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BABOSA: A slug which eats through the tobacco leaf.

BACHES: Irregular swellings in the cigars, which occur when the tobacco improperly rolled.

BAJAR EL SURCO: The beginning of plowing of the planting furrows.

BAND: A ring of paper wrapped around the closed head of most cigars. Legend says that cigar bands were invented by Catherine the Great, or by Spanish nobles to keep their gloves from being stained. Others credit this invention to a Dutch advertising and promotion genius named Gustave Bock, who stated that the band helped keep the cigar wrapper together. Cigar bands are often printed with the name of the brand, country of origin, and/or indication that the cigar is hand-rolled. They also often have colorful graphics, which have made them popular collectors' items. In many folk tales, a cigar band served as a wedding band in impromptu ceremonies. For the record, it is equally appropriate to leave the band on while smoking a cigar or to remove it, as long as the cigar's wrapper leaf is not torn when the band is removed.

BANDA VOLCANO: A fast burning tobacco that is used as a binder.

BANDA: One-half leaf of a wrapper or binder leaf into which the roller places the filler.

BANDERA: When the color of the wrapper leaf is not uniform in color, it is rejected, and ‘flagged’.

BARBACOA: The area in a factory where the filler leaf is dried and blended bunches of leaves are prepared. Also referred to as the galetas, or drying room.

BARREDERA(S): The horizontal lumbar bars upon which the ends of the tobacco poles are placed, also known as drying bars, in the curing barn.

BARREDURA: Tobacco waste product, called sweepings.

BARREL: The main body or shank of the cigar.

BARRELING: This is the resting stage, for the tobacco, in the stripping barn. The stripped leaves are placed in ‘barriles’ made of cedar, in the fermentation room. There are 250 pressed, stripped, and stacked, leaves in each barrel. The barrel has a vent-hole at its center, to allow air to circulate and penetrate the leaves. All barrels have several holes, or openings, for this procedure to work. The leaves are kept in the barrel for up to 60 days.

BARRIL: The term refers to two areas; the first is the worktable where the midrib is stripped, the other, where the filler leaf is kept at the manufacturer’s facility.

BATIDO: Separation of the vein of the leaf, by mechanical procedure.

BELICOSO: Traditionally a short, pyramid-shaped cigar, 5 or 5 1/2 inches in length with a shorter, more rounded taper at the head and a ring gauge generally of 50 or less. Today, belicoso is frequently used to describe coronas or corona gordas with a tapered head.

BENEFICIO: A Cuban idiom, taken from the Spanish word for ‘benefit’, used in cigar production. It consists of dampening certain parts of the leaf with a lye or bitumen. The strength of this infusion is in direct proportion to the quality of the tobacco: the darker the tobacco, the, greater strength of the infusion; light tobaccos receive little or no benefit from this process.

BESANA: In the field, furrows are divided into two, for ease of planting, thus a ‘half-furrow’.

BETUN: A mixture of water and tobacco residues used to wet down the tobacco before fermentation; this mixture is a lye. Some manufacturers mix the veins with honey and “aguardiente”, a sugar cane distillate, to make their own betun. Once dampened, the leaves are left to air for 24 hours, and then taken to the stripping department where the midrib is removed.

BINDER: The portion of a tobacco leaf used to hold together the blend of filler leaves called the bunch; with the wrapper and filler, it is one of three main components in a cigar.

BLANDURA: The suppleness of the leaf as it is tied in bunches after drying.

BLEND: The mixture of different types of tobacco in a cigar, including up to five types of filler leaves, a binder leaf and an outer wrapper.

BLOOM (PLUME): A naturally occurring phenomenon on in the cigar aging process, also called plume, caused by the oils that exude from the tobacco. It appears as a fine white powder and can be brushed off; not to be confused with mold, which is bluish and stains the wrapper.

BLUE MOLD: Peronospara tabacina is a fast moving, airborne fungus that can ruin a tobacco field in just a few days. It flourishes in cool, cloudy weather with light rain and riddles tobacco leaves with small round blemishes.

BN: From the French "Boîte Nature", it refers to a flat, rectangle, cedar, cigar box, with or without a clasp, plain or varnished.

BOFETON: A lithographed sheet, or flap, of paper, glued to the inner back of the cigar box to cover the cigars.

BOITE NATURE: Cedar cigar box.

BOITE SEMI-NATURE: A plain wooden cigar box, without and decoration added.

BONCHE: The name for the filler, which is then placed within the binder, to form the ‘guts’ of the cigar around which is placed the wrapper leaf.

BONCHERO: Worker who, in the small factories, is in charge of the preparation of filler tobacco.

BOOK STYLE (BOOKING): A rolling format used when the roller lays the filler leaves atop one another, then rolls them up like a scroll. Book style, or booking, is common in Honduras. The alternate style is based on the old Cuban method called entubar.

BOOK-MATCH ROLLING: A rolling format which involves sandwiching the filler tobaccos together; much like a taco. This technique is simpler than entubado rolling and creates a less balanced and consistent cigar structure.

BOQUILLA: Another term for the end of the cigar which one lights.

BOTÓN: That part of the plant which is removed in order to allow full development, also referred to as the buds.

BOUQUET: The smell, or "nose," of a fine cigar. Badly stored cigars lose their bouquet.

BOX MARKINGS: There are numerous terms one might find on the underside of a cigar box, or to describe the production process of a particular vitola. These are: Hecho a Mano - Made by hand. These cigars are machine bunched and then finished by hand. Totalmente a Mano - Totally made by hand. These cigars are made completely by hand from start to finish without exception. Envuelto a Mano - Wrapped by hand; typically, used on boxes of machine-made cigars, which were only packaged by hand. Hecho en Cuba - Made in Cuba. This only describes only the origin of manufacture and not the method of construction.

BOX: The container used to package cigars. There are several traditional styles: A "cabinet selection" refers to wood boxes with a sliding top, designed to hold 25 or 50 cigars. An "8-9-8" refers to a round-sided box specifically designed to accommodate three rows of cigars, eight on top, nine in the middle, eight on the bottom. A "flat top", or "13-topper", is the flat rectangular box most popular today, with 13 cigars on top and 12 on the bottom, divided by a spacer. The divider is a thin cedar sheet.

BOX-PRESSED: The slightly square in appearance taken on by cigars packed tightly in a box, also referred to as ‘presionado’.

BREVA: A size of cigar which is generally composed of stronger tobacco.

BRITÁNICA: A cigar which is ‘swollen" in one part, always referred to when improperly rolled.

BULK: A large pile of tobacco leaves in which fermentation occurs.

BULLET CUTTER: A cigar punch, used to a small hole in the cap of a cigar.

BULL'S-EYE PIERCER: A device for opening the closed head of a cigar before smoking. It creates a circular opening like a target's bull's eye.

BUNCH: Up to four different types of filler tobacco that are blended to create the body of the cigar. The bunch is held together by the binder.

BUNDLE: A packaging method, designed with economy in mind, which uses a cellophane over-wrap. It usually contains 25 or 50 cigars, traditionally without bands. Bundles, oftentimes seconds of premium brands, are usually less expensive than boxed cigars.

BURRO DE FERMENTACIÓN: The sheaves of leaves, beginning the second step in the fermentation process, under conditions of controlled temperature and humidity.

BURRO/ DAR EL BURRO: The pile of tobacco leaves being fermented. They can be as tall as a person and are carefully monitored. If the temperature gets over 110°F the burro is taken apart, unraveled, and re-piled, to slow the fermentation process; also know as ‘bulk’. This operation may be repeated, until specified characteristics of the fermented tobacco are obtained.

BURRO: The place where freshly harvested leaves are placed, at the outset of the ageing/drying/fermentation processes. The sheaves of leaves are sprinkled or dampened with bitumen as they are placed on the stack. The leaves remain in the burro while they develop specific characteristics, such as scent and color; this is part of the curing process.