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A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be Tobacco smoking. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder leaf which holds the filler together, and a wrapper leaf, which is often the highest quality leaf used. Often there will be a cigar band printed with the cigar manufacturer's logo. Modern cigars often come with two bands, especially Cuban cigar bands, showing Limited Edition ( Edición Limitada) bands displaying the year of production.
Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities primarily in Central America and the islands of the Caribbean, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, and Puerto Rico; it is also produced in the Eastern United States, Brazil and in the Mediterranean countries of Italy, Spain (in the Canary Islands), and Greece and in Indonesia and the Philippines of Southeast Asia.
Regular Tobacco smoking carries serious health risks, including increased risk of developing various types and subtypes of , respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, periodontal diseases, Tooth decay and Tooth loss, and malignant diseases.
Following the arrival of Europeans with the first wave of European colonization, tobacco became one of the primary products fueling European colonialism, and also became a driving factor in the incorporation of African slave labor. The Spanish introduced tobacco to Europeans in about 1528, and by 1533, Diego Columbus mentioned a tobacco merchant of Lisbon in his will, showing how quickly the traffic had sprung up. The French, Spanish, and Portuguese initially referred to the plant as the "sacred herb" because of its alleged medicinal properties.
In time, Spanish and other European sailors adopted the practice of smoking rolls of leaves, as did the Spanish and Portuguese . Smoking primitive cigars spread to Spanish Empire, Portugal, and eventually France, most probably through Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal, who gave his name to nicotine. Later, tobacco use spread to the Italian Wars, the Dutch Empire, and, after Sir Walter Raleigh's voyages to the Americas, to Great Britain. Tobacco smoking became familiar throughout Europe—in Tobacco pipe in Britain—by the mid-16th century.
Spanish cultivation of tobacco began in earnest in 1531 on the islands of Hispaniola and Santo Domingo. In 1542, tobacco started to be grown commercially in North America, when Spaniards established the first cigar factory in Cuba. Tobacco was originally thought to have medicinal qualities, but some considered it evil. It was denounced by Philip II of Spain and James I of England.
Around 1592, the Spanish galleon San Clemente brought of tobacco seed to the Philippines over the Acapulco-Manila trade route. It was distributed among Roman Catholic missionaries, who found excellent climates and soils for growing high-quality tobacco there. The use of the cigar did not become popular until the mid 18th century, and although there are few drawings from this era, there are some reports. smoking a cigar]]
It is believed that Israel Putnam brought back a cache of Cuban cigar during the Seven Years' War, making cigar smoking popular in the US after the American Revolution. He also brought Cuban tobacco seeds, which he planted in the Hartford area of New England. This reportedly resulted in the development of the renowned shade-grown Connecticut wrapper.
Towards the end of the 18th century and in the 19th century, cigar smoking was common, while were comparatively rare. Towards the end of the 19th century, Rudyard Kipling wrote his famous smoking poem, The Betrothed (1886). The cigar business was an important industry and factories employed many people before mechanized manufacturing of cigars became practical. Cigar workers in both Cuba and the US were active in labor strikes and disputes from early in the 19th century, and the rise of modern labor unions can be traced to the CMIU and other cigar worker unions.Lerman, N. (ed.) Gender and Technology: A Reader, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, (2003), pp. 212–13
In 1869, Spanish cigar manufacturer Vicente Martinez Ybor moved his Principe de Gales (Prince of Wales) operations from the Cuban cigar of Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida to escape the turmoil of the Ten Years' War. Other manufacturers followed, and Key West became an important cigar manufacturing center. In 1885, Ybor moved again, buying land near the 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 factory nearby the same year, and many other cigar manufacturers followed, especially after an 1886 fire that gutted much of Key West. Thousands of Cuban-American and Spanish-American 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 million "clear Havana" cigars, earning the town the nickname "Cigar Capital of the World". At its peak, there were 150 cigar factories in Ybor city, but by early in the next decade, the factories had closed.
In New York, cigars were made by rollers working in their 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 (then a separate municipality) 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 US, 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 rolled by hand—especially in Central America and Cuba, as well as in small chinchales in sizable cities in the US. Boxes of hand-rolled cigars bear the phrase totalmente a mano (totally by hand) or hecho a mano (made by hand). These premium hand-rolled cigars are significantly different from the machine-made cigars sold in packs at drugstores and gas stations. Since the 1990s there has been severe contention between producers and aficionados of premium handmade cigars and cigarette manufacturing companies that create machine-made cigars.
The leaf will continue to be baled, inspected, un-baled, re-inspected, and baled again during the aging cycle. When it has matured to manufacturer's specifications it is sorted for appearance and overall quality, and used as filler or wrapper accordingly. During this process, leaves are continually moistened to prevent damage.
Quality cigars are still handmade. An experienced cigar-roller can produce hundreds of 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 possible. Once purchased, proper storage is typically in a specialized Cedrela odorata-lined wooden humidor.
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 reconstituted tobacco pulp is used for the wrapper. Chopped leaves and a pulp wrapper alter the flavor and burning characteristics of the result vis-a-vis handmade cigars.
Historically, a lector or reader was employed to entertain cigar factory workers. This practice became obsolete once for portable music players became available, but it is still practiced in some Cuban factories.
Altadis, a Spanish-owned private concern, produces cigars in the US, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras, and owns a 50% stake in Corporación Habanos S.A., the state owned national Cuban tobacco company. It also makes cigarettes. The Scandinavian Tobacco Group produces cigars in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and the United States; it also makes pipe tobacco and fine cut tobacco. The Group includes General Cigar Co.
The town of Tamboril in Santiago, Dominican Republic is considered by many as today's "Cigar Capital of the World" housing more cigar factories and rollers than anywhere else in the world. According to Cigar Aficionado magazine, 44% of the world's most traded cigars come from the Dominican Republic, the world's largest producer of cigars, especially from the fertile lands of the Cibao capital, where 90% of the factories are located. The area has also been the largest supplier of cigars to the US in the last decades.
Cigar Aficionado, launched in 1992, 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 presents pro-smoking arguments at length, and argues that cigars are safer than cigarettes, since they do not have the thousands of chemical additives that cigarette manufactures add to the cutting floor scraps of tobacco used as cigarette filler. The publication also presents arguments that risks are a part of daily life and that (contrary to the evidence discussed in Health effects) cigar smoking has health benefits, that moderation eliminates most or all health risk, and that cigar smokers live to old age, that health research is flawed, and that several 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 main (but not sole) focus of the magazine, creating a symbiosis between product and lifestyle.
In the US, cigars have historically been 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 US 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 US, but laws are unevenly enforced: a 2000 study found that three-quarters of web cigar sites allowed minors to purchase them.
In 2009, the US Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act provided the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco. In 2016, a deeming rule extended the FDA's authority to additional tobacco products including cigars, e-cigarettes and hookah. The objective of the law is to reduce the impact of tobacco on public health by preventing Americans from starting to use tobacco products, encourage current users to quit, and decrease the harms of tobacco product use.
In the US, inexpensive cigars are sold in convenience stores, Filling station, , and pharmacies. Premium cigars are sold in , , and other specialized establishments. Some cigar stores are part of Chain store, which have varied in size: in the US, 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.
Wrapper tobacco produced without the gauze canopies under which "shade grown" leaf is grown, generally more coarse in texture and stronger in flavor, is commonly known as "sun grown". A number of different countries are used for the production of wrapper tobacco, including Cuba, Ecuador, Indonesia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Cameroon, and the United States.
While dozens of minor wrapper shades have been touted by manufacturers, the seven most common classifications are as follows,Richard Perelman, Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars. Perelman, Pioneer & Co., 2004; p. 12. ranging from lightest to darkest:
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.
By blending various varieties of filler tobacco, cigar makers create distinctive strength, aroma, and flavor profiles for their various branded products. In general, fatter cigars hold more filler leaves, allowing a greater potential for the creation of complex flavors. In addition to the variety of tobacco employed, the country of origin can be one important determinant of taste, with different growing environments producing distinctive flavors.
The fermentation and aging process adds to this variety, as does the particular part of the tobacco plant harvested, with bottom leaves (Spanish: volado) having a mild flavor and burning easily, middle leaves (Spanish: seco) having a somewhat stronger flavor, with potent and spicy ligero leaves taken from the sun-drenched top of the plant. When used, ligero is always folded into the middle of the filler bunch due to its slow-burning characteristics.
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.
If full leaves are used as filler, a cigar is said to be composed of "long filler". Cigars made from smaller bits of leaf, including many machine-made cigars, are said to be made of "short filler".
If a cigar is completely constructed (filler, binder, and wrapper) of tobacco produced in only one country, it is referred to in the cigar industry as a "puro", from the Spanish word for "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). In Cuba, next to Havana, there is a display of the world's longest rolled cigars.
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, but by the 1930s they had fallen out of fashion and all but disappeared.
They have recently received a small resurgence in popularity, and currently many manufacturers produce figurados alongside the simpler parejos. The Cuban cigar brand Cuaba only has figurados in their range.
Figurados include the following:
In practice, the terms Torpedo and Pyramid are often used interchangeably, even among knowledgeable cigar smokers. Min Ron Nee, the Hong Kong-based cigar expert whose work An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars is generally considered to be the definitive work on cigars and cigar terms, defines Torpedo as "cigar slang". Nee regards the majority usage of torpedoes as pyramids by another name as acceptable.
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 available to the public.
The basic types of cigar cutter include:
The cigar should be rotated during lighting to achieve an even burn while slowly drawn with gentle puffs. If a match is used it should be allowed to burn past its head before being put to the cigar, to avoid imparting unwelcome flavors or chemicals to the smoke. Many specialized gas and fluid lighters are made for lighting cigars. The tip of the cigar should minimally touch any flame, with special care used with torch lighters to avoid charring the tobacco leaves.
A third and most traditional way to light a cigar is to use a splinter of Cedrus known as a spill, which is lit separately before using. Lighting Cigars Article, Cigars4Dummies, 2009 some cigars come individually wrapped in thin cedar sleeves or envelopes, and these can be used to assist in lighting them.
Among the factors which contribute to the scent and flavor of cigar smoke are tobacco types and qualities used for filler, binder, and wrapper, age and aging method, humidity, production techniques (handmade vs. machine-made), and added flavors. Among wrappers, darker tend to produce a sweetness, while lighter usually have a "drier", more neutral taste.
Evaluating the flavor of cigars is in some respects similar to wine-tasting. Journals are available for recording personal ratings, description of flavors observed, sizes, brands, etc. Some words used to describe cigar flavor and texture include; spicy, peppery (red or black), sweet, harsh, burnt, green, earthy, woody, cocoa, chestnut, roasted, aged, nutty, creamy, cedar, oak, chewy, fruity, and leathery.
The most odorous chemicals in cigar smoke are . Along with , they are also the most odorous chemicals in cigar smokers' 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 bond cleavage of nicotine or by Maillard reaction between and in the tobacco.
Cigar smoke is more alkaline than cigarette smoke, and is absorbed more readily by the Oral mucosa, making it easier for the smoker to absorb nicotine without having to inhale. A single premium cigar may contain as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes.
Most humidors come with a plastic or metal case with a sponge that works as the humidifier, although most recent versions are of polymer acryl. The latter are filled only with distilled water; the former may use a solution of propylene glycol and distilled water. Humidifiers, and the cigars within them, may become contaminated with bacteria if they are kept too moist. New technologies employing plastic beads or gels which stabilize humidity are becoming widely available.
A new humidor requires seasoning, after which a constant humidity must be maintained. The thicker the cedar lining the better. Many humidors contain an analog signal or Digital data hygrometer to aid in maintaining a desired humidity level. There are three types of analog: metal spring, natural hair, and synthetic hair.
In recent times Electric Humidors, which feature a thermoelectric humidification system have become popular for larger cigar collections.
Danger of mortality increases proportionally to use, with smokers of one to two cigars per day showing a 2% increase in death rate, compared to non-smokers.David M. Burns, "Cigar Smoking: Overview and Current State of the Science," Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph, No. 9. National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, 1998; NIH publication no. 98-4302; p. 6. The precise statistical health risks to those who smoke less than daily is not established.
The depth of inhalation of cigar smoke into the lungs appears to be an important determinant of lung cancer risk:
Cigar smoking can lead to nicotine addiction and cigarette usage. For those who inhale and smoke several cigars a day, the health risk is similar to cigarette smokers. Cigar smoking can also increase the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
So-called "little cigars" are commonly inhaled and likely pose the same health risks as cigarettes, while premium cigars are not commonly inhaled or habitually used.
Among US adults ages 18 and older, 3% reported that they smoke cigars some days or every day (6% of men, 1% of women) in the 2015 National Health Interview Survey.
Cigar use among youth declined sharply from 12% reporting having smoked a cigar within the past 30 days approaching the peak of the cigar boom in 2011 to 8% by 2016. Among high school students, cigar use is more common among males (10%) than females (6%). For African American high school students, cigar use is more prevalent (10%) than cigarette use (4%).
Families in the cigar industry
Nearly all modern premium cigar makers are members of long-established cigar families, or purport to be, most originally rooted in the historic Cuban cigar industry. 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. cigar]]
In 1992, Cigar Aficionado magazine created the "Cigar Hall of Fame" and recognized the following six individuals:
Other families in the cigar industry (2015)
Marketing and distribution
Pure tobacco, hand rolled cigars are marketed via advertisements, product placement in movies and other media, sporting events, cigar-friendly magazines such as Cigar Aficionado, and cigar dinners. Since handmade cigars are a premium product with a hefty price, advertisements often include depictions of affluence, sensual imagery, and explicit or implied celebrity endorsement.
Composition
Cigars are composed of three types of tobacco leaves, whose variations determine smoking and flavor characteristics:
Wrapper
A cigar's outermost layer, or wrapper (Spanish: capa), is the most expensive component of a cigar.Anwer Bati, The Cigar Companion: The Connoisseur's Guide. Third Edition. Philadelphia, PA: Running Press, 1997; p. 27. 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. Wrappers are frequently grown underneath huge canopies made of gauze so as to diffuse direct sunlight and are fermented separately from other rougher cigar components, with a view to the production of a thinly-veined, smooth, supple leaf.
Candela ("Double Claro") very light, slightly greenish. Achieved by picking leaves before maturity and drying quickly, the color coming from retained green chlorophyll. Claro very light tan or yellowish Colorado Claro medium brown Colorado ("Rosado") reddish-brown Colorado Maduro darker brown Maduro very dark brown Oscuro ("Double Maduro") black American Market Selection AMS synonymous with Candela ("Double Claro") English Market Selection EMS any natural colored wrapper which is darker than Candela, but lighter than Maduro "Wrappers," The Cigarbox.net, retrieved 20 October 2014. Spanish Market Selection SMS one of the two darkest colors, Maduro or Oscuro
Binder
Beneath the wrapper is a small bunch of "filler" leaves bound together inside of a leaf called a "binder" (Spanish: capote). The binder leaf is typically the sun-saturated leaf from the top part of a tobacco plant and is selected for its elasticity and durability in the rolling process. Unlike the wrapper leaf, which must be uniform in appearance and smooth in texture, the binder leaf may show evidence of physical blemishes or lack uniform coloration. The binder leaf is generally considerably thicker and hardier than the wrapper leaf surrounding it.
Filler
The bulk of a cigar is "filler"—a bound bunch of tobacco leaves. These leaves are folded by hand to allow air passageways down the length of the cigar, through which smoke is drawn after the cigar is lit. A cigar rolled with insufficient air passage is referred to by a smoker as "too tight"; one with excessive airflow creating an excessively fast, hot burn is regarded as "too loose". Considerable skill and dexterity on the part of the cigar roller is needed to avoid these opposing pitfalls—a primary factor in the superiority of hand-rolled cigars over their machine-made counterparts.
Size and shape
Cigars are commonly categorized by their size and shape, which together are known as the vitola.
Parejo
The most common shape is the parejo, sometimes referred to as simply "coronas", which have traditionally been the Benchmarking against which all other cigar formats are measured. They have a Cylinder shape their entire length, one end open, and a round tobacco-leaf "cap" on the other end that must be sliced off, notched, or pierced before smoking.
Cigarillo ~ ~ 21 ~ 8 cm ~ 8 mm Sizes may vary significantly. According to CigarCyclopedia, cigarillo is shorter than 6 inches (15 cm) and thinner than 29 ring gauge (11.5 mm). Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars 2010 Rothschild 48 11 cm 19 mm after the Rothschild family Robolo 60 11 cm 24 mm Robusto 50 12 cm 20 mm Small Panatella 5 33 13 cm 13 mm Ascot 24 11 cm 13 mm Petit Corona 42 13 cm 17 mm Carlota 35 14 cm 14 mm Corona 42 14 cm 17 mm Corona Gorda 46 14 cm 18 mm Panatella 6 38 15 cm 15 mm Toro 6 50 15 cm 20 mm Corona Grande 42 16 cm 17 mm Lonsdale 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 Double Corona 49 19 cm 19 mm Presidente 8 50 20 cm 20 mm Gran Corona 47 23 cm 19 mm Double Toro/Gordo 6 60 15 cm 24 mm
Figurado
Irregularly shaped cigars are known as figurados and are often priced higher than generally similar sized parejos of a like combination of tobaccos because they are more difficult to make.
Torpedo Like a parejo except that the cap is pointed Cheroot Like a parejo except that there is no cap, i.e. both ends are open 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 Chisel Is much like the Torpedo, but instead of coming to a rounded point, comes to a flatter, broader edge, much like an actual chisel. This shape was patented and can only be found in the La Flor Dominicana (LFD) brand
Cigarillo
A cigarillo is a machine-made cigar that is shorter and narrower than a traditional cigar but larger than little cigars, filtered cigars, and cigarettes, thus similar in size and composition to small panatela sized cigars, , and traditional blunts. Cigarillos are usually not filtered, although some have plastic or wood tips, and unlike other cigars, some are inhaled when used. Cigarillos are sold in varying quantities: singles, two-packs, three-packs, and five-packs. Cigarillos are very inexpensive: in the United States, usually sold for less than a dollar. Sometimes they are informally called small cigars, mini cigars, or club cigars. Some famous cigar brands, such as Cohiba or Davidoff, also make cigarillos—Cohiba Mini and Davidoff Club Cigarillos, for example. And there are purely cigarillo brands, such as Café Crème, Dannemann Moods, Mehari's, Al Capone, and Swisher Sweets. Cigarillos are often used in making marijuana cigars.
Little cigars
Little cigars (sometimes called small cigars or miniatures in the UK) differ greatly from regular cigars. They weigh less than cigars and , but, more importantly, they resemble cigarettes in size, shape, packaging, and filters. Sales of little cigars quadrupled in the US from 1971 to 1973 in response to the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned the broadcast of cigarette Advertising and required stronger health warnings on . 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 US, sales of little cigars reached an all-time high in 2006, fueled in great part by favorable taxation. In some states, little cigars have successfully been taxed at the rate of cigarettes, such as Illinois, as well as other states. This has caused yet another loophole, in which manufacturers classify their products as "filtered cigars" instead to avoid the higher tax rate. Yet, many continue to argue that there is in fact a distinction between little cigars and filtered cigars. Little cigars offer a similar draw and overall feel to cigarettes, but with aged and fermented tobaccos, while filtered cigars are said to be more closely related to traditional cigars, and are not meant to be inhaled. Research shows that people do inhale smoke from little cigars.
Smoking
Most machine-made cigars have pre-formed holes in one end or a wood or plastic tip for drawing in the smoke. Hand-rolled cigars require the blunt end to be pierced before lighting. The usual way to smoke a cigar is to not inhale, but to draw the smoke into the mouth. Some smokers inhale the smoke into the lungs, particularly with little cigars. 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 a handful of cigars are cut or twirled on both ends, the vast majority come with one straight cut end and the other capped with one or more small pieces of wrapper adhered with either a natural tobacco paste or with a mixture of flour and water. The cap end of a cigar must be cut or pierced for the cigar smoke to be drawn properly.
Lighting
The head, or cap, of the cigar is usually the end closest to the cigar band, the other the "foot". The band identifies the type of the cigar and may be removed or left on. The smoker cuts or pierces the cap before lighting.
Flavor
Each brand and type of cigar has its unique taste. Whether a cigar is mild, medium, or full bodied does not correlate with quality.
Smoke
Smoke is produced by incomplete combustion of tobacco during which at least three kinds of chemical reactions occur: pyrolysis breaks down Organic compound 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 Nitrosamine and volatile organic compounds, with the detailed composition unknown.
Parasites
Cigars, alongside other tobacco products, can be infested by Parasitism such as the Lasioderma serricorne (tobacco beetle) and the Ephestia elutella (tobacco moth), which are the most widespread and damaging parasites to the tobacco industry. (1995). 9789401727235, Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 9789401727235 Infestation can range from the tobacco cultivated in the fields to the Tobacco leaves used for manufacturing cigars, cigarillos, cigarettes, etc. Both the larvae of Lasioderma serricorne and of Ephestia elutella are considered a pest.
Humidors
The level of humidity in which cigars are kept has a significant effect on their taste and evenness of burn. It is believed that a cigar's flavor best evolves when stored at a relative humidity similar to where the tobacco is grown, and in most cases, the cigars rolled, of approximately 65–70% and a temperature of . Dry cigars become fragile and burn faster while damp cigars burn unevenly and take on a heavy acidic flavor.
are used to maintain an even humidity level. Without one, cigars will lose moisture and acquire the ambient humidity within 2 to 3 days. A humidor's interior lining is typically constructed with three types of wood: Spanish cedar, American (or Canadian) red cedar, and Honduran mahogany. Other materials used for making or lining a humidor are , tin (mainly seen in older early humidors) and copper, used widely in the 1920s–1950s.
Accessories
A wide variety of cigar accessories are available, in varying qualities.
Travel case
Travel cases protect cigars from direct exposure to the elements and minimize potential damage. Most come in expandable or sturdy leather, although metal leather and plastic lined cases are found. Some feature cardboard or metal tubes for additional protection.
Tube
are used to carry small numbers of cigars, typically one or five, referred to by their number of "fingers". They are usually made from stainless steel, and used for short durations. For longer, a built in humidifier and hygrometer is used.
Ashtray
are used for collecting the cigar ash produced by the cigar. Such ashtrays are typically larger than those used for cigarette smoking.
Holder
A cigar holder is small tube in which the end of the cigar is held while smoked, to protect the hand from acquiring the odor of a burning cigar, historically used by women (for cigarettes as well). A cigar stand is a device used to keep a lit cigar out of an ashtray.
Health effects
Like other forms of tobacco use, cigar smoking poses a significant health risk depending on dosage: risks are greater for those who smoke more cigars, smoke them longer, or inhale more. A review of 22 studies found that cigar smoking is associated with lung cancer, oral cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, oropharyngeal cancer, laryngeal cancer, coronary heart disease (CHD), and aortic aneurysm. Among cigar smokers who reported that they did not inhale, relative mortality (likelihood of death) risk was still highly elevated for oral, esophageal, and laryngeal cancers.
When cigar smokers don't inhale or smoke few cigars per day, the risks are only slightly above those of never smokers. Risks of lung cancer increase with increasing inhalation and with increasing number of cigars smoked per day, but the effect of inhalation is more powerful than that for number of cigars per day. When 5 or more cigars are smoked per day and there is moderate inhalation, the lung cancer risks of cigar smoking approximate those of a one pack per day cigarette smoker. As the tobacco smoke exposure of the lung in cigar smokers increases to approximate the frequency of smoking and depth of inhalation found in cigarette smokers, the difference in lung cancer risks produced by these two behaviors disappears.Burns, "Cigar Smoking: Overview and Current State of the Science," p. 8.
Popularity
The prevalence of cigar smoking varies depending on location, historical period, and population surveyed. The United States is the top consuming country by total sales by a considerable margin, followed by Germany and the United Kingdom. The U.S. and Western Europe account for about 75% of cigar sales worldwide.
United States
Consumption of cigars in the U.S. rose from 6.2 billion in 2000 to the peak of an enormous "cigar boom" of 13.8 billion in 2012, which had receded to 11.4 billion by 2015.
In popular culture
In a reversal of previous decades' portrayal, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s major U.S. print media began to feature cigars favorably. Cigar use was generally framed as a lucrative business or trendy habit, rather than as a Risk factor. It is an item whose highest quality is still something most can afford, at least for special occasions. Historic portrayals of the wealthy often caricatured cigar smokers as wearing and tail coat. Cigars are often given out and smoked to celebrate special occasions, such as the birth of a baby, but also graduations, promotions, and other totems of success. The idiom "close but no cigar" comes from the practice of giving away cigars as in funfair games which require the player to hit a target (e.g., a bullseye).
See also
Footnotes
Further reading
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