What does the colour of the wrapper say about the cigar?

Cigar manufacturers go to a good deal of trouble to choose wrappers with aesthetic and appetising colours for the cigars. When talking about food, it's common to say that a dish is a ‘feast for the eyes’. Drawing conclusions about the taste of a cigar based solely on the darkness of its wrapper could lead the inexperienced aficionado into error. In cigars, one usually associates darker colours with spice and strength of flavour. But this doesn't always hold true. Should the colours in question be those of a Maduro or an Oscuro, then the flavours will have a sweet, even chocolaty undertone.

Early harvest of the cover sheet and fermentation methods can affect the colour. The experts generally differentiate seven different colours, whereas the employee in the cigar factory responsible for the uniformity of colour in each box, the escogedor, can distinguish a multiplicity of shades.

• Claro Claro: Synonyms for this colour are Double Claro, American Market Selection, or Candela. The tobacco leaves are harvested very early and rapidly dried using artificial heat. The resulting wrapper lies somewhere between yellow and olive green on the colour spectrum.
  
• Claro: This colour is characteristic of the well-known Connecticut Shade, which is grown under gauze cloths to protect it from the sun. Its colour is comparable to that of a café con leche. The tobacco leaves are harvested shortly before they reach maturity and then dried in the air without the addition of artificial heat.
  
• Colorado Claro: This light to golden brown colour indicates that the cigar has a slightly stronger taste than the two previous variants.
  
• Colorado: The Colorado wrapper is dark brown with red hues. Previously, this colour was known as English Market Selection.
  
• Colorado Maduro: Fully ripe tobacco leaves are used for this colour: a deep, dark brown, close to the next colour level, Maduro. Cigars with this cover can have a lot of spice and flavour. If the brown has a distinct reddish glow, they are called Rosado cigars.
  
• Maduro: The Colorado Maduro, the Maduro and the Oscuro, are the darkest wrappers and suggest a very strong cigar to the smoker. The strength, however, refers to the distinctive aroma and its diversity rather than its tolerability. Maduro wrappers are a very dark brown; these tobacco leaves were exposed to direct sunlight for a long time. The taste is dominated by a certain sweetness. They are also known as Spanish Market Selection.
  
• Oscuro: This wrapper is almost black. Oscuro is also known as Connecticut Broadleaf. As for taste and flavour, they are the most intense of the three darker wrappers.