From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Cigar (disambiguation).
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.
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
 |
This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability. |
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) |
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
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]
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]
| 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. |
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu