Cigar
Encyclopedia
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco
that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil
, Cameroon
, Cuba
, the Dominican Republic
, Honduras
, Indonesia
, Mexico
, Nicaragua
, Philippines
, and the Eastern United States
.
is generally credited with the introduction of tobacco to Europe. Two of Columbus's crewmen during his 1492 journey, Rodrigo de Jerez
and Luis de Torres
, are said to have encountered tobacco for the first time on the island of Hispaniola
, when natives presented them with dry leaves that spread a peculiar fragrance. Tobacco was widely diffused among all of the islands of the Caribbean and therefore they again encountered it in Cuba where Columbus and his men had settled. His sailors reported that the Taínos on the island of Cuba smoked a primitive form of cigar, with twisted, dried tobacco leaves rolled in other leaves such as palm or plantain.
In due course, Spanish and other European sailors caught the habit, as did the Conquistador
s, and smoking spread to Spain and Portugal and eventually France, most probably through Jean Nicot
, the French ambassador to Portugal, who gave his name to nicotine
. Later, the habit spread to Italy and, after Sir Walter Raleigh
's voyages to the Americas, to Britain. Smoking became familiar throughout Europe—in pipes in Britain—by the mid-16th century and, half a century later, tobacco started to be grown commercially in America. Tobacco was originally thought to have medicinal qualities, but there were some who considered it evil. It was denounced by Philip II of Spain
, and James I of England
.
Around 1592, the Spanish galleon
San Clemente brought 50 kilograms (110 lb) of tobacco seed to the Philippines over the Acapulco-Manila trade route. The seed was then distributed among the Roman Catholic missionaries, where the clerics found excellent climates and soils for growing high-quality tobacco on Philippine soil.
In the 19th century, cigar smoking was common, while cigarette
s were still comparatively rare. In the early 20th century, Rudyard Kipling
wrote his famous smoking poem, "The Betrothed
." The cigar business was an important industry, and factories employed many people before mechanized manufacturing of cigars became practical.
In 1869, Spanish cigar manufacturer Vicente Martinez Ybor
moved his Principe de Gales (Prince of Wales) operations from the important cigar manufacturing center of Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida
to escape the turmoil of the Ten Years' War
. Other manufacturers followed, and Key West became another important cigar manufacturing center. In 1885, Ybor moved again, buying land near the then-small city of Tampa, Florida
and building the largest cigar factory in the world at the time in the new company town
of Ybor City
. Friendly rival and Flor de Sánchez y Haya owner Ignacio Haya built his own factory nearby in the same year, and many other cigar manufacturers soon followed, especially after an 1886 fire that gutted much of Key West. Thousands of Cuban and Spanish tabaqueros came to the area from Key West, Cuba and New York to produce hundreds of millions of cigars annually. Local output peaked in 1929, when workers in Ybor City and West Tampa rolled over 500,000,000 "clear Havana" cigars, earning the town the nickname "Cigar Capital of the World"
In New York, cigars were made by rollers working in their own homes. It was reported that as of 1883, cigars were being manufactured in 127 apartment houses in New York, employing 1,962 families and 7,924 individuals. A state statute banning the practice, passed late that year at the urging of trade unions on the basis that the practice suppressed wages, was ruled unconstitutional less than four months later. The industry, which had relocated to Brooklyn
and other places on Long Island
while the law was in effect, then returned to New York.
As of 1905, there were 80,000 cigar-making operations in the United States, most of them small, family-operated shops where cigars were rolled and sold immediately. While most cigars are now made by machine, some, as a matter of prestige and quality, are still rolled by hand. This is especially true in Central America and Cuba, as well as in small chinchales found in virtually every sizable city in the United States. Boxes of hand-rolled cigars bear the phrase totalmente a mano (totally by hand) or hecho a mano (made by hand).
enjoyed smoking cigarettes and cigars, much to the chagrin of his mother, Queen Victoria
. After her death, legend has it, King Edward said to his male guests at the end of a dinner party, "Gentlemen, you may smoke." In his name, a line of inexpensive American cigars has long been named King Edward.
U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant
smoked cigars heavily, an estimated up to 12 a day. In late 1884, Grant was diagnosed with an oral cancer
consisting of malignant squamous cell carcinoma
. With his health failing, Grant devoted his time to his autobiography; five days after finishing it, he became the only U.S. president to die of cancer.
Sigmund Freud
, the founder of Psychoanalysis
, smoked 20 cigars a day, despite health warnings from colleagues. Because of his frequent references to phallic symbolism, it is often claimed that his colleagues challenged him on the "phallic" shape of the cigar. Freud is supposed to have replied "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," however, there are no records of such a conversation ever having taken place. Initially concealing a cancerous growth in his mouth in 1923, Freud was eventually diagnosed with the same cancer as Grant's. Despite over 30 surgeries, and complications ranging from intense pain to insects infesting dead skin cells around the cancer, Freud smoked cigars until his life ended. Freud died at age 83 in a morphine-induced coma
to relieve the pain from his cancer.
Winston Churchill
, who has been credited with the practice of dunking a cigar in port wine
or brandy
, was rarely seen without a cigar during his time as Britain's wartime leader, so much so that a large cigar size was named in his honor.
Fidel Castro
and his comrade
Che Guevera were often seen smoking a cigar during the early days of the Cuban Revolution
. But Castro has claimed to have given up smoking in the early 1980s as part of a campaign to encourage the Cuban population to smoke less on health grounds. Many other celebrities were well-known cigar smokers, including Groucho Marx
, George Burns
, Mark Twain
, Jack Benny
, Milton Berle
, Rush Limbaugh
, and Bill Cosby
.
Rudyard Kipling said in his poem "The Betrothed", "And a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke."
Apart from certain forms of heavily cured and strong snuff, the cigar is the most potent form of self-dosing with tobacco, it has long had associations of being a male rite of passage, as it may have had during the pre-Columbian era in America. Its fumes and rituals have in American and European cultures established a "men's hut"; in the 19th century, men would retire to the "smoking room" after dinner to discuss serious issues.
, takes between 25 and 45 days and varies substantially based upon climatic conditions as well as the construction of sheds or barns used to store harvested tobacco. The curing process is manipulated based upon the type of tobacco, and the desired color of the leaf. The second part of the process, called fermentation
, is carried out under conditions designed to help the leaf die slowly. Temperature and humidity are controlled to ensure that the leaf continues to ferment, without rotting or disintegrating. This is where the flavor, burning, and aroma characteristics are primarily brought out in the leaf.
Once the leaves have aged properly, they are sorted for use as filler or wrapper based upon their appearance and overall quality. During this process, the leaves are continually moistened and handled carefully to ensure each leaf is best used according to its individual qualities. The leaf will continue to be baled, inspected, un-baled, re-inspected, and baled again repeatedly as it continues its aging cycle. When the leaf has matured according to the manufacturer's specifications, it will be used in the production of a cigar.
Quality cigars are still hand-made. An experienced cigar-roller can produce hundreds of very good, nearly identical, cigars per day. The rollers keep the tobacco moist — especially the wrapper — and use specially designed crescent-shaped knives, called chavetas, to form the filler and wrapper leaves quickly and accurately. Once rolled, the cigars are stored in wooden forms as they dry, in which their uncapped ends are cut to a uniform size. From this stage, the cigar is a complete product that can be "laid down" and aged for decades if kept as close to 21°C (70°F), and 70% relative humidity
, as the environment will allow. Once cigars have been purchased, proper storage is usually accomplished by keeping the cigars in a specialized wooden box, or humidor
, where conditions can be carefully controlled for long periods of time. Even if a cigar becomes dry, it can be successfully re-humidified so long as it has not been handled carelessly and done so gradually. The loss of original tobacco oils, however, will greatly affect the taste.
Some cigars, especially premium brands, use different varieties of tobacco for the filler and the wrapper. Long filler cigars are a far higher quality of cigar, using long leaves throughout. These cigars also use a third variety of tobacco leaf, called a "binder", between the filler and the outer wrapper. This permits the makers to use more delicate and attractive leaves as a wrapper. These high-quality cigars almost always blend varieties of tobacco. Even Cuban long-filler cigars will combine tobaccos from different parts of the island to incorporate several different flavors.
In low-grade and machine-made cigars, chopped tobacco leaves are used for the filler, and long leaves or a type of "paper" made from tobacco pulp is used for the wrapper which binds the cigar together. This alters the burning characteristics of the cigar, causing hand-made cigars to be sought-after.
Historically, a lector or reader was always employed to entertain cigar factory workers. This practice became obsolete once audio book
s for portable music players became available, but it is still practiced in some Cuban factories. The name for the Montecristo cigar brand
may have arisen from this practice.
, the world's largest cigar producer, produces cigars in the United States, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras, and has a 50% stake in Corporación Habanos in Cuba. It also makes cigarettes. Swedish Match
, the second largest producer, produces cigars in Honduras, Belgium, Germany, Indonesia, the United States, and the Dominican Republic; it also makes chewing
and pipe tobacco, snuff
, lighter
s, and matches.
In 1992, Cigar Aficionado magazine created the "Cigar Hall of Fame" and recognized the following six individuals:
Perhaps the best-known cigar family in the world is the Arturo Fuente
family. Now led by father and son Carlos Fuente, Sr. and Jr. The Fuente family has been rolling their Arturo Fuente and Montesino cigars since 1912. The release of the Fuente Fuente OpusX in 1995 heralded the first quality wrapper grown in the Dominican Republic. The oldest Dominican Republic cigar maker is the León family, who have been making their León Jimenes and La Aurora cigars on the island since 1905.
Not only are premium cigar-makers typically families, but so are those who grow the premium cigar tobacco. The Oliva family has been growing cigar tobacco since 1934 and their family's tobacco is found in nearly every major cigar brand sold on the US market. Some families, such as the well-known Padrons, have crossed over from tobacco growing to cigar making. While the Padron family has been growing tobacco since the 1850s, they began making cigars that bear their family's name in 1964. Like the Padrons, the Carlos Torano family first began growing tobacco in 1916 before they started rolling their own family's brands, which also bear the family name, in the 1990s.
Families are such an important part of the premium cigar industry that the term "cigar family" is a registered trademark of the Arturo Fuente and J.C. Newman families, used to distinguish and identify their families, premium cigar brands, and charitable foundation. Even the premium cigars made by the cigar industry's two corporate conglomerates, Altadis and Swedish Match, are overseen by members of two cigar families, Altadis' Benjamin Menendez and Swedish Match's Ernesto Perez-Carrillo
.
in movies and other media, sporting events, cigar-friendly magazines such as Cigar Aficionado
, and cigar dinners. Advertisements often include depictions of affluence, sexual imagery, and explicit or implied celebrity endorsement.
Cigar Aficionado, launched in 1992, was credited both by cigar companies and readers in transforming the U.S. cigar smoking market from a small blue-collar segment to an upscale market promoted in places like luxury hotels and golf courses. The magazine presents cigars as symbols of a successful lifestyle, and is a major conduit of advertisements that do not conform to the tobacco industry's voluntary advertisement restrictions since 1965, such as a restriction not to associate smoking with glamour. The magazine also systematically presents pro-smoking arguments at length, arguing that cigars are safer than cigarettes, that life is dangerous anyway, that (contrary to the evidence discussed in Health effects) cigar smoking has health benefits, that moderation eliminates most or all health risk, that cigar smokers live to old age, that health research is flawed, and that strategically selected health-research results support claims of safety. Like its competitor Smoke, Cigar Aficionado differs from marketing vehicles used for other tobacco products in that it makes cigars the focus of the entire magazine, creating a symbiosis between product and lifestyle.
In the U.S., cigars are exempt from many of the marketing regulations that govern cigarettes. For example, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act
of 1970 exempted cigars from its advertising ban, and cigar ads, unlike cigarette ads, need not mention health risks. As of 2007, cigars were taxed far less than cigarettes, so much so that in many U.S. states, a pack of little cigars cost less than half as much as a pack of cigarettes. It is illegal for minors to purchase cigars and other tobacco products in the U.S., but laws are unevenly enforced: a 2000 study found that three-quarters of Internet cigar marketing sites allowed minors to purchase cigars.
Inexpensive cigars are sold in convenience store
s, grocery stores, and pharmacies, mostly as self-serve items. Premium cigars are sold in tobacconist
s, cigar bar
s, and other specialized establishments. Some cigar stores are part of chain
s, which have varied in size: in the U.S., United Cigar Stores
was one of only three outstanding examples of national chains in the early 1920s, the others being A&P and Woolworth's
. Non-traditional outlets for cigars include hotel shops, restaurants, vending machines and the Internet.
Some manufacturers use an alternate designation:
In general, dark wrappers add a touch of sweetness, while light ones add a hint of dryness to the taste.
Fillers can be either long or short; long filler uses whole leaves and is of a better quality, while short filler, also called "mixed", uses chopped leaves, stems, and other bits. Recently some manufacturers have created what they term "medium filler" cigars. They use larger pieces of leaf than short filler without stems, and are of better quality than short filler cigars. Short filler cigars are easy to identify when smoked since they often burn hotter and tend to release bits of leaf into the smoker's mouth. Long filled cigars of high quality should burn evenly and consistently. Also available is a filler called "sandwich" (sometimes "Cuban sandwich") which is a cigar made by rolling short leaf inside long outer leaf. If a cigar is completely constructed (filler, binder and wrapper) of tobacco from only one country, it is referred to in the cigar industry as a "puro" which in Spanish means "pure."
The size of a cigar is measured by two dimensions: its ring gauge (its diameter in sixty-fourths of an inch) and its length (in inches).
Parejos are designated by the following terms:
These dimensions are, at best, idealized. Actual dimensions can vary considerably.
Historically, especially during the 19th century, figurados were the most popular shapes; however, by the 1930s they had fallen out of fashion and all but disappeared.
They have, however, recently received a small resurgence in popularity, and there are currently many brands (manufacturers) that produce figurados alongside the simpler parejos. The Cuban cigar brand Cuaba
only has figurados in their range.
Figurados include the following:
Arturo Fuente, a large cigar manufacturer based in the Dominican Republic, has also manufactured figurados in exotic shapes ranging from chilli peppers to baseball bats and American footballs. They are highly collectible and extremely expensive, when publicly available. In practice, the terms Torpedo and Pyramid are often used interchangeably, even among very knowledgeable cigar smokers. Min Ron Nee, the Hong Kong-based cigar expert whose work An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars is considered to be the definitive work on cigars and cigar terms, defines Torpedo as "cigar slang". Nee thinks the majority is right (because slang is defined by majority usage) and torpedoes are pyramids by another name.
s, but, more importantly, they resemble cigarettes in size, shape, packaging, and filters. Sales of little cigars quadrupled in the U.S. from 1971 to 1973 in response to the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act
, which banned the broadcast of cigarette advertisements and required stronger health warnings on cigarette packs. Cigars were exempt from the ban, and perhaps more importantly, were taxed at a far lower rate. Little cigars are sometimes called "cigarettes in disguise", and unsuccessful attempts have been made to reclassify them as cigarettes. In the United States, sales of little cigars reached an all-time high in 2006, fueled in great part by their taxation loophole.
There are three basic types of cigar cutters:
. The opposite end of the cigar is called the "foot". The band identifies the type of the cigar and may be removed or left on. The smoker cuts the cap from the head of the cigar and ignites the foot of the cigar. The smoker draws smoke from the head of the cigar with the mouth and lips, usually not inhaling into the lungs.
When lighting, the cigar should be rotated to achieve an even burn and the air should be slowly drawn with gentle puffs.
Cigars can be lit with the use of butane-filled lighters. Butane is colorless, odorless and burns clean with very little, if any, flavor. It is not recommended to use fluid-filled lighters and paper matches since they can influence the taste. Another option is wooden matches. They are not treated and soaked with sulfur and thus the smoke is not affected with chemicals.
Cigars packaged in metal tubes will typically include a thin wrapping of cedar. This may be used to light the cigar, eliminating the problem of lighters or matches affecting the taste.
Cigar smoke, which is rarely inhaled, tastes of tobacco with nuances of other tastes. Many different things affect the scent of cigar smoke: tobacco type, quality of the cigar, added flavors, age and humidity, production method (handmade vs. machine-made) and more. A fine cigar can taste completely different from inhaled cigarette smoke. When smoke is inhaled, as is usual with cigarettes, the tobacco flavor is less noticeable than the sensation from the smoke. Some cigar enthusiasts use a vocabulary similar to that of wine-tasters to describe the overtones and undertones observed while smoking a cigar. Journals are available for recording personal ratings, description of flavors observed, sizes, brands, etc. Cigar tasting is in such respects similar to wine, brandy
, whisky
, tea
, coffee
, and beer
tasting.
breaks down organic molecules into simpler ones, pyrosynthesis recombines these newly formed fragments into chemicals not originally present, and distillation
moves compounds such as nicotine from the tobacco into the smoke. For every gram of tobacco smoked, a cigar emits about 120–140 mg of carbon dioxide
, 40–60 mg of carbon monoxide
, 3–4 mg of isoprene
, 1 mg each of hydrogen cyanide and acetaldehyde
, and smaller quantities of a large spectrum of volatile N-nitrosamines and volatile organic compound
s, with the detailed composition unknown.
The most odorous chemicals in cigar smoke, and arguably the most responsible for the odor, are pyridine
s. Along with pyrazine
s, they are also the most odorous chemicals in cigar smoker's breath. These substances are noticeable even at extremely low concentrations of a few parts per billion. During smoking, it is not known whether these chemicals are generated by splitting the chemical bonds
of nicotine, or by Maillard reaction
between amino acid
s and sugars in the tobacco.
Cigar smoke is more alkaline than cigarette smoke, and therefore dissolves and is absorbed more readily by the mucous membrane of the mouth
, making it easier for the smoker to absorb nicotine without having to inhale.
in which cigars are kept has a significant effect on their taste. It is believed that a cigar's flavor best evolves when stored at a relative humidity of approximately 68-74% and a temperature
of 64 F. An ideal rate of humidity allows an even burning of the cigar. Conversely, dry cigars become fragile and burn faster while damp cigars burn unevenly and take on a heavy acidic flavor. Humidors together with their humidifiers are then used to serve this purpose. Humidor's interior lining is basically constructed with three types of wood
: Spanish cedar, American (or Canadian) red cedar, and Honduran mahogany
.
Most humidors come with a plastic or metal case with a sponge that works as the humidifier, although most recent versions come on polymer acryl. The latter must be filled only with distilled water
, and the former may use a solution of propylene glycol
and distilled water. Humidifiers may become contaminated with bacteria
and should be replaced every two years to avoid such contamination.
Humidors also come with analog
or digital
hygrometer
s. There are three systems of analog hygrometers: analog hygrometers with a metal spring, analog natural hair hygrometers, and analog synthetic hair hygrometers.
. They should be thick enough to protect cigars, and the inside should not have a strong leather smell that could affect the cigar's taste. Some of these cases come with either cardboard
or metal tubes that add protection and prevent the cigar from becoming permeated with the leather.
Silver
and brass
cigar travel cases are also available as well as wood cigar cases. The latter can range from affordable cases to handcrafted ones, while the former tend to be quite expensive.
. Cigar tubes are normally used when one is out for a few hours, but if it is necessary to spend longer periods of time out, there are tubes that come with a built in humidifier and hygrometer.
smoking: nicotine
addiction, periodontal disease, tooth loss, and many types of cancer, including cancers of the mouth
, throat, and esophagus
. Cigar smoking can also cause cancers of the lung
and larynx. Cigar smoking can also increase the risk of lung and heart diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
. Little cigars are commonly inhaled and likely pose the same health risks as cigarettes. When cigar smokers don’t inhale or smoke few cigars per day, the risks are only slightly above those who never smoked. The increased risk for those smoking 1–2 cigars per day is too small to be statistically significant, and the health risks of the 3/4 of cigar smokers who smoke less than daily are not established, and are hard to measure.
of cigar smoking varies depending on location, historical period, and population surveyed, and prevalence estimates vary somewhat depending on the survey method. The U.S. is the top consuming country by far, followed by Germany and the UK; the U.S. and western Europe account for about 75% of cigar sales worldwide. The 2005 U.S. National Health Interview Survey estimated that 2.2% of adults smoke cigars, about the same as smokeless tobacco but far less than the 21% of adults who smoke cigarettes; it also estimated that 4.3% of men but only 0.3% of women smoke cigars. The 2002 U.S. National Survey of Drug Use and Health found that adults with serious psychological distress are significantly more likely to smoke cigars than those without. A 2007 California study found that gay men and bisexual women smoke significantly fewer cigars than the general population of men and women, respectively. Substantial and steady increases in cigar smoking were observed during the 1990s and early 2000s in the U.S. among both adults and adolescents. Data suggest that cigar usage among young adult males increased threefold during the 1990s, a 1999–2000 survey of 31,107 young adult U.S. military recruits found that 12.3% smoked cigars, and a 2003–2004 survey of 4,486 high school students in a Midwestern county found that 18% smoked cigars.
Cuban cigars are rolled from tobacco leaves found throughout the country of Cuba. The filler, binder, and wrapper may come from different portions of the island. All cigar production in Cuba is controlled by the Cuban government, and each brand may be rolled in several different factories in Cuba. Cuban cigar rollers or "torcedor
es" are claimed by cigar experts to be the most skilled rollers in the world. Torcedores are highly respected in Cuban society and culture and travel worldwide displaying their art of hand rolling cigars.
Habanos SA
and Cubatabaco
between them do all the work relating to Cuban cigars, including manufacture, quality control
, promotion and distribution, and export. Cuba produces both handmade and machine made cigars. All boxes and labels are marked Hecho en Cuba (made in Cuba). Machine-bunched cigars finished by hand add Hecho a mano, while fully hand-made cigars say Totalmente a mano in script text, though not all Cuban cigars will include this statement. Because of the perceived status of Cuban cigars, counterfeits are somewhat commonplace.
Despite American trade sanctions against Cuban products, cigars remain one of the country's leading exports. The country exported 77 million cigars in 1991, 67 million in 1992, and 57 million in 1993, the decline attributed to a loss of much of the wrapper crop in a hurricane.
imposed a trade embargo on Cuba
to sanction Fidel Castro
's communist government. According to Pierre Salinger
, then Kennedy's press secretary, the president ordered him on the evening of February 6 to obtain 1,200 H. Upmann
brand petit corona Cuban cigars; upon Salinger's arrival with the cigars the following morning, Kennedy signed the executive order which put the embargo into effect. Richard Goodwin, a White House assistant to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, revealed in a 2000 New York Times article that in early 1962 JFK told him, "We tried to exempt cigars, but the cigar manufacturers in Tampa objected."
The embargo prohibited US residents from legally purchasing Cuban cigars and American cigar manufacturers from importing Cuban tobacco. As a result, Cuba was deprived of its major customer for tobacco and American cigar manufacturers either had to find an alternative source of tobacco or go out of business.
In the United States, authentic Cuban-made cigars are seen as "forbidden fruit
" for Americans to purchase. Upon the expropriation of private property in Cuba, many former Cuban cigar manufacturers moved to other countries (primarily the Dominican Republic) to continue production. The Dominican Republic's production of tobacco grew significantly as a result. After reallocation, most Cuban manufacturers continued to use their known company name, seed, and harvesting technique while Cubatabaco
, Cuba's state tobacco monopoly
after the Revolution
, independently continued production of cigars using the former private company names. As a result, cigar name brands like Romeo y Julieta, Gloria Cubana, Montecristo among others, exist in both Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Honduras and Nicaragua are also mass manufactures of cigars. Some Cuban refugees make cigars in the U.S. and advertise them as "Cuban" cigars, using the argument that the cigars are made by Cubans.
It remains illegal for US residents to purchase or import Cuban cigars regardless of where they are in the world, although they are readily available across the northern border in Canada and the southern border in Mexico. While Cuban cigars are smuggled into the USA and sold at high prices, counterfeiting is rife; it has been said that 95% of Cuban cigars sold in the USA are counterfeit. Although Cuban cigars cannot legally be imported into the USA, the advent of the Internet
has made it much easier for people in the United States to purchase cigars online from other countries, especially when shipped without bands. Cuban cigars are openly advertised in some European tourist regions, catering to the American market, even though it is illegal to advertise tobacco in most European regions.
cigar), a dry cigar, very different from the moist Havana style. Tuscan-style cigars are also manufactured in the United States, only by The Avanti Cigar Co. of Scranton, Pennsylvania
. Their brands include Parodi, De Nobili, Petri, and the anisette-flavored Avanti.
The cheroot
is traditionally associated with Burma and India.
Major U.S. print media portray cigars favorably; they generally frame cigar use as a lucrative business or a trendy habit, rather than as a health risk. Rich people are often caricatured as wearing top hat
s and tails and smoking cigars. Cigars are often smoked to celebrate special occasions: the birth of a child, a graduation, a big sale. The expression
"close but no cigar" comes from the practice of giving cigars as prize
s in games involving good aim at fairground
s.
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, and the Eastern United States
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, the American East, or simply the East is traditionally defined as the states east of the Mississippi River. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be included in the East today; usually in...
.
Etymology
The word "cigar" originated from sikar, the Mayan-Indian word for smoking, which became cigarro in Spanish, probably from the Mayan sicar ("to smoke rolled tobacco leaves" – from sic, "tobacco;") or from the Spanish word cigarra ("grasshopper"). However, the word itself, and variations on it, did not come into general use until 1730. New names for cigars include "Jules", "Havana", "Vitole" and "Puro".History
Explorer Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
is generally credited with the introduction of tobacco to Europe. Two of Columbus's crewmen during his 1492 journey, Rodrigo de Jerez
Rodrigo de Jerez
Rodrigo de Jerez was one of the Spanish crewmen who sailed to the Americas on the Santa Maria as part of Christopher Columbus's first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. He is credited with being the first European smoker....
and Luis de Torres
Luis de Torres
Luis de Torres , perhaps born as יוסף בן הלוי העברי, Yosef Ben Ha Levy Haivri, was Christopher Columbus's interpreter on his first voyage and the first person of Jewish origin to settle in America....
, are said to have encountered tobacco for the first time on the island of Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
, when natives presented them with dry leaves that spread a peculiar fragrance. Tobacco was widely diffused among all of the islands of the Caribbean and therefore they again encountered it in Cuba where Columbus and his men had settled. His sailors reported that the Taínos on the island of Cuba smoked a primitive form of cigar, with twisted, dried tobacco leaves rolled in other leaves such as palm or plantain.
In due course, Spanish and other European sailors caught the habit, as did the Conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s, and smoking spread to Spain and Portugal and eventually France, most probably through Jean Nicot
Jean Nicot
Jean Nicot was a French diplomat and scholar.Born in Nîmes, in the south of France, he was French ambassador in Lisbon, Portugal from 1559 to 1561....
, the French ambassador to Portugal, who gave his name to nicotine
Nicotine
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants that constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of the dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots and accumulation occurring in the leaves...
. Later, the habit spread to Italy and, after Sir Walter Raleigh
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....
's voyages to the Americas, to Britain. Smoking became familiar throughout Europe—in pipes in Britain—by the mid-16th century and, half a century later, tobacco started to be grown commercially in America. Tobacco was originally thought to have medicinal qualities, but there were some who considered it evil. It was denounced by Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
, and James I of England
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
.
Around 1592, the Spanish galleon
Galleon
A galleon was a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries. Whether used for war or commerce, they were generally armed with the demi-culverin type of cannon.-Etymology:...
San Clemente brought 50 kilograms (110 lb) of tobacco seed to the Philippines over the Acapulco-Manila trade route. The seed was then distributed among the Roman Catholic missionaries, where the clerics found excellent climates and soils for growing high-quality tobacco on Philippine soil.
In the 19th century, cigar smoking was common, while cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
s were still comparatively rare. In the early 20th century, Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
wrote his famous smoking poem, "The Betrothed
The Betrothed (Kipling poem)
The Betrothed is a poem by Rudyard Kipling, first published in book form in Departmental Ditties .It is a tongue-in-cheek work by the young bachelor Kipling, who affected a very worldly-wise stance. In it, he takes as his epigraph the report of evidence in a breach of promise case, "You must choose...
." The cigar business was an important industry, and factories employed many people before mechanized manufacturing of cigars became practical.
In 1869, Spanish cigar manufacturer Vicente Martinez Ybor
Vicente Martinez Ybor
Vicente Martinez Ybor was a Spanish American industrialist and cigar manufacturer, best known for founding the cigar-manufacturing town of Ybor City near Tampa, Florida in 1886.-Cuba:...
moved his Principe de Gales (Prince of Wales) operations from the important cigar manufacturing center of Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida
Key West, Florida
Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...
to escape the turmoil of the Ten Years' War
Ten Years' War
The Ten Years' War , also known as the Great War and the War of '68, began on October 10, 1868 when sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers proclaimed Cuba's independence from Spain...
. Other manufacturers followed, and Key West became another important cigar manufacturing center. In 1885, Ybor moved again, buying land near the then-small city of Tampa, Florida
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
and building the largest cigar factory in the world at the time in the new company town
Company town
A company town is a town or city in which much or all real estate, buildings , utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company...
of Ybor City
History of Ybor City
Ybor City is a historic neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, located just northeast of downtown. It was founded as an independent town in 1885 by a group of cigar manufacturers led by Vicente Martinez-Ybor and was annexed by Tampa in 1887...
. Friendly rival and Flor de Sánchez y Haya owner Ignacio Haya built his own factory nearby in the same year, and many other cigar manufacturers soon followed, especially after an 1886 fire that gutted much of Key West. Thousands of Cuban and Spanish tabaqueros came to the area from Key West, Cuba and New York to produce hundreds of millions of cigars annually. Local output peaked in 1929, when workers in Ybor City and West Tampa rolled over 500,000,000 "clear Havana" cigars, earning the town the nickname "Cigar Capital of the World"
In New York, cigars were made by rollers working in their own homes. It was reported that as of 1883, cigars were being manufactured in 127 apartment houses in New York, employing 1,962 families and 7,924 individuals. A state statute banning the practice, passed late that year at the urging of trade unions on the basis that the practice suppressed wages, was ruled unconstitutional less than four months later. The industry, which had relocated to Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
and other places on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
while the law was in effect, then returned to New York.
As of 1905, there were 80,000 cigar-making operations in the United States, most of them small, family-operated shops where cigars were rolled and sold immediately. While most cigars are now made by machine, some, as a matter of prestige and quality, are still rolled by hand. This is especially true in Central America and Cuba, as well as in small chinchales found in virtually every sizable city in the United States. Boxes of hand-rolled cigars bear the phrase totalmente a mano (totally by hand) or hecho a mano (made by hand).
Historical figures
King Edward VIIEdward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
enjoyed smoking cigarettes and cigars, much to the chagrin of his mother, Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
. After her death, legend has it, King Edward said to his male guests at the end of a dinner party, "Gentlemen, you may smoke." In his name, a line of inexpensive American cigars has long been named King Edward.
U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
smoked cigars heavily, an estimated up to 12 a day. In late 1884, Grant was diagnosed with an oral cancer
Oral cancer
Oral cancer is a subtype of head and neck cancer, is any cancerous tissue growth located in the oral cavity. It may arise as a primary lesion originating in any of the oral tissues, by metastasis from a distant site of origin, or by extension from a neighboring anatomic structure, such as the...
consisting of malignant squamous cell carcinoma
Squamous cell carcinoma
Squamous cell carcinoma , occasionally rendered as "squamous-cell carcinoma", is a histologically distinct form of cancer. It arises from the uncontrolled multiplication of malignant cells deriving from epithelium, or showing particular cytological or tissue architectural characteristics of...
. With his health failing, Grant devoted his time to his autobiography; five days after finishing it, he became the only U.S. president to die of cancer.
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, the founder of Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, smoked 20 cigars a day, despite health warnings from colleagues. Because of his frequent references to phallic symbolism, it is often claimed that his colleagues challenged him on the "phallic" shape of the cigar. Freud is supposed to have replied "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," however, there are no records of such a conversation ever having taken place. Initially concealing a cancerous growth in his mouth in 1923, Freud was eventually diagnosed with the same cancer as Grant's. Despite over 30 surgeries, and complications ranging from intense pain to insects infesting dead skin cells around the cancer, Freud smoked cigars until his life ended. Freud died at age 83 in a morphine-induced coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
to relieve the pain from his cancer.
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, who has been credited with the practice of dunking a cigar in port wine
Port wine
Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties...
or brandy
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
, was rarely seen without a cigar during his time as Britain's wartime leader, so much so that a large cigar size was named in his honor.
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
and his comrade
Comrade
Comrade means "friend", "colleague", or "ally". The word comes from French camarade. The term is frequently used by left-wing organizations around the globe. "Comrade" has often become a stock phrase and form of address. This word has its regional equivalents available in many...
Che Guevera were often seen smoking a cigar during the early days of the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
. But Castro has claimed to have given up smoking in the early 1980s as part of a campaign to encourage the Cuban population to smoke less on health grounds. Many other celebrities were well-known cigar smokers, including Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
, George Burns
George Burns
George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...
, Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
, Milton Berle
Milton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
, Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
, and Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
.
Rudyard Kipling said in his poem "The Betrothed", "And a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke."
Apart from certain forms of heavily cured and strong snuff, the cigar is the most potent form of self-dosing with tobacco, it has long had associations of being a male rite of passage, as it may have had during the pre-Columbian era in America. Its fumes and rituals have in American and European cultures established a "men's hut"; in the 19th century, men would retire to the "smoking room" after dinner to discuss serious issues.
Manufacture
Tobacco leaves are harvested and aged using a process that combines use of heat and shade to reduce sugar and water content without causing the large leaves to rot. This first part of the process, called curingCuring of tobacco
After tobacco has been harvested, it is necessary to cure it before consumption.- History :Uncured tobacco was often eaten, used in enemas, or drunk as extracted juice. Tobacco contains naturally occurring nicotine which is highly lethal. One drop of pure nicotine can be fatal if consumed.Curing...
, takes between 25 and 45 days and varies substantially based upon climatic conditions as well as the construction of sheds or barns used to store harvested tobacco. The curing process is manipulated based upon the type of tobacco, and the desired color of the leaf. The second part of the process, called fermentation
Fermentation (biochemistry)
Fermentation is the process of extracting energy from the oxidation of organic compounds, such as carbohydrates, using an endogenous electron acceptor, which is usually an organic compound. In contrast, respiration is where electrons are donated to an exogenous electron acceptor, such as oxygen,...
, is carried out under conditions designed to help the leaf die slowly. Temperature and humidity are controlled to ensure that the leaf continues to ferment, without rotting or disintegrating. This is where the flavor, burning, and aroma characteristics are primarily brought out in the leaf.
Once the leaves have aged properly, they are sorted for use as filler or wrapper based upon their appearance and overall quality. During this process, the leaves are continually moistened and handled carefully to ensure each leaf is best used according to its individual qualities. The leaf will continue to be baled, inspected, un-baled, re-inspected, and baled again repeatedly as it continues its aging cycle. When the leaf has matured according to the manufacturer's specifications, it will be used in the production of a cigar.
Quality cigars are still hand-made. An experienced cigar-roller can produce hundreds of very good, nearly identical, cigars per day. The rollers keep the tobacco moist — especially the wrapper — and use specially designed crescent-shaped knives, called chavetas, to form the filler and wrapper leaves quickly and accurately. Once rolled, the cigars are stored in wooden forms as they dry, in which their uncapped ends are cut to a uniform size. From this stage, the cigar is a complete product that can be "laid down" and aged for decades if kept as close to 21°C (70°F), and 70% relative humidity
Relative humidity
Relative humidity is a term used to describe the amount of water vapor in a mixture of air and water vapor. It is defined as the partial pressure of water vapor in the air-water mixture, given as a percentage of the saturated vapor pressure under those conditions...
, as the environment will allow. Once cigars have been purchased, proper storage is usually accomplished by keeping the cigars in a specialized wooden box, or humidor
Humidor
A humidor is any kind of box or room with constant humidity, and ideal temperature, used to store cigars, cigarettes, or pipe tobacco. For private use, small wooden or acrylic glass humidor boxes for a few dozen cigars are used, while cigar shops may have walk-in humidors, sometimes consisting of a...
, where conditions can be carefully controlled for long periods of time. Even if a cigar becomes dry, it can be successfully re-humidified so long as it has not been handled carelessly and done so gradually. The loss of original tobacco oils, however, will greatly affect the taste.
Some cigars, especially premium brands, use different varieties of tobacco for the filler and the wrapper. Long filler cigars are a far higher quality of cigar, using long leaves throughout. These cigars also use a third variety of tobacco leaf, called a "binder", between the filler and the outer wrapper. This permits the makers to use more delicate and attractive leaves as a wrapper. These high-quality cigars almost always blend varieties of tobacco. Even Cuban long-filler cigars will combine tobaccos from different parts of the island to incorporate several different flavors.
In low-grade and machine-made cigars, chopped tobacco leaves are used for the filler, and long leaves or a type of "paper" made from tobacco pulp is used for the wrapper which binds the cigar together. This alters the burning characteristics of the cigar, causing hand-made cigars to be sought-after.
Historically, a lector or reader was always employed to entertain cigar factory workers. This practice became obsolete once audio book
Audio book
An audiobook or audio book is a recording of a text being read. It is not necessarily an exact audio version of a book or magazine.Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops since the 1930s. Many spoken word albums were made prior to the...
s for portable music players became available, but it is still practiced in some Cuban factories. The name for the Montecristo cigar brand
Montecristo (cigar brand)
Montecristo is the name of two brands of premium cigars, one produced in Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced in La Romana, Dominican Republic for the Franco-Spanish tobacco monopoly Altadis SA.- History :...
may have arisen from this practice.
Dominant manufacturers
Two firms dominate the cigar industry. AltadisAltadis
Altadis is a multinational purveyor and manufacturer of cigarettes, tobacco and cigars. Altadis was formed via a 1999 merger between Tabacalera, the former Spanish tobacco monopoly and SEITA, the former French tobacco monopoly...
, the world's largest cigar producer, produces cigars in the United States, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras, and has a 50% stake in Corporación Habanos in Cuba. It also makes cigarettes. Swedish Match
Swedish Match
Swedish Match is a Swedish company based in Stockholm that makes snus, tobacco, cigars , Red Man Chewing Tobacco, dipping tobacco, matches and lighters. It was founded as Svenska Tändsticksaktiebolaget by Ivar Kreuger in 1917 in Jönköping...
, the second largest producer, produces cigars in Honduras, Belgium, Germany, Indonesia, the United States, and the Dominican Republic; it also makes chewing
Chewing tobacco
Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco (also known colloquially as hoobastank, backy, tobac, doogooos,Hogleg, chewpoos, chits, chewsky, chawsky, dip, flab, chowers, guy, or a wad, as well as referred to as dipsky, snuff, a pinch, a yopper, a Packing a bomb, a tobbackey or packing a...
and pipe tobacco, snuff
Snuff
Snuff is a product made from ground or pulverised tobacco leaves. It is an example of smokeless tobacco. It originated in the Americas and was in common use in Europe by the 17th century...
, lighter
Lighter
A lighter is a portable device used to generate a flame. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with a flammable fluid or pressurized liquid gas, a means of ignition, and some provision for extinguishing the flame.- History :...
s, and matches.
Families in the cigar industry
Nearly all modern cigar makers are members of long-established cigar families, or purport to be http://www.skydancercigarettes.com/ The art and skill of hand-making premium cigars has been passed from generation to generation; families are often shown in many cigar advertisements and packagingIn 1992, Cigar Aficionado magazine created the "Cigar Hall of Fame" and recognized the following six individuals:
- Edgar M. Cullman, Chairman, General Cigar Company, New York, United States
- Zino DavidoffDavidoffDavidoff is a Swiss luxury tobacco goods brand name, which is carried by a range of products including cigars, cigarettes and pipe tobaccos. Its cigarette brand is currently owned by Imperial Tobacco but the company is otherwise independently owned....
, Founder, Davidoff et Cie., GenevaGenevaGeneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Switzerland - Carlos Fuente, Sr., Chairman, Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia., Santiago de los CaballerosSantiago de los CaballerosSantiago de los Caballeros is a city in the Dominican Republic. Founded in 1495 during the first wave of European colonization of the New World, today Santiago is the second largest metropolis in the Dominican Republic, located in the north-central region of the Republic known as Cibao valley...
, Dominican Republic - Frank LlanezaFrank LlanezaFrank Llaneza was a tobacco blender and former executive of Villazon & Co. who is regarded as a pioneer in the resurgence of the premium cigar industry at the end of the 20th Century...
, Chairman, Villazon & Co., Tampa, FloridaTampa, FloridaTampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
, United States - Stanford J. Newman, Chairman, J.C. Newman Cigar Company, Tampa, Florida, United States
- Ángel Oliva, Sr. (founder); Oliva Tobacco Co., Tampa, Florida, United States
Perhaps the best-known cigar family in the world is the Arturo Fuente
Arturo Fuente (cigar brand)
Arturo Fuente is a brand of cigar, founded by Arturo Fuente Sr., and produced by Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia under the name A. Fuente.- History :...
family. Now led by father and son Carlos Fuente, Sr. and Jr. The Fuente family has been rolling their Arturo Fuente and Montesino cigars since 1912. The release of the Fuente Fuente OpusX in 1995 heralded the first quality wrapper grown in the Dominican Republic. The oldest Dominican Republic cigar maker is the León family, who have been making their León Jimenes and La Aurora cigars on the island since 1905.
Not only are premium cigar-makers typically families, but so are those who grow the premium cigar tobacco. The Oliva family has been growing cigar tobacco since 1934 and their family's tobacco is found in nearly every major cigar brand sold on the US market. Some families, such as the well-known Padrons, have crossed over from tobacco growing to cigar making. While the Padron family has been growing tobacco since the 1850s, they began making cigars that bear their family's name in 1964. Like the Padrons, the Carlos Torano family first began growing tobacco in 1916 before they started rolling their own family's brands, which also bear the family name, in the 1990s.
Families are such an important part of the premium cigar industry that the term "cigar family" is a registered trademark of the Arturo Fuente and J.C. Newman families, used to distinguish and identify their families, premium cigar brands, and charitable foundation. Even the premium cigars made by the cigar industry's two corporate conglomerates, Altadis and Swedish Match, are overseen by members of two cigar families, Altadis' Benjamin Menendez and Swedish Match's Ernesto Perez-Carrillo
Ernesto Perez-Carrillo
Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, Jr., born in 1952, is a Cuban American master cigar maker who resides in Miami and the Dominican Republic.-Career:Ernesto founded the El Credito Cigar Company in Miami, which produces La Gloria Cubana and El Rico Habano cigars...
.
Marketing and distribution
Cigars are marketed via advertisements, product placementProduct placement
Product placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the...
in movies and other media, sporting events, cigar-friendly magazines such as Cigar Aficionado
Cigar Aficionado
Cigar Aficionado is an American magazine that is dedicated to the world of cigars. Published since September 1992, the magazine is known for its articles about different brands of cigars worldwide, and for the celebrities that have appeared on its cover. It is also noted for its opposition to the...
, and cigar dinners. Advertisements often include depictions of affluence, sexual imagery, and explicit or implied celebrity endorsement.
Cigar Aficionado, launched in 1992, was credited both by cigar companies and readers in transforming the U.S. cigar smoking market from a small blue-collar segment to an upscale market promoted in places like luxury hotels and golf courses. The magazine presents cigars as symbols of a successful lifestyle, and is a major conduit of advertisements that do not conform to the tobacco industry's voluntary advertisement restrictions since 1965, such as a restriction not to associate smoking with glamour. The magazine also systematically presents pro-smoking arguments at length, arguing that cigars are safer than cigarettes, that life is dangerous anyway, that (contrary to the evidence discussed in Health effects) cigar smoking has health benefits, that moderation eliminates most or all health risk, that cigar smokers live to old age, that health research is flawed, and that strategically selected health-research results support claims of safety. Like its competitor Smoke, Cigar Aficionado differs from marketing vehicles used for other tobacco products in that it makes cigars the focus of the entire magazine, creating a symbiosis between product and lifestyle.
In the U.S., cigars are exempt from many of the marketing regulations that govern cigarettes. For example, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act
Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act
The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act is a United States federal law, passed in 1970, designed to limit the practice of smoking. It required a stronger health warning on cigarette packages, saying "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined that Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health"...
of 1970 exempted cigars from its advertising ban, and cigar ads, unlike cigarette ads, need not mention health risks. As of 2007, cigars were taxed far less than cigarettes, so much so that in many U.S. states, a pack of little cigars cost less than half as much as a pack of cigarettes. It is illegal for minors to purchase cigars and other tobacco products in the U.S., but laws are unevenly enforced: a 2000 study found that three-quarters of Internet cigar marketing sites allowed minors to purchase cigars.
Inexpensive cigars are sold in convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
s, grocery stores, and pharmacies, mostly as self-serve items. Premium cigars are sold in tobacconist
Tobacconist
A tobacconist is an expert dealer in tobacco in various forms and the related accoutrements .Such accoutrements include pipes, lighters, matches, pipe cleaners, pipe tampers, ashtrays, humidification devices, hygrometers, humidors, cigar cutters, and more. Books and magazines, especially ones...
s, cigar bar
Cigar bar
-History:While cigar bars have been around for years, interest in them developed in the 1990s when cities and government entities began instituting smoking bans but provided exceptions for establishments that catered to smokers.-Features:...
s, and other specialized establishments. Some cigar stores are part of chain
Chain store
Chain stores are retail outlets that share a brand and central management, and usually have standardized business methods and practices. These characteristics also apply to chain restaurants and some service-oriented chain businesses. In retail, dining and many service categories, chain businesses...
s, which have varied in size: in the U.S., United Cigar Stores
United Cigar Stores
United Cigar Stores was the largest chain of cigar stores in the United States. Though initially specializing in cigars, it eventually sold many other items, such as Mickey Mouse watches and shoe trees. The chain was founded in 1901. The chain represented the interests of the Consolidated Tobacco...
was one of only three outstanding examples of national chains in the early 1920s, the others being A&P and Woolworth's
F. W. Woolworth Company
The F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store"...
. Non-traditional outlets for cigars include hotel shops, restaurants, vending machines and the Internet.
Composition
Cigars are composed of three types of tobacco leaves, whose variations determine smoking and flavor characteristics:Wrappers
A cigar's outermost leaves, or wrapper, come from the widest part of the plant. The wrapper determines much of the cigar's character and flavor, and as such its color is often used to describe the cigar as a whole. Over 100 wrapper shades are identified by manufacturers, but the seven most common classifications are as follows, from lightest to darkest:| Color | Description |
|---|---|
| Double Claro | very light, slightly greenish (also called Candela, American Market Selection or jade); achieved by picking leaves before maturity and drying quickly, the color coming from retained green chlorophyll Chlorophyll Chlorophyll is a green pigment found in almost all plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Its name is derived from the Greek words χλωρος, chloros and φύλλον, phyllon . Chlorophyll is an extremely important biomolecule, critical in photosynthesis, which allows plants to obtain energy from light... ; formerly popular, now rare. |
| Claro | very light tan or yellowish. Indicative of shade-grown tobacco. |
| Colorado Claro | medium brown, includes Natural and English Market Selection |
| Colorado | Distinctive reddish-brown (also called Rosado or Corojo) |
| Colorado Maduro | darker brown; often associated with African wrapper from Cameroon, and Honduran or Nicaraguan grown wrapper from Cuban seed. |
| Maduro | Very dark brown or black; primarily grown in Connecticut, Mexico, Nicaragua and Brazil. |
| Oscuro | Very black, (also called Double Maduro), often oily in appearance; has become more popular in the 2000s; mainly grown in Cuba, Nicaragua, Brazil, Mexico, and Connecticut Connecticut Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately... , USA. |
Some manufacturers use an alternate designation:
| Designation | Acronym | Description |
|---|---|---|
| American Market Selection | AMS | synonymous with Double Claro |
| English Market Selection | EMS | typically Colorado Claro, but can refer to any color stronger than Double Claro but milder than Maduro |
| Spanish Market Selection | SMS | either of the two darkest colors, Maduro and Oscuro |
In general, dark wrappers add a touch of sweetness, while light ones add a hint of dryness to the taste.
Fillers
The majority of a cigar is made up of fillers, wrapped-up bunches of leaves inside the wrapper. Fillers of various strengths are usually blended to produce desired cigar flavors. In the cigar industry this is referred to as a "blend". Many cigar manufacturers pride themselves in constructing the perfect blend(s) that will give the smoker the most enjoyment. The more oils present in the tobacco leaf, the stronger (less dry) the filler. Types range from the minimally flavored Volado taken from the bottom of the plant, through the light-flavored Seco (dry) taken from the middle of the plant, to the strong Ligero from the upper leaves exposed to the most sunlight. Fatter cigars of larger gauge hold more filler, with greater potential to provide a full body and complex flavor. However, this effect can be diminished because of the generally poorer burn characteristics of thicker cigars (greater than 50 ring gauge), and the fact that these cigars burn cooler. This can prevent the full spectrum of flavors from being easily detectable. When used, Ligero is always folded into the middle of the filler because it burns slowly.Fillers can be either long or short; long filler uses whole leaves and is of a better quality, while short filler, also called "mixed", uses chopped leaves, stems, and other bits. Recently some manufacturers have created what they term "medium filler" cigars. They use larger pieces of leaf than short filler without stems, and are of better quality than short filler cigars. Short filler cigars are easy to identify when smoked since they often burn hotter and tend to release bits of leaf into the smoker's mouth. Long filled cigars of high quality should burn evenly and consistently. Also available is a filler called "sandwich" (sometimes "Cuban sandwich") which is a cigar made by rolling short leaf inside long outer leaf. If a cigar is completely constructed (filler, binder and wrapper) of tobacco from only one country, it is referred to in the cigar industry as a "puro" which in Spanish means "pure."
Binders
Binders are elastic leaves used to hold together the bunches of fillers. Essentially, binders are wrappers that are rejected because of holes, blemishes, discoloration, or excess veins.Size and shape
Cigars are commonly categorized by the size and shape of the cigar, which together are known as the vitola.The size of a cigar is measured by two dimensions: its ring gauge (its diameter in sixty-fourths of an inch) and its length (in inches).
Parejo
The most common shape is the parejo, sometimes referred to as simply "coronas", which have traditionally been the benchmark against which all other cigar formats are measured. They have a cylindrical body, straight sides, one end open, and a round tobacco-leaf "cap" on the other end which must be sliced off, have a V-shaped notch made in it with a special cutter, or punched through before smoking.Parejos are designated by the following terms:
| Term | Length in inches | Width in 64ths of an inch | Metric length | Metric width | Etymology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rothschild | 4 + ½ | 48 | 11 cm | 19 mm | after the Rothschild family Rothschild family The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century... |
| Robusto | 4 + ⅞ | 50 | 12 cm | 20 mm | |
| Small Panatela | 5 | 33 | 13 cm | 13 mm | |
| Petit Corona | 5 + ⅛ | 42 | 13 cm | 17 mm | |
| Carlota | 5 + ⅝ | 35 | 14 cm | 14 mm | |
| Corona | 5 + ½ | 42 | 14 cm | 17 mm | |
| Corona Gorda | 5 + ⅝ | 46 | 14 cm | 18 mm | |
| Panatela | 6 | 38 | 15 cm | 15 mm | |
| Toro | 6 | 50 | 15 cm | 20 mm | |
| Corona Grande | 6 + ⅛ | 42 | 16 cm | 17 mm | |
| Lonsdale | 6 + ½ | 42 | 17 cm | 17 mm | named for Hugh Cecil Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale |
| Churchill | 7 | 47-50 | 18 cm | 19–20 mm | named for Sir Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice... |
| Double Corona | 7 + ⅝ | 49 | 19 cm | 19 mm | |
| Presidente | 8 | 50 | 20 cm | 20 mm | |
| Gran Corona | 9 + ¼ | 47 | 23 cm | 19 mm | |
| Double Toro/Gordo | 6 | 60 | 15 cm | 24 mm |
These dimensions are, at best, idealized. Actual dimensions can vary considerably.
Figurado
Irregularly shaped cigars are known as figurados and are sometimes considered of higher quality because they are more difficult to make.Historically, especially during the 19th century, figurados were the most popular shapes; however, by the 1930s they had fallen out of fashion and all but disappeared.
They have, however, recently received a small resurgence in popularity, and there are currently many brands (manufacturers) that produce figurados alongside the simpler parejos. The Cuban cigar brand Cuaba
Cuaba (cigar brand)
Cuaba is the name of a Cuban cigar brand produced in Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company.- History :Cuaba was officially launched by Habanos president Francisco Linares on November 19, 1996 at Claridge's Hotel in London, Great Britain, as an all-perfecto line of cigars...
only has figurados in their range.
Figurados include the following:
| Figurado | Description |
|---|---|
| Torpedo | Like a parejo except that the cap is pointed. |
| Pyramid | Has a broad foot and evenly narrows to a pointed cap. |
| Perfecto | Narrow at both ends and bulged in the middle. |
| Presidente/Diadema | shaped like a parejo but considered a figurado because of its enormous size and occasional closed foot akin to a perfecto. |
| Culebras | Three long, pointed cigars braided together. |
| Tuscan/Toscano | The typical Italian cigar, created in the early 19th century when Kentucky tobacco was hybridized with local varieties and used to create a long, tough, slim cigar thicker in the middle and tapered at the ends, with a very strong aroma. It is also known as a cheroot Cheroot The cheroot or stogie is a cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture. Since cheroots do not taper, they are inexpensive to roll mechanically, and their low cost makes them particularly popular. Typically, stogies have a length of 3.5 to 6.5 inches, and a ring gauge of 34 to... , which is the largest selling cigar shape in the United States. |
Arturo Fuente, a large cigar manufacturer based in the Dominican Republic, has also manufactured figurados in exotic shapes ranging from chilli peppers to baseball bats and American footballs. They are highly collectible and extremely expensive, when publicly available. In practice, the terms Torpedo and Pyramid are often used interchangeably, even among very knowledgeable cigar smokers. Min Ron Nee, the Hong Kong-based cigar expert whose work An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars is considered to be the definitive work on cigars and cigar terms, defines Torpedo as "cigar slang". Nee thinks the majority is right (because slang is defined by majority usage) and torpedoes are pyramids by another name.
Little cigars
Little cigars (sometimes called small cigars or miniatures in the UK) differ greatly from regular cigars. They weigh less than cigars and cigarilloCigarillo
A cigarillo is a short, narrow cigar. Unlike cigarettes, cigarillos are wrapped not in paper but in whole-leaf tobacco. Cigarillos can be found for purchase alone or in packs, and are often made without filters...
s, but, more importantly, they resemble cigarettes in size, shape, packaging, and filters. Sales of little cigars quadrupled in the U.S. from 1971 to 1973 in response to the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act
Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act
The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act is a United States federal law, passed in 1970, designed to limit the practice of smoking. It required a stronger health warning on cigarette packages, saying "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined that Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health"...
, which banned the broadcast of cigarette advertisements and required stronger health warnings on cigarette packs. Cigars were exempt from the ban, and perhaps more importantly, were taxed at a far lower rate. Little cigars are sometimes called "cigarettes in disguise", and unsuccessful attempts have been made to reclassify them as cigarettes. In the United States, sales of little cigars reached an all-time high in 2006, fueled in great part by their taxation loophole.
Smoking
To smoke a cigar, a smoker cuts the closed end or 'cap', lights the other end, then puts the unlit end into the mouth and draws smoke into the mouth. Some smokers inhale the smoke into the lungs, particularly with little cigars, but this is uncommon otherwise. A smoker may swirl the smoke around in the mouth before exhaling it, and may exhale part of the smoke through the nose in order to smell the cigar better as well as to taste it.Cutting
Although some cigars are cut on both ends, or twirled at both ends, the vast majority come with one straight cut end and one end in a "cap". Most quality handmade cigars, regardless of shape, will have a cap which is one or more small pieces of a wrapper pasted on to one end of the cigar with either a natural tobacco paste or with a mixture of flour and water. The cap end of a cigar must be cut off for the cigar to be smoked properly. It is the rounded end without the tobacco exposed, and this is the end one should always cut. If the cap is cut jaggedly or without care, the end of the cigar will not burn evenly and smokeable tobacco will be lost. Some cigar manufacturers purposely place different types of tobacco from one end to the other to give the cigar smokers a variety of tastes, body and strength from start to finish. Smoking a cigar from the wrong end may result in a bad experience.There are three basic types of cigar cutters:
- Guillotine (straight cut)
- Punch cut
- V-cut (a.k.a. notch cut, cat's eye, wedge cut, English cut)
Lighting
The "head" of the cigar is usually the end closest to the cigar bandCigar band
A cigar band is a loop made of paper or foil fitted around the body of a cigar to denote its brand or variety. Although origins of the device are the subject of several legends, modern historians credit a European immigrant to Cuba named Gustave Bock with invention of the cigar band in the 1830s...
. The opposite end of the cigar is called the "foot". The band identifies the type of the cigar and may be removed or left on. The smoker cuts the cap from the head of the cigar and ignites the foot of the cigar. The smoker draws smoke from the head of the cigar with the mouth and lips, usually not inhaling into the lungs.
When lighting, the cigar should be rotated to achieve an even burn and the air should be slowly drawn with gentle puffs.
Cigars can be lit with the use of butane-filled lighters. Butane is colorless, odorless and burns clean with very little, if any, flavor. It is not recommended to use fluid-filled lighters and paper matches since they can influence the taste. Another option is wooden matches. They are not treated and soaked with sulfur and thus the smoke is not affected with chemicals.
Cigars packaged in metal tubes will typically include a thin wrapping of cedar. This may be used to light the cigar, eliminating the problem of lighters or matches affecting the taste.
Flavor
Each brand and type of cigar tastes different. While the wrapper does not entirely determine the flavor of the cigar, darker wrappers tend to produce a sweetness, while lighter wrappers usually have a "drier" taste. Whether a cigar is mild, medium, or full bodied does not correlate with quality. Some words used to describe cigar flavor and texture include; spicy, peppery (red or black), sweet, harsh, burnt, green, earthy, woody, cocoa, roasted, aged, nutty, creamy, cedar, oak, chewy, fruity, and leathery.Cigar smoke, which is rarely inhaled, tastes of tobacco with nuances of other tastes. Many different things affect the scent of cigar smoke: tobacco type, quality of the cigar, added flavors, age and humidity, production method (handmade vs. machine-made) and more. A fine cigar can taste completely different from inhaled cigarette smoke. When smoke is inhaled, as is usual with cigarettes, the tobacco flavor is less noticeable than the sensation from the smoke. Some cigar enthusiasts use a vocabulary similar to that of wine-tasters to describe the overtones and undertones observed while smoking a cigar. Journals are available for recording personal ratings, description of flavors observed, sizes, brands, etc. Cigar tasting is in such respects similar to wine, brandy
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
, whisky
Whisky
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn...
, tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
, coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, and beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
tasting.
Smoke
Smoke is produced by incomplete combustion of tobacco during which at least three kinds of chemical reactions occur: pyrolysisPyrolysis
Pyrolysis is a thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures without the participation of oxygen. It involves the simultaneous change of chemical composition and physical phase, and is irreversible...
breaks down organic molecules into simpler ones, pyrosynthesis recombines these newly formed fragments into chemicals not originally present, and distillation
Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
moves compounds such as nicotine from the tobacco into the smoke. For every gram of tobacco smoked, a cigar emits about 120–140 mg of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
, 40–60 mg of carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...
, 3–4 mg of isoprene
Isoprene
Isoprene , or 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene, is a common organic compound with the formula CH2=CCH=CH2. Under standard conditions it is a colorless liquid...
, 1 mg each of hydrogen cyanide and acetaldehyde
Acetaldehyde
Acetaldehyde is an organic chemical compound with the formula CH3CHO or MeCHO. It is one of the most important aldehydes, occurring widely in nature and being produced on a large scale industrially. Acetaldehyde occurs naturally in coffee, bread, and ripe fruit, and is produced by plants as part...
, and smaller quantities of a large spectrum of volatile N-nitrosamines and volatile organic compound
Volatile organic compound
Volatile organic compounds are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary, room-temperature conditions. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and...
s, with the detailed composition unknown.
The most odorous chemicals in cigar smoke, and arguably the most responsible for the odor, are pyridine
Pyridine
Pyridine is a basic heterocyclic organic compound with the chemical formula C5H5N. It is structurally related to benzene, with one C-H group replaced by a nitrogen atom...
s. Along with pyrazine
Pyrazine
Pyrazine is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound with the chemical formula C4H4N2.Pyrazine is a symmetrical molecule with point group D2h. Derivatives like phenazine are well known for their antitumor, antibiotic and diuretic activity. Pyrazine is less basic in nature than pyridine, pyridazine...
s, they are also the most odorous chemicals in cigar smoker's breath. These substances are noticeable even at extremely low concentrations of a few parts per billion. During smoking, it is not known whether these chemicals are generated by splitting the chemical bonds
Bond cleavage
Bond cleavage, or scission, is the splitting of chemical bonds.If the two electrons in a cleaved covalent bond are divided between the products, the process is known as homolytic fission and free redicals are generated by homolytic cleavage the process is known as homolytic fission or homolysis...
of nicotine, or by Maillard reaction
Maillard reaction
The Maillard reaction is a form of nonenzymatic browning similar to caramelization. It results from a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually requiring heat....
between amino acid
Amino acid
Amino acids are molecules containing an amine group, a carboxylic acid group and a side-chain that varies between different amino acids. The key elements of an amino acid are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen...
s and sugars in the tobacco.
Cigar smoke is more alkaline than cigarette smoke, and therefore dissolves and is absorbed more readily by the mucous membrane of the mouth
Oral mucosa
The oral mucosa is the mucous membrane epithelium of the mouth. It can be divided into three categories.*Masticatory mucosa, para-keratinized stratified squamous epithelium, found on the dorsum of the tongue, hard palate and attached gingiva....
, making it easier for the smoker to absorb nicotine without having to inhale.
Humidors
The level of humidityHumidity
Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...
in which cigars are kept has a significant effect on their taste. It is believed that a cigar's flavor best evolves when stored at a relative humidity of approximately 68-74% and a temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
of 64 F. An ideal rate of humidity allows an even burning of the cigar. Conversely, dry cigars become fragile and burn faster while damp cigars burn unevenly and take on a heavy acidic flavor. Humidors together with their humidifiers are then used to serve this purpose. Humidor's interior lining is basically constructed with three types of wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
: Spanish cedar, American (or Canadian) red cedar, and Honduran mahogany
Mahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
.
Most humidors come with a plastic or metal case with a sponge that works as the humidifier, although most recent versions come on polymer acryl. The latter must be filled only with distilled water
Distilled water
Distilled water is water that has many of its impurities removed through distillation. Distillation involves boiling the water and then condensing the steam into a clean container.-History:...
, and the former may use a solution of propylene glycol
Propylene glycol
Propylene glycol, also called 1,2-propanediol or propane-1,2-diol, is an organic compound with formula C3H8O2 or HO-CH2-CHOH-CH3...
and distilled water. Humidifiers may become contaminated with bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
and should be replaced every two years to avoid such contamination.
Humidors also come with analog
Analog signal
An analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the time varying feature of the signal is a representation of some other time varying quantity, i.e., analogous to another time varying signal. It differs from a digital signal in terms of small fluctuations in the signal which are...
or digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
hygrometer
Hygrometer
A hygrometer is an instrument used for measuring the moisture content in the environmental air, or humidity. Most measurement devices usually rely on measurements of some other quantity such as temperature, pressure, mass or a mechanical or electrical change in a substance as moisture is absorbed...
s. There are three systems of analog hygrometers: analog hygrometers with a metal spring, analog natural hair hygrometers, and analog synthetic hair hygrometers.
Accessories
There are a wide variety of cigar accessories on the market. Their prices may vary depending on the materials used and the quality of the finishing.Cigar travel cases
Travel cases are intended to protect cigars from the environmental elements and to avoid the possibility of cigars being crushed. Most travel cases come in expandable or sturdy leatherLeather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
. They should be thick enough to protect cigars, and the inside should not have a strong leather smell that could affect the cigar's taste. Some of these cases come with either cardboard
Card stock
Card stock, also called cover stock or pasteboard, is a paper stock that is thicker and more durable than normal writing or printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than other forms of paperboard. Card stock is often used for business cards, postcards, playing cards, catalog covers,...
or metal tubes that add protection and prevent the cigar from becoming permeated with the leather.
Silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
and brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
cigar travel cases are also available as well as wood cigar cases. The latter can range from affordable cases to handcrafted ones, while the former tend to be quite expensive.
Cigar tubes
Cigar tubes are used to carry small numbers of cigars, typically one or five. The latter tube would be called 5-finger tube and the former 1-finger tube. They are usually made from stainless steelStainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
. Cigar tubes are normally used when one is out for a few hours, but if it is necessary to spend longer periods of time out, there are tubes that come with a built in humidifier and hygrometer.
Cigar holders
Cigar holders are also known as cigar stands and are used to keep the cigars out of ashtrays. Also, cigar holders may refer to a tube in which the cigar is held while smoked. These are mostly used by women, and rarely by men.Health effects
Like other forms of tobacco use, cigar smoking poses a significant health risk depending on dosage: risks are greater for those who inhale more when they smoke, smoke more cigars, or smoke them longer. The risk of dying from any cause is statistically greater for cigar smokers than for people who have never smoked, with the risk higher for smokers less than 65 years old, and with risk for moderate and deep inhalers reaching levels similar to cigarette smokers. For those who inhale or smoke several cigars a day, types of health risk can be similar to those associated with cigaretteCigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
smoking: nicotine
Nicotine
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants that constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of the dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots and accumulation occurring in the leaves...
addiction, periodontal disease, tooth loss, and many types of cancer, including cancers of the mouth
Oral cancer
Oral cancer is a subtype of head and neck cancer, is any cancerous tissue growth located in the oral cavity. It may arise as a primary lesion originating in any of the oral tissues, by metastasis from a distant site of origin, or by extension from a neighboring anatomic structure, such as the...
, throat, and esophagus
Esophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer is malignancy of the esophagus. There are various subtypes, primarily squamous cell cancer and adenocarcinoma . Squamous cell cancer arises from the cells that line the upper part of the esophagus...
. Cigar smoking can also cause cancers of the lung
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
and larynx. Cigar smoking can also increase the risk of lung and heart diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , also known as chronic obstructive lung disease , chronic obstructive airway disease , chronic airflow limitation and chronic obstructive respiratory disease , is the co-occurrence of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, a pair of commonly co-existing diseases...
. Little cigars are commonly inhaled and likely pose the same health risks as cigarettes. When cigar smokers don’t inhale or smoke few cigars per day, the risks are only slightly above those who never smoked. The increased risk for those smoking 1–2 cigars per day is too small to be statistically significant, and the health risks of the 3/4 of cigar smokers who smoke less than daily are not established, and are hard to measure.
Popularity
The prevalencePrevalence
In epidemiology, the prevalence of a health-related state in a statistical population is defined as the total number of cases of the risk factor in the population at a given time, or the total number of cases in the population, divided by the number of individuals in the population...
of cigar smoking varies depending on location, historical period, and population surveyed, and prevalence estimates vary somewhat depending on the survey method. The U.S. is the top consuming country by far, followed by Germany and the UK; the U.S. and western Europe account for about 75% of cigar sales worldwide. The 2005 U.S. National Health Interview Survey estimated that 2.2% of adults smoke cigars, about the same as smokeless tobacco but far less than the 21% of adults who smoke cigarettes; it also estimated that 4.3% of men but only 0.3% of women smoke cigars. The 2002 U.S. National Survey of Drug Use and Health found that adults with serious psychological distress are significantly more likely to smoke cigars than those without. A 2007 California study found that gay men and bisexual women smoke significantly fewer cigars than the general population of men and women, respectively. Substantial and steady increases in cigar smoking were observed during the 1990s and early 2000s in the U.S. among both adults and adolescents. Data suggest that cigar usage among young adult males increased threefold during the 1990s, a 1999–2000 survey of 31,107 young adult U.S. military recruits found that 12.3% smoked cigars, and a 2003–2004 survey of 4,486 high school students in a Midwestern county found that 18% smoked cigars.
Cuban cigars
Cuban cigars are rolled from tobacco leaves found throughout the country of Cuba. The filler, binder, and wrapper may come from different portions of the island. All cigar production in Cuba is controlled by the Cuban government, and each brand may be rolled in several different factories in Cuba. Cuban cigar rollers or "torcedor
Torcedor
A torcedor is a cigar roller. Since the Cuban Revolution, the majority of Cuban torcedores are women and referred to as a torcedora .-References:...
es" are claimed by cigar experts to be the most skilled rollers in the world. Torcedores are highly respected in Cuban society and culture and travel worldwide displaying their art of hand rolling cigars.
Habanos SA
Habanos SA
Habanos S.A. is the arm of the Cuban state tobacco company, Cubatabaco, that controls the promotion, distribution, and export of Cuban cigars and other tobacco products worldwide. The word habanos means literally from Havana, and is the word used in the Spanish-speaking world for Havana cigars...
and Cubatabaco
Cubatabaco
Cubatabaco, short for "Empresa Cubana del Tabaco," is the Cuban state tobacco company. The company was formed in 1962, after the Cuban tobacco industry had been nationalized by Fidel Castro's socialist government. Cubatabaco handled all production and distribution of Cuban tobacco products both...
between them do all the work relating to Cuban cigars, including manufacture, quality control
Quality control
Quality control, or QC for short, is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. This approach places an emphasis on three aspects:...
, promotion and distribution, and export. Cuba produces both handmade and machine made cigars. All boxes and labels are marked Hecho en Cuba (made in Cuba). Machine-bunched cigars finished by hand add Hecho a mano, while fully hand-made cigars say Totalmente a mano in script text, though not all Cuban cigars will include this statement. Because of the perceived status of Cuban cigars, counterfeits are somewhat commonplace.
Despite American trade sanctions against Cuban products, cigars remain one of the country's leading exports. The country exported 77 million cigars in 1991, 67 million in 1992, and 57 million in 1993, the decline attributed to a loss of much of the wrapper crop in a hurricane.
United States embargo against Cuba
On February 7, 1962, United States President John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
imposed a trade embargo on Cuba
United States embargo against Cuba
The United States embargo against Cuba is a commercial, economic, and financial embargo partially imposed on Cuba in October 1960...
to sanction Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
's communist government. According to Pierre Salinger
Pierre Salinger
Pierre Emil George Salinger was a White House Press Secretary to U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson...
, then Kennedy's press secretary, the president ordered him on the evening of February 6 to obtain 1,200 H. Upmann
H. Upmann (cigar brand)
H. Upmann is a brand name of premium cigar, made in two versions: one produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced in La Romana, Dominican Republic for the Franco-Spanish tobacco monopoly Altadis SA. Established in 1844, the H. Upmann...
brand petit corona Cuban cigars; upon Salinger's arrival with the cigars the following morning, Kennedy signed the executive order which put the embargo into effect. Richard Goodwin, a White House assistant to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, revealed in a 2000 New York Times article that in early 1962 JFK told him, "We tried to exempt cigars, but the cigar manufacturers in Tampa objected."
The embargo prohibited US residents from legally purchasing Cuban cigars and American cigar manufacturers from importing Cuban tobacco. As a result, Cuba was deprived of its major customer for tobacco and American cigar manufacturers either had to find an alternative source of tobacco or go out of business.
In the United States, authentic Cuban-made cigars are seen as "forbidden fruit
Forbidden fruit
Forbidden fruit is any object of desire whose appeal is a direct result of knowledge that cannot or should not be obtained or something that someone may want but is forbidden to have....
" for Americans to purchase. Upon the expropriation of private property in Cuba, many former Cuban cigar manufacturers moved to other countries (primarily the Dominican Republic) to continue production. The Dominican Republic's production of tobacco grew significantly as a result. After reallocation, most Cuban manufacturers continued to use their known company name, seed, and harvesting technique while Cubatabaco
Cubatabaco
Cubatabaco, short for "Empresa Cubana del Tabaco," is the Cuban state tobacco company. The company was formed in 1962, after the Cuban tobacco industry had been nationalized by Fidel Castro's socialist government. Cubatabaco handled all production and distribution of Cuban tobacco products both...
, Cuba's state tobacco monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
after the Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
, independently continued production of cigars using the former private company names. As a result, cigar name brands like Romeo y Julieta, Gloria Cubana, Montecristo among others, exist in both Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Honduras and Nicaragua are also mass manufactures of cigars. Some Cuban refugees make cigars in the U.S. and advertise them as "Cuban" cigars, using the argument that the cigars are made by Cubans.
It remains illegal for US residents to purchase or import Cuban cigars regardless of where they are in the world, although they are readily available across the northern border in Canada and the southern border in Mexico. While Cuban cigars are smuggled into the USA and sold at high prices, counterfeiting is rife; it has been said that 95% of Cuban cigars sold in the USA are counterfeit. Although Cuban cigars cannot legally be imported into the USA, the advent of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
has made it much easier for people in the United States to purchase cigars online from other countries, especially when shipped without bands. Cuban cigars are openly advertised in some European tourist regions, catering to the American market, even though it is illegal to advertise tobacco in most European regions.
Cigars specific to other countries
Italy produces the sigaro toscano (TuscanTuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
cigar), a dry cigar, very different from the moist Havana style. Tuscan-style cigars are also manufactured in the United States, only by The Avanti Cigar Co. of Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...
. Their brands include Parodi, De Nobili, Petri, and the anisette-flavored Avanti.
The cheroot
Cheroot
The cheroot or stogie is a cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture. Since cheroots do not taper, they are inexpensive to roll mechanically, and their low cost makes them particularly popular. Typically, stogies have a length of 3.5 to 6.5 inches, and a ring gauge of 34 to...
is traditionally associated with Burma and India.
In popular culture
Top hat
A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...
s and tails and smoking cigars. Cigars are often smoked to celebrate special occasions: the birth of a child, a graduation, a big sale. The expression
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
"close but no cigar" comes from the practice of giving cigars as prize
Prize
A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people to recognise and reward actions or achievements. Official prizes often involve monetary rewards as well as the fame that comes with them...
s in games involving good aim at fairground
Funfair
A funfair or simply "fair" is a small to medium sized travelling show primarily composed of stalls and other amusements. Larger fairs such as the permanent fairs of cities and seaside resorts might be called a fairground, although technically this should refer to the land where a fair is...
s.
See also
- Box-pressedBox-pressedBox-pressed cigars are usually packed in two layers in a wide flat cigar box that has an attached flip or hinged lid, and is usually made of paper-covered wood or cardboard...
- Cabinet selectionCabinet selectionCabinet selection is a term for cigars purchased in a large, square, plain cigar box that is called a cabinet box, a slide-lid box or SLB, or simply a cabinet). It usually has a wooden slide-lid, although occasionally hinged lids are seen...
- Cigar etiquetteCigar etiquetteCigar etiquette is polite behaviour when smoking a cigar. For example, in 19th century Havana, it was considered an insult to give another smoker a light from your cigar without first knocking off the ash from the cigar...
- List of cigar brands
- Smoking jacketSmoking jacketA smoking jacket is an overgarment designed to be worn while smoking tobacco, usually in the form of pipes and cigars, or for domestic leisure.-Design:The classic smoking jacket is a mid thigh-length jacket made from velvet or silk, or both...
External links
- Cigar Smoker's FAQ - compiled from alt.smokers.cigars
- Cigars Information - Free Cigar Information