Cuban double corona cigars start at 190 mm and run beyond 230 mm in the grandest releases — Prominentes, Gran Coronas, Diademas and the occasional showpiece. Expect two hours.

These are the cigars Havana factories use to demonstrate what their rollers can do. At this length the draw has to be perfect from the first centimetre, and the blend has to hold its shape for far longer than any other format demands. Smoke one when you have the afternoon, not the hour.

The catalogue includes Hoyo de Monterrey Double Coronas, Punch Double Coronas, Partagás Lusitanias, the Montecristo A and several Romeo y Julieta Colección releases.

A step down in length takes you to Cuban Churchills. Many of these are collector's pieces — see Limited Editions — and the New World double coronas offer the same scale from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.