For the casual cigar smoker hand rolled cigars must seem rather exotic and beyond their reach. You can’t buy them in grocery stores or anywhere else other than tobacconists and online specialty stores. They come from beyond the borders of the United States and there’s an air of elitism about them because they seem to cost more than machine rolled cigars.

But the reality is quite different and once you’ve smoked a hand rolled cigar, you may never want to go back to a machine rolled cigar again. Sure you might have to find a tobacconist to buy them from or even shop online for them, but you won’t have to pay a premium price for them unless you’re buying a premium cigar.

You certainly won’t mind looking beyond your grocery store for your cigars once you’ve tried a hand rolled one because the difference is like chalk and cheese - and that goes for even the cheapest hand rolled cigars.

So why is there such a difference?

The Filler

The filler in hand rolled cigars are made from pure tobacco leaves. While different leaves may be used for each part of the cigar, you are getting genuine tobacco in your cigar. That may sound a little strange until I tell you that the filler in machine rolled cigars contains other items besides tobacco.

In a hand rolled cigar all you get in the filler is tobacco leaf cut long to fit the length of the cigar. In a machine rolled cigar you get preservatives and other chemicals, finely chopped (almost minced) tobacco – tobacco that’s often just leaf scraps and other parts of the tobacco plant that no cigar roller would ever use - and paper as well.

With nothing but genuine tobacco in the filler of a hand rolled cigar you know that the taste is going to be everything you had hoped it would be.