Cigar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This page is about the tobacco product; for other meanings, see Cigar (disambiguation).
A cigar is a tightly rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco, one end of which is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the smoker's mouth through the other end.
The English word cigar is from the Spanish word cigarro, which in turn derives from the Mayan word for tobacco, siyar. (See entry at the Spanish Royal Academy's online dictionary [1].
Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in such nations as Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua and the United States of America. Cigars manufactured in Cuba are widely considered to be without peer, although many experts believe that the best offerings from Honduras and Nicaragua rival those from Cuba. The Cuban reputation is thought to arise from both the unique characteristics of the Vuelta Abajo district in the Pinar del Río Province at the west of the island, where a microclimate allows high-quality tobacco to be grown; and the skill of the Cuban cigar makers.
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[edit] History
[edit] Origins
The indigenous inhabitants of the islands of the Caribbean Sea and Mesoamerica have smoked cigars since at least the 900s AD, as evidenced by the discovery of a ceramic vessel at a Mayan archaeological site in Uaxactún, Guatemala, decorated with the painted figure of a man smoking a primitive cigar. Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus is generally credited with the introduction of smoking to Europe.
Two of Columbus's crewmen during his 1492 journey, Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, are said to have disembarked in Cuba and taken puffs of tobacco wrapped in maize husks, thus becoming the first European cigar smokers.
In the 19th century, cigar smoking was common while cigarettes were still comparatively rare. The cigar business was an important industry, and factories employed many people before mechanized manufacturing of cigars became practical. Many modern cigars, as a matter of prestige, are still rolled by hand; some boxes bear the phrase Totalmente a Mano, "Totally Made by Hand," as proof.
[edit] Cuban cigars
Cigars from Cuba are derived from tobacco components found throughout the country of Cuba: meaning the filler, the actual tobacco, and wrapper all come from different portions of the island. This may be why the Cuban cigar is considered to be the best, and why Cigar Aficionado magazine usually rates new Cuban cigars as the best. All cigar production in Cuba is controlled by the Cuban government. Unlike other cigar companies, where each brand is harvested and rolled in its own factory, all Cuban cigars are rolled in 2 or 3 different factories in Cuba. Cuban cigar rollers are famous for being the most skilled rollers in the world.
This is a list of the most popular Cuban cigars in production today: Bolivar, Cohiba, Cuaba, Diplomaticos, El Rey Del Mundo, Fonseca, H. Upmann, Hoyo de Monterrey, Juan Lopez, Montecristo, Partagas, Punch, Quai D'Orsay, Quintero, Rafael Gonzalez, Ramon Allones, Romeo y Julieta, Sancho Panza, Trinidad, and Vegas Robaina.
[edit] United States embargo against Cuba
The cigar became inextricably intertwined with U.S. political history on February 7, 1962, when United States President John F. Kennedy, intending to sanction Fidel Castro's communist government, imposed a trade embargo on Cuba. Americans were thus prohibited from purchasing what were at the time considered the finest cigars on the market, and Cuba was deprived of a large portion of its customers. According to Pierre Salinger, then Kennedy's press secretary, the president ordered him on the evening of February 6 to obtain a thousand Petit H. Upmanns Cuban cigars; upon Salinger's arrival with the cigars the following morning, Kennedy signed the executive order which put the embargo into effect.[2]
Cigars obtained prior to the embargo are not considered contraband, and became known as "pre-embargo Cubans."
As of 2006, it remains illegal for Americans to purchase or import Cuban cigars. As is usual with embargoes, there exists a lively smuggling trade, coupled with elevated prices and rampant counterfeiting.
Cuban cigars purchased in ports overseas such as Jamaica and other Caribbean islands are often counterfeit. The cost of Cuban cigars range dramatically, and most likely the genuine product is sold at the same price the factory in Cuba is selling their cigars for.
In the United States, Cuban cigars not only have the mystique of being a "banned" item to purchase but they are more importantly considered by American cigar aficionados to be the best "smoking experience" of all cigars.
Due to the increased use of home computers and the advent of the Internet, it has become much easier for people in the United States to purchase illegal cigars online from neighboring countries such as Canada where there is no embargo against Cuba. The full impact of computers and the Internet on the embargo is not known. As with all illegal activity, there is a higher risk of being taken in a scam, either by receiving counterfeit goods or nothing at all.
[edit] 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 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, is carried out under conditions designed to help the leaf die slowly and gracefully. 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, unbaled, reinspected, 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.
The creation of a quality cigar is still performed by hand. An experienced cigar roller can produce hundreds of exceptional, nearly identical cigars per day. The rollers keep the tobacco moist-- especially the wrapper, and use specially designed crescent-shaped knives, called a chaveta, 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, to the best of anyone's knowledge, be kept indefinitely--under the proper conditions. Indeed, Sotheby's recently auctioned off cigars kept in the damp basement of an Irish castle for centuries. Reportedly, they still smoked well. Cigars are known to have lasted for decades if kept as close to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius), and 70% relative humidity, as the environment will allow. According to some experts, however, long-term cigar aging requires significantly lower storage temperatures (for example, 40 degrees Farenheit is recommended for a 50 year storage). The higher temperatures which are usually used in standard cigar storage will cause the deterioration of the cigar after several years, resulting an eventual corruption of the cigar's flavor. 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.
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, 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 cigars, chopped up tobacco leaves are used for the filler, and long leaves or even a type of "paper" made from tobacco pulp is used for the wrapper which binds the cigar together.
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The factual accuracy of this section is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page |
Historically, a lector or reader was always employed to entertain the cigar factory workers. This practice became obsolete once audio books for portable players became available, but is still practiced in some Cuban factories. Legend has it that it was because of one of these lectors' choice of reading material that one of the best known brands earned its name. At the H. Upmann factory in Havana, the lector had the custom of reading the works of Alexandre Dumas. So loved were Dumas' works by the workers, that they asked the factory owner to let them produce a cigar as homage. The new cigars were branded Montecristo, in reference to The Count of Monte Cristo, and the boxes that carried them bore the image of six swords, in reference to The Three Musketeers. The Montecristo brand continues to be one of the most popular in the world to this day. (See Cigar Brands).
In fact, the Montecristo brand was created when Alonso Menendez purchased the Particulares factory in July 1935, as Min Ron Nee documents in "An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars." In that book, he reproduces an August 1935 issue of Habano magazine which announces the purchase of the factory and the launch of new cigar brand, Montecristo. (The first Montecristo cigars were made in the Particulares factory, not H. Upmann. The magazine does not mention the romantic story of the workers demanding an homage to Dumas. The logo--six swords surrounding a fleur de Lis--was designed by a British cigar importer John Hunter Morris and first appeared in print in August 1936. The cigar was made, for a time, in the H. Upmann factory, after Menendez bought it in 1937.)
[edit] Composition
Cigars are composed of three types of tobacco leaves, whose variations determine smoking and flavor characteristics:
[edit] 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. Colors are designated as follows, from lightest to darkest:
- Double Claro – very light, slightly greenish (also called Candela, American Market Selection or jade); achieved by picking leaves before maturity and drying quickly; often grown in Connecticut
- Claro – light tan or yellowish. Indicative of shade-grown tobacco.
- Natural – light brown to brown; generally sun-grown.
- Colorado Claro – mid-brown; particularly associated with tobacco grown in the Dominican Republic or in Cuba
- Colorado – reddish-brown (also called Rosado)
- Colorado Maduro – dark brown; particularly associated with Honduras or Cuba-grown tobacco
- Maduro – dark brown to very dark brown
- Oscuro – a.k.a. "Double Maduro", black, often oily in appearance; tend to be grown in Cuba, Nicaragua, Brazil, Mexico, or Connecticut
Some manufacturers use an alternate designation:
- American Market Selection (AMS) – synonymous with Double Claro
- English Market Selection (EMS) – 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
Lighter colors are often presumed to indicate milder flavor; darker colors, stronger and sweeter flavors due to the presence of sugars and oils, and longer fermenting. However, the extent of the wrapper's influence on a cigar's overall flavor is an ongoing controversy among aficionados.
[edit] Fillers
The majority of a cigar is made up of fillers, wrapped-up bunches of leaves in its interior. Fillers of various strengths are usually blended to produce unique cigar flavors. 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 (dry) Seco taken from the middle of the plant, and on to the strong Ligero from the upper leaves exposed to the most sunlight. Large-gauge cigars have a greater capacity to contain filler, and thus have greater potential to provide a full body and/or complex flavor. 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 up leaves as well as stems and other bits. Recently some manufacturers have created what they term "medium filler" cigars. They do not use whole leaves but part of the leaves. The quality is usually much better than short filler cigars because the leaves are not chopped up and there are no stems and bits in the filler. Short filler cigars are easy to identify when smoked since they often burn hotter and the smoker will be spitting out bits and pieces from the smoking end. Long filled cigars of high quality should burn evenly and consistently.
[edit] Binders
Binders are elastic leaves used to hold together the bunches of fillers.
[edit] Size and shape
Cigars are commonly categorized by the size and shape of the cigar, which together are known as a 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). For example, most non-Cuban robustos have a ring gauge of approximately 50 and a length of approximately 5 inches. Robustos which are of Cuban origin always have a ring gauge of 50 and a length of 4 7/8 inches.
[edit] Parejo
The most common shape is the parejo, which has a cylindrical body, straight sides, one end open, and a round cap on the other end which is either snipped off, sliced perpendicularly (a V-cut), or punched through before smoking.
Parejos are designated by the following terms:
- Coronas
- Mareva/Petit Corona (5" x 42)
- Corona (5 1/2" x 42)
- Corona Gorda (5 5/8" x 46)
- Rothschilds (4 1/2" x 50) after the Rothschild family
- Hermosos No. 4 (5" x 48)
- Robusto (4 7/8" x 50)
- Toro (6" x 50)
- Cervantes/Lonsdale (6 1/2" x 42), named for Hugh Cecil Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale
- Dalia (6 3/4" x 43)
- Corona Grande (6 1/8" x 42)
- Julieta, also known as Churchill (7" x 47), named for Winston Churchill
- Prominente/Double Corona (7 5/8" x 49)
- Presidente (8" x 50)
- Gran Corona ("A") (9 1/4" x 47)
- Panatelas – longer and generally thinner than Coronas
- Small Panatela (5" x 33)
- Short Panatela (5" x 38)
- Slim Panatela (6" x 34)
- Panatela (6" x 38)
- Long Panatela (7 1/2" x 38)
[edit] Figurado
Irregularly-shaped cigars are known as figurados and are sometimes considered of higher quality because they are more difficult to make. Figurados include the following:
- 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.
- Tuscanian - The typical Italian cigar, created in the early nineteenth 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, which is the largest selling cigar shape in America.
Arturo Fuente, a large cigar manufacturer based in the Dominican Republic, has also manufactured figurados in exotic shapes ranging from chili 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, saying:
| In the old days, torpedo could mean a perfecto or a pyramid shape cigar. After the Cuban Revolution the meaning leans toward the pyramid rather than the perfecto. Some cigar authorities insist that the correct meaning of a torpedo should be referring to a perfecto and not a pyramid. The majority of people who use torpedo to mean pyramid have got it wrong. I find it rather funny that a slang word can be incorrectly misunderstood by the majority. |
[edit] Flavor
Virtually all cigar aficionados enjoy the practice because of the rich and varied flavors one observes when smoking, although some eschew the connoisseurial qualities in favour of other factors. For those drawn by taste, each brand and type of cigar carries different qualities of taste. Generally, cigars with lighter colored wrappers are milder in flavor and have less of a smoky aftertaste. Darker wrappers are typically richer in flavor, although the specific flavors are not unique to any particular style or type of tobacco. Flavors of cigars whether mild, medium, or full bodied are not indicators of quality. Like all kinds of flavors they are highly personal.
Unlike cigarettes, cigars taste very little of smoke, and usually very much of tobacco with overtones of other tastes. A fine cigar--especially one of Cuban origin prior to 1990--can have virtually no taste of smoke whatsoever.
Some of the more common flavors one observes while smoking a cigar include:
- Spice
- Cocoa / chocolate
- Peat / moss / earth
- Coffee
- Nut
- Wood
- Berry
Many different things affect the scent of cigar smoke: quality of the cigar, added flavors, tobacco type, cigar age, cigar humidity, production method (handmade vs. machine-made) and more.
Non-smokers subjected to second-hand cigar smoke have many different opinions about the scent of cigar smoke. Some enjoy the cigar smoke, noticing the difference between cigar smoke and the more common scent of cigarette smoke.[3] However, other non-smokers do not appreciate or enjoy the scent of cigar smoke.
The most ardent enjoyers of cigar smoking will sometimes keep personal journals of cigars they've enjoyed, complete with personal ratings, description of flavors observed, sizes, brands, etc. The qualities and characteristics of cigar tasting are very similar to those of wine, Scotch, beer, cognacs and tequila. Within a given specification, there are endless varieties. This dynamic is part of the appeal to which cigar smokers are continually drawn.
[edit] Popular culture
Cigars are often presented as stereotypical rich man's accessory. Cigars are often smoked to celebrate good fortune, like the birth of a child, a graduation, a big business accomplishment, etc. . Some buy and keep a cigar 'for luck' with regard to a bet, with the intention of smoking it after winning the bet.
King Edward VII 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 cheap American cigars has long been named King Edward.
It is perhaps important for the cigar smoker to ritualize the habit and to smoke fine and expensive cigars, for the addictive element of cigarettes is also present in the cigar: nicotine. The smoker can minimize their risk of addiction, and resulting cancers, by treating the cigar as a special occasion, and as noted above logging their smokes. This comes closest to the Native American use of the tobacco plant.
Two men who died during the zenith of the cigar's popularity owing ultimately to nicotine addiction and the consequent oral cancer were President Ulysses S. Grant of the USA and Dr. Sigmund Freud. Both these men were noted for regularly smoking an entire box (20 cigars) a day.
Although Grant was able for the duration of the Civil War to stop drinking, he was most often seen with a cigar and after his Presidency, Grant contracted cancer. Not wishing to leave his wife Julia penniless, Grant decided to write and publish his memoirs while in great pain.
Freud likewise succumbed in the 1930s to a habit which he seems to have been reluctant to psychoanalyze. Challenged on the "phallic" shape of the cigar, Freud is supposed to have replied, "Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar."
Karl Marx the philosopher, and Groucho Marx the comedian were both heavy cigar smokers.
Famous quotes about the cigar include not only Freud's but also from a Rudyard Kipling poem: "A woman is only a woman: but a good cigar is a smoke." Also: "What this country needs is a good five cent cigar." The cigar was also a staple for vaudeville jokes and slapstick, from the overexcited new father who says "have a baby, my wife just had a cigar" to the exploding cigar which may have been a coded proletarian gesture of resistance to the cigar, which with the top hat and tails was the semiotic for "capitalism" in the early 20th century.
In Stalag 17, P.O.W. JJ Sefton admits that he trades cigarettes with the Germans because he has no need for them; he only smokes cigars.
Several storylines in the 1990s sitcom Seinfeld revolve around or pay regard to a box of Cuban cigars in season 4. Cigars rolled by Dominicans were part of a storyline on a season-8 episode.
Cigars were allegedly part of the sexual relationship between President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky (see Monicagate).
In the 1983 film Scarface, Tony Montana transitioned from cigarettes to cigars as he became more successful and Americanized.
Since 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.
Famous jazz musicians, most notably Miles Davis, were proud cigar smokers, appreciating their fine flavor & aroma, though never did they smoke on major stage. According to Davis, his favourite brand was Augusta, a rare brand only sold in restaurants & coffee shops, or directly to certain famous people, like Davis.
[edit] Health effects
Cigars are frequently believed to pose fewer health risks than cigarettes, due to the fact that cigar smokers generally do not inhale and smoke cigars only occasionally.[4] Studies by the NIH show increased risk for oral cancers but a slightly lower risk of lung cancer, at least for users who smoke one to two per day. The risks for less frequent cigar use are not known.[5] The NIH study has been accused of using misleading statistics.[6]
[edit] See also
