Congratulations! We were happy to hear about your newborn child/your win in the Super Bowl pool/the new contract. So…will you be passing out a few cigars in celebration?

A bit of advice: get the good ones. They don’t need to be expensive, but they should be smooth and tasty. So head to the cigar shop with some basic knowledge:

Cigars are measured by their length in inches and by their diameter (sometimes called “ring gage”), measured in 64ths of an inch. If, for example, a cigar is described as a 7×47, it is 7 inches long and 47/64ths of an inch in diameter. In the world of cigars, a specific size combination is likely to have a name. For example, a 7×47 cigar is commonly called a Churchill, while a 6-3/4×42 is called a Lonsdale.

Which size to pick? That depends on how much time you intend to spend smoking it. Smaller cigars take less time to smoke, while some large ones can take more than an hour. Length and diameter both influence smoking time.

Cigar colors vary from pale green to tan to reddish-brown to deep brown. All are acceptable, but look for a cigar with an outer leaf wrapper that is smooth and oily, with no cracks, mold or discolorations. The taste of cigars ranges from mild to full-bodied; dark wrappers have a sweeter, heartier flavor and light wrappers are more bland. High-quality cigars are wrapped in a single large tobacco leaf.

Decide how strong you want your cigar to be. You can find a list of cigar strength by brand at cigar.com. Tobacco plants grown in different regions produce different types of leaves. It is widely held that the best tobacco comes from the Caribbean where it was first cultivated, but those plants have been hybridized and are now grown in other parts of the world, too.

Beware the various types of fillers used in different brands. Chopped “short” fillers can burn unevenly, and bits of stem and leaf tend to make their way into the smoker’s mouth. Better to select a cigar with long bundled leaves as a filler.

Roll the cigar gently between your thumb and forefinger; it should feel firm but not hard, and there shouldn’t be any lumps or soft spots.

After you get the cigars, we can talk about finding a good Scotch.