Market map studies have been used in the cigarette industry for many years to aid in the characterization of the marketplace. These studies provide comparative values and predictive models for aiding in the assessment of other products. However, the characterization of the physical properties and smoke and filler HPHCs of cigars has been much more limited than with cigarettes. We examined the physical properties and the filler and smoke HPHCs of 24 machine-made cigars from the US marketplace. The goal was to establish HPHC ranges for filler and smoke yields and to develop predictive relationships to estimate smoke yields of cigars not included in this study. Products were smoked using the CORESTA, ISO, and Intense smoking regimes for the constituents on the FDA abbreviated HPHC list for cigarettes. The cigars were also tested for each of the filler constituents on the FDA abbreviated HPHC list for cigarettes. Cigars show much greater variability in weight and resistance to draw than cigarettes and that variation is reflected in much greater variability in smoke yields than is seen with cigarettes. The relative variability of smoke HPHCs and the product yield orderings are similar with all three smoking regimes. Filler HPHCs are less variable than smoke HPHCs. The smoke HPHCs are correlated to the overall yields of the products as measured by TPM, tar, or carbon monoxide yields. Many of the smoke yield correlations are further improved by taking the tobacco filler HPHCs into account. This work will be discussed in a two-part presentation. Part 1 will focus on the description of the products and the inherent variability of cigars. Part 2 will focus on predictive models.