2019 CA Report: 10 Top 7 x 70 Ring Gauge Cigars
Updated November 2019
There are some who say, “Too much of a good thing won’t be good anymore.”
Those who swear by these 7×70 jawbreakers will argue, “If some is good, more is better,” with a cooler burn, bigger flavor, and more cigar for the money among their smoky benefits. More! Better!
And thus, the Great Big Cigar Debate rages.
But what is it, exactly, that makes 70 ring gauge cigars so popular? Today, we’ll explore how they’re made, the demand for more and better – and if you have some extra smoking time on your hands, we’ll make it tasty with some top 7×70 ring cigar picks.
Ring Gauge Defined
Let’s start with the basics…
As noted on our Cigar Ring Gauge Tool, “Cigar lengths and ring gauges are represented by (length) x (ring gauge). In the case of a 7 x 48 Churchill, the cigar’s length is 7 inches; the ring gauge is represented as fractions of an inch, where an inch is 64/64ths.” So for 70 ring gauge cigars, the diameter is around 1 1/8”.
Even with the “standard” cigar sizes, cigar makers take liberties with what they call a Robusto, Toro or Churchill. But the majority of 70 ring cigars typically get names that simply describe their dimensions: 770, 707, 7×70 or 70×7. We’ve also seen Inmenso, Super Gordo and Gigante – pretty much, anything synonymous with “ginormous.”
That’s a sketchy one.
There was a day and an age when a 54RG Toro was a too-big cigar; and cigar makers would have clutched their pearls in shock if you asked for a 60-ring (Cigar Aficionado didn’t even rate those until 2012). And 70s? Ten years ago, I couldn’t have made a list of 10 top 70 ring gauge cigars – because there weren’t 10 to be had. Anything that big was a novelty.
Ernesto Perez-Carrillo probably had the first: the largest La Gloria he was making in Miami was a 52RG, but the factory had a house blend to produce custom-made cigars – and someone asked him to make a 9×70. “It was in 1980, maybe 1981,” he said.
Perdomo had Inmenso 20 years later, but Carrillo really went all-in, and made big ring a thing with La Gloria Serie R, and later The Inch. Now, demand is so high for fat cigars that many successful brands won’t even offer some cigars in any size smaller than a Robusto.
Does cigar size matter?
Well, that depends on what matters to you…
A good example is the Camacho Scorpion vs. the 601 F Bomb below: the Scorpion is a very laid back smoke; Erik Espinosa made the La Bomba to try to get a guy to throw up (true story).
Does cigar size affect taste?
When we’re talking about drastic dimensions like 7×70, absolutely. It takes at least seven leaves to make a 70 ring gauge cigar (it’s closer to 4 or 5 in a Robusto or Toro) – so you’re definitely tasting more of the filler tobaccos than wrapper.
A significant amount of a cigar’s flavor comes from the wrapper – which also happens to be the most expensive leaf in the blend. The fillers are much less pricey; so even though there’s nearly twice as much tobacco in a 70 ring gauge cigar than in your run of the mill Robusto, a 70 doesn’t cost twice as much – because it’s more filler under (nearly) the same amount of wrapper leaf. So while size does affect taste, it has less of an impact on your wallet. Just another reason these biggies are selling like hotcakes.
One thing to keep in mind…your regular cigar cutter may not stack up to the job when popping the cap off these 70RG tree trunks. Scissors and v-cutters will get you by in a pinch, as will a small hatchet, perhaps. Click here for some big ring cutting tips, like how to make a cloverleaf with your punch:
Or, upgrade your accessories – a specialized job calls for more specialized equipment, and there are a few cigar cutters specially designed for 70 ring gauge cigars (and up). for under 5 bucks, you can add a Vertigo Big Daddy Cutter to your arsenal when your regular cutter just won’t do:
Big Rings are a big thing – but “better” is in the eye of the beholder. The blender has a lot of leeway to work flavor into these XXL smokes, and can use a wider variety of tobacco leaves in the blend – and more tobaccos can mean more complexity. That’s why EP Carrillo says he enjoys working in these larger sizes: “The format lets you come up with very interesting blends that you simply couldn’t do in smaller ring gauges.”
Like any other size, 70 ring gauge cigars can have a place in your rotation even if you’re not ready to commit to a boxload (Gary talked about this in our EPC Cigar guide). Try a few from our list and see if they bring a little bit of balance to your life. Then once you get a couple hours of enjoyment out of these 7x70s, you can decide if bigger is better for you.
The Inch by EP Carrillo No. 70 (Nat)
We start with the Godfather of the Gordo, Ernesto Perez-Carrillo. He says no, 70 ring gauge cigars are not a fad – the man’s been making cigars for over 40 years, so he would know.
As I said, the blender has a lot of space to fill in 7×70 – and EPC has become a master in packing every cubic millimeter with big flavor. (“There’s so much that can be done with large ring gauges,” he told Aficionado.) And the proof is in The Inch, which has been called “a tribute to girth.” Ernesto embraced the more-is-better philosophy, combining all-Dominican vintage Piloto Cubano, Corojo, and Criollo ’98 – added Nicaraguan Viso and a Nicaraguan binder – and rolled it in a dark Ecuador Sumatra. The resulting INCH No. 70 is more complex than string theory, and so heavy you almost need 2 hands to hold it.
CAO Flathead V770 Big Block
No surprise to see CAO in this brawny 70 ring gauge, as Rick Rodriguez calls Ernesto Perez-Carrillo one of his mentors…and as we know, EPC has perfected the art of “more.” Then Rick went box-pressed for Flathead: “The [original] blend that we used was a round cigar. And that round cigar was performing hot in my mouth, so I needed to cool that cigar down – because that hot smoke was not delivering the flavor that I wanted for it.”
The Flathead V770 is a whole lotta smoke, displaying the belly-filling body and flavor of a Hungry Man dinner, with huge rips of coffee, earth and cedar; factor in the Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper’s cocoa sweetness, and you have a banquet that demands you won’t step away from until it’s gone.
JFR Maduro 770
Aganorsa is no stranger to the all-you-can-eat buffet, as many of their JFR lines are blimped out to 60, 70, and even 80 RG – so this JFR Maduro 770 is right in their big-ring sweet spot.
This JFR is thick and weighty, with a lot of bold Nicaraguan tobaccos inside that hit the taste buds with a fair share of wood, earth and spice; a Mexican San Andres Maduro leaf makes it complete, adding a few extra layers of warm and creamy flavors (we called it “creamy and approachable” when we reviewed it). But where this JFR Maduro 770 shines is on price: it’s an excellent example of how a bigger cigar doesn’t need to carry a bigger price tag.
La Flor Dominicana Ligero L707
First, some backstory: LFD Ligero cigars came to market in 2001, as Litto Gomez sought to meet the post-Boom demand for cigars with richer flavor. “After years of aging our estate-grown Ligero tobaccos we were ready for our first ‘full bodied cigar,’” he wrote.
Then LFD went to fat camp: amping up the leaf supply, the factory began rolling these 70-ring redwoods – and we have all been rewarded. Yes, it is bold and full-bodied, but still exceptionally smooth and aromatic thanks to the Ecuador Sumatra wrapper draped over top of the select Dominican Ligero and long fillers. Serving up a smorg of flavors combined with big rips of smoke, you won’t mind one bit that the LFD Ligero 707 takes up a little more room in the humidor.
Rocky Patel The Edge Howitzer
The Edge: it’s an icon. I don’t need to say much here, other than Rocky smartly placed a 70 ring gauge cigar option within one of his most popular brands.
But I will add a bit, because there’s a lot of cigar to talk about (these are biiiig smokes)…the dark, earthy profile comes from RP’s pairing of Ligero from both Honduras and Nicaragua, both aged 5 years. Spicy-sweet, and exceedingly complex; if you’ve smoked The Edge (Corojo) in the smaller sizes, it’s worth it to sample the 7×70 Howitzer version – even if just once.
MUWAT 7×70
As you are well aware, Drew Estate is anything but understated…that includes MUWAT, a collaboration cigar between Joya de Nicaragua and DE. SIX (6) leaf varietals are involved, and the taste is undeniably Drew Estate: rich, medium-full, savory…and in husky 7×70 form, there’s even more of it to go around.
To swell the MUWAT up to 70 ring gauge, it took more Nicaraguan and Brazilian long fillers, more Connecticut Broadleaf binder, more San Andres wrapper. These cool-smoking big rings dish plenty of flavor and smoke at this size – and they’re noticeably heavy in your hand, too. Hope your humidor is sturdy.
601 La Bomba F-Bomb
Welcome to story time with Erik Espinosa: “I did La Bomba as a joke. Some guy told me he wanted something stronger, so I wanted to make him throw up. It’s got like, 37 different kinds of Ligero in there. And he said, ‘Holy cow, this is the best cigar I ever had in my life.’ So I tried it, and I was like, bro, it really IS good!”
Not long after came the F-Bomb, a 7×70 Ligero-rich feast bundled in a spicy Habano wrapper. Dark and peppery, this extra-strength Nicaraguan puro burns with an unexpected sweetness that builds from start to finish. Don’t get me wrong, the F-Bomb is a power smoke – but it’s a lot of feisty tobacco for your money.
Asylum Medulla Oblongata 7×70 Corojo
Tom Lazuka likes that you like the bigs: “Just like there are people who enjoy Lanceros, there are plenty of guys who enjoy our 70- and 80-ring-gauge cigars,” he said in an interview.
I reviewed this Corojo beauty for our Guide to Asylum Cigars (read that next to get the high notes), and three things stuck with me: the wrapper is a higher priming (for more body, strength and flavor), it’s exceptionally well-made (burns straight and the ash holds on forever), and it’s just…large.
And while the Medulla Oblongata 7×70 does not lack strength, the flavor profile – including pepper, bread, citrus, salt and cedar – make it a model for world-class complexity.
Camacho Scorpion Connecticut Super Gordo
Camacho trades bold for big…and by cramming all that tobacco together under the Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, they’ve finally struck upon a mellow Connecticut cigar that’s not boring: the proudly sub-$7 Scorpion Super Gordo. If price is your deciding factor, rest assured this über-sized smoke won’t beat your wallet into submission.
The Scorpion Connecticut also happens to be a great beginner’s blend, even if it does gets a bit snappy from time to time – which makes this a prime candidate for smoking your first 7×70 cigar.
Alec Bradley Texas Lancero
Ah, yes – “Everything is bigger in Texas.” Rather than cue up the belt buckle and pickup truck memes, let’s examine Alec Bradley’s contribution to the Big & Tall section of the humidor: the Texas Lancero. This flavorful tribute to the Lone Star state lands at a mighty seven inches long by seventy ring gauge, brimming with well-aged Costa Rican, Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos; if you like a cigar that burns with tastes of coffee, wood and nut, this Texas toothpick has plenty of ‘em.
At well under $9 a piece, bringing these home in your haul means you can smoke well and still pay the rent; but by virtue of the Texas Lancero’s size alone, these 70 ring gauge cigars may end up evicting many of the other inhabitants of your humidor.
The original version of this article was published April 17, 2015 by John Pullo under the title, “Top Seven 7×70 Ring Gauge Cigars. Updated and expanded Nov 2019.