A semi-airtight cigar storage tube and a double guillotine-style cutter
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, the
Philippines, and the
Eastern United States.
Etymology
The word "cigar" originated from
sikar, the
Yucatec Mayan word for smoking, which became
cigarro in Spanish, probably from the Mayan
sikar ("to smoke rolled tobacco leaves" – from
sik, "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".
[1]
History
Explorer
Christopher Columbus 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.
[2] 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
Conquistadors, 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.
[3]
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
cigarettes 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.
Inside an Ybor City cigar factory c. 1920
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
[4] 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".
[5][6][7][8]
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.
[9]
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.
[5]
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.
[5] Boxes of hand-rolled cigars bear the phrase
totalmente a mano (totally by hand) or
hecho a mano (made by hand).
[edit] Historical figures
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 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.
[10] 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.
[11]
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.
[10]
Winston Churchill, who has been credited with the practice of dunking a cigar in
port wine or
brandy,
[12]
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 honour.
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.
[13] Many other celebrities were well-known cigar smokers, including
Groucho Marx,
George Burns,
Mark Twain,
Jack Benny,
Milton Berle,
Rush Limbaugh,
Ernie Kovacs and
Bill Cosby.
[14]
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
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 dry 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 books 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.
[edit] Dominant manufacturers
Two firms dominate the cigar industry.
Altadis,
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,
lighters, and
matches.
[15]
[edit] Families in the cigar industry
|
|
This section contains information which may be of unclear or questionable importance or relevance to the article's subject matter. Please help improve this article by clarifying or removing superfluous information. (August 2010) |
Nearly all modern cigar makers are members of long-established cigar families, or purport to be
[1]
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 packaging
[16]
In 1992,
Cigar Aficionado magazine created the "Cigar Hall of Fame" and recognized the following six individuals:
[17]
- Edgar M. Cullman, Chairman, General Cigar Company, New York, United States
- Zino Davidoff, Founder, Davidoff et Cie., Geneva, Switzerland
- Carlos Fuente, Sr., Chairman, Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia., Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic
- Frank Llaneza, Chairman, Villazon & Co., Tampa, Florida, 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
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.
[citation needed] The release of the Fuente Fuente OpusX in 1995 heralded the first quality wrapper grown in the Dominican Republic.
[citation needed]
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.
[citation needed]
Not only are premium cigar-makers typically families, but so are those who grow the premium cigar tobacco.
[citation needed]
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.
[citation needed] Some families, such as the well-known Padrons, have crossed over from tobacco growing to cigar making.
[citation needed]
While the Padron family has been growing tobacco since the 1850s, they
began making cigars that bear their family's name in 1964.
[citation needed]
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.
[citation needed]
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.
[citation needed]
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.
[citation needed]
[edit] Marketing and distribution
Cigars are marketed via advertisements,
product placement 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.
[18]
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.
[19] 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.
[20]
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,
[21] and cigar ads, unlike cigarette ads, need not mention health risks.
[18] 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.
[21]
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.
[22]
Inexpensive cigars are sold in
convenience stores, grocery stores, and pharmacies, mostly as
self-serve items. Premium cigars are sold in
tobacconists,
cigar bars, and other specialized establishments.
[23] Some cigar stores are part of
chains, 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.
[24] Non-traditional outlets for cigars include hotel shops, restaurants, vending machines
[23] and the Internet.
[22]
[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. Over 100 wrapper shades are identified by manufacturers, but the
seven most common classifications are as follows, from lightest to
darkest:
[25]
Cigar Wrapper Color Chart
| 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; 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, USA. |
National Register of Historic Places
Founder Jack Daniel
A small bottle of Jack Daniel's
1.14 L bottle of Jack Daniel's
Whiskey barrels in the distillery
Inside the barrels
A Jack Daniel's belt buckle
