For cigar enthusiasts, Spanish Cedar is a familiar wood.
It ranges in color from reddish to dark reddish-brown, sometimes with a purplish cast. The grain is typically straight, occasionally interlocked, and the texture is fine and uniform. Its heartwood contains aromatic, insect-repelling resins and is naturally resistant to termites and decay. For cigar collectors, Spanish Cedar is the gold-standard material for building cigar cellars, humidor cabinets, humidors, and humidor boxes.
Despite the name, Spanish Cedar is neither from Spain nor a true cedar. It is native to Brazil, other parts of Central and South America, and the Caribbean.
The name comes from the fact that these regions were once Spanish colonies — today, the tree has nothing to do with Spain. Additionally, its color and physical properties closely resemble those of true cedar, which is how the name "Spanish Cedar" caught on and spread.
Spanish Cedar's scientific name is Cedrela odorata. It is also known as cigar-box cedar or West Indian cedar. It is a monoecious, semi-deciduous tree and the most widely distributed species in the Cedrela genus. The wood has a specific gravity of roughly 0.4 and a Janka hardness of 2,670 N at 12% moisture content.
In many Central American and Caribbean countries, Spanish Cedar is now considered an endangered species. Governments have imposed strict logging restrictions, driving costs very high. Domestically, its primary use is for making cigar boxes — demand is low, imports are minimal, and this makes it particularly expensive. As a result, many cigar packages today are made from plywood, sometimes with a thin Spanish Cedar veneer glued inside.
Any discussion of Spanish Cedar would be incomplete without mentioning its close cousin, Western Red Cedar.
Western Red Cedar comes from the United States and Canada. The indigenous peoples who first settled along the Pacific Northwest coast used it to build homes and canoes. Like Spanish Cedar, Western Red Cedar is not a true cedar either. Its official name is Western Redcedar — it belongs to the cypress family, genus Thuja. Scientific name: Thuja plicata.
The sapwood of Western Red Cedar is a pale white with a faint yellowish tint, while the heartwood varies considerably in color — ranging from light straw to various shades of pink or reddish-brown, all the way to deep, warm brown. Unprotected wood exposed to the elements weathers to a dull silvery-gray or brownish-gray. The grain is generally straight and uniformly coarse, resin-free, with a distinctive sweet, slightly bitter aroma. Air-dried to 12% moisture content, the wood weighs 370 to 385 kg/m³; kiln-dried, 330 to 340 kg/m³; green, 432 to 533 kg/m³. The heartwood of Western Red Cedar contains thujaplicins and water-soluble phenols that are toxic to many decay fungi, giving it exceptional rot resistance. This is why it is widely used domestically for exterior siding and roof shingles on timber-frame houses.
Although Western Red Cedar is physically similar to Spanish Cedar, it lacks Spanish Cedar's pronounced moisture-buffering capacity and has a much stronger, more assertive scent — making it less suitable for cigar boxes.
If you're curious about any particular wood species, feel free to leave a comment. For the ones I know well, I'll be happy to answer in detail.
