We tend to believe it’s a little of both, but heavily lean toward the latter. And as a new generation discovers the pleasures of cigars, it may be time to re-visit some of the great myths, legends, and persistent questions about this fascinating hobby and its history and traditions - and maybe put the lie to some long-held misconceptions.

Ralph Montero, a 22-year veteran of the cigar business now employed as vice president of Alec Bradley Cigar Company, points out the role of the cigar’s other components - filler and binder - on the ratio of flavors. “If you have a Cameroon or Ecuador wrapper, on a cigar with 90% Esteli ligero in the filler,” he suggests, “you can’t tell me the wrapper is going to represent 70% of flavor. Some of the heavier wrappers influence flavor more but you’d have to have a very mild filler blend and a non-influential binder leaf. Other wrappers are more neutral, and let the filler be prominent.”

Manuel Quesada of Fonseca Cigars believes the cigarmaker has control over which is the dominant element of a cigar... and his choice of wrapper and filler leaves can widely vary the percentage of flavor contribution. “If you want to make a cigar with a wrapper as a dominant element you can do that. If you want to make one with filler as a dominant element, you can do that as well,” he says. “but the idea behind the cigar, in my opinion, is the roundness of the blend: all three elements combining to create a particular taste so you can’t attribute a dominant factor to any of the three.”

In short: a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper over a very mild filler blend could dominate a cigar’s flavor, but a Connecticut shade wrapper over a full-bodied filler certainly would not.

So what does a clean powder-white ash contribute to a cigar’s quality? “Other than aesthetics, absolutely nothing,” is the blunt answer from Bahia Cigar’s Tony Borhani. “It means the soil has lots of phosphorus and calcium. The soil that produces Sumatra tobacco will always give a white ash. Cuban soil is low in calcium and that’s how they maintain it, so Cuban cigars’ ashes are hardly ever white.”

Quesada adds magnesium to the list of minerals that could influence an ash’s color, and believes that a range of gray ashes indicates healthier tobacco. “The traditional criteria in the industry are that extremes are never the rule,” he states. “Too white or too black is not as desirable as a range of grays.” Magnesium, while it may have an effect on how sweet a tobacco tastes, can also cause the ash to become flaky if there is too much of it in the soil.

“I define strong as excess nicotine - like when you smoke a cigar and get a head rush,” states Borhani, who strives for Cuban-style flavor in many of his Nicaraguan-made Bahia Cigars. “A full-bodied, flavorful cigar is a different thing. I’ve smoked Cuban cigars that I’d call mild that have tons of flavor and they’re not super-strong or harsh.”

Borhani points out that much like the classic wines of Bordeaux, many Cuban cigars are made with aging in mind. “Some of these cigars are not designed to be smoked right away,” he posits. “Cuban tobacco is the only tobacco I’ve experienced that lasts 15 to 20 years and can still deliver a beautiful package of aroma and flavor.”

Quesada, a veteran of the Cuban cigar industry who now makes cigars in the Dominican Republic concurs: “Cuban cigars do have a history of strength, and in recent years, some have been overpowering,” he says. “Some of it has been attributed to lack of fermentation, tobacco that was not quite ready to be made into cigars. That makes them a lot heavier and more powerful. A little aging does tone down a little bit of that power.”

The author goes on to describe a more plausible version of the story, involving one of Castro’s bodyguards giving him a cigar that the Cuban leader took an immediate liking to. The guard revealed that the cigar was a special blend with no existing brand name, rolled by a torcedor named Avelino Lara. Lara is now the master roller for the Nassau, Bahamas-based Graycliff Cigar Factory, and has claimed that he did indeed roll the first Cohiba. Other accounts claim that the cigar roller in question was named Eduardo Rivero Irrizari, who also makes the claim, and further purports that he was made the personal roller for Castro after the brand was created. As far as is known, Irrizari continues to roll cigars in Cuba.

While the full story may never be known, one (or perhaps both) of these men is very likely to have been instrumental in the birth of the Cohiba, and Che Guevara’s involvement is quite likely a fabrication, possibly an attempt to further enhance the Cuban revolutionary’s legendary mystique.

“Yes, they would stretch the leaves on their uncovered skin, but to roll a cigar on one’s leg - you cannot do that,” Borhani says with a snicker. “I challenge anyone - man or woman - to put bunched tobacco on their thigh and roll a successful cigar.”