teach you how to label, handle, ash, put out, cut, light, and store a hand rolled cigar. Matthew will even tell you about humidors from large to small and give you an overview of cigar smoking etiquette.

"Hi my name is Matthew Driggers and we're here at Cigar Castle in Tampa, Florida. And on behalf of Expert Village, this is how to hand roll cigars, smoking tips and techniques. Okay in this section he's got to take them out, the big stem. This is the wrapper. The whole process is wet. That's what he's doing now, taking out the big stem. Opening the leaf. And it?s ready when the cigar rollers start working, we've got the whole leaf ready like this. And we put like 50 or 52 half leaves to make 50 cigars. So we have to get for every cigar roller, one hundred leaves to make one hundred cigars. Everyday he's got to make the same thing. For example, this leaf that he's making today, we have to use them tomorrow. One day before you have to make the cigars. That's what he's doing now."