I loved box-pressed cigars for lots of reasons: they fit in my hand well, they’re unlikely to roll off the table if I need to set them down for a minute, and the flavors always pop. But my favorite reason to choose a box-pressed cigar is for a consistently perfect draw.

To achieve the box-pressed shape, the cigar is underfilled. This allows the cigar to fill the shape of the mold under pressure, otherwise the wrapper would burst. The end result is a killer smoke with an effortless draw.

Here’s a quick video where you can see someone cranking the press down on the molds at AJ Fernandez’s factory in 2016. They would leave these under pressure for about 24-48 hours to achieve the shape at the time of filming.