Capote
Capote is a term for binder, the portion of a tobacco leaf used to hold together the blend of filler leaves called the bunch. It’s also known as the banda. With the wrapper and filler (known as capote and tripa in Spanish) the binder is one of three main components in a handmade cigar. A torcedore uses it to hold together the collection of filler leaves inside of a handmade cigar. Many binders were grown with the intent of being wrappers, but defects in the leaf caused them to be graded as binders, which are considerably less expensive than wrappers. Some factories use two binders, to add complexity to a cigar blend.
