Maduro

Maduro is Spanish for ripe. It names a wrapper color and the process that gets it there, so several different leaves can end up maduro.

What it is

A maduro wrapper runs from very dark reddish brown to almost black. The color can come from sun exposure, a cooking process or extended fermentation. In a long, slow ferment, heat and moisture build naturally in the tobacco and turn starches into sugars, which leaves the wrapper dark and oily.

Connecticut Broadleaf and Mexican San Andrés Negro are the two most common maduro wrappers, and both hold up to the heat of a long ferment. The same blend can come either way: Padrón sells its 1964 Anniversary Series with a sun-grown natural or a maduro wrapper.

What it tastes like

Maduros are naturally sweeter than natural wrappers, with notes like dark chocolate, coffee and molasses. A dark wrapper doesn't make a cigar strong. The extra sweetness can even take the edge off a blend.

Cigars to know

Ashton Aged Maduro puts a slowly fermented Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper over Dominican tobacco. La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor uses Mexican San Andrés. Arturo Fuente Añejo, a Connecticut Broadleaf maduro, comes out in limited batches.