The United States is a small player in where cigars are rolled, but an outsized one in where great wrapper is grown. The Connecticut River Valley, straddling Connecticut and Massachusetts, produces shade-grown wrapper widely regarded as one of the finest in the world, and it lends its name to a whole style of mild, golden cigar.
The Tobacco
Connecticut Shade wrapper is grown under gauze tents that soften the sun, producing a silky, pale, mild-to-medium leaf with cream, grass and nutty character. It set the standard that Ecuadorian and other growers later grew Connecticut-seed leaf to emulate. Connecticut Broadleaf, grown in full sun, is by contrast a thick, dark leaf favored for maduro wrappers.
What to Expect
As a wrapper origin, US Connecticut leaf tends toward mild, creamy and smooth, with grassy and nutty notes. These are tendencies of the leaf rather than rules for any finished cigar.
cream · grass · peanut · wood