What a toothy wrapper looks like

You’ll see some cigars described as having “tooth” or a “toothy wrapper”. This means that these cigars have tiny, concentrated pockets of oil in their wrappers. All tobacco contains oil; it’s a key contributor to tobacco’s characteristic taste and aroma. Toothy cigars simply have more of it.

If you’re new to cigars and buying online, a toothy wrapper might be hard to visualize; basic product shots don’t give you close-up views and, after all, no wrapper is 100 percent smooth. But these wrappers really do have some characteristics that set them apart from the others, as you can see here [Click Image]. Take a close look, and you’ll see lots of tiny bumps, almost looking like goose bumps. This is tooth. In comparison, the wrapper on this Avo Signature [Click Image] looks much smoother. It’s not entirely without oil pockets — as mentioned, all tobacco has them - but they’re considerably smaller and less obvious.

Are toothy cigars something to seek out? Some smokers definitely do; ask them why and they’ll tell you that the extra oil gives these cigars better taste and aroma. But this doesn’t mean that cigars without tooth can’t taste and smell great too. The two cigars shown here are good cases in point. The Avo Signature, our non-toothy example, sports a silky, Ecuadorian sun-grown wrapper. It’s noted as being full in strength, and, while it feels much less oily in the hand, it has a similar robust fragrance to the Camacho Liberty, our toothy example.