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Background and History
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.
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 the
microclimate allows high-quality tobacco to be grown; and the skill of the Cuban cigar makers.
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.
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.
