Do You Know Everything There Is to Know About Cigars?

You say "Cuban," we say "cigar!" Despite a longtime U.S. trade embargo with Cuba, Americans are just as mad about Cuban cigars as people in other countries.

As the name suggests, a humidor is a box or case that provides a humid (but not too damp) atmosphere for cigar storage. Most humidors are made of wood.

While cigars are more valuable when they're made of just one kind of tobacco, a good humidor is often built from a mix of cedar and mahogany woods. Manzanita, a scrub brush found in the American west, isn't often used.

While old copies of Communist newspapers would be awesome, it would also be impractical, as a lot of cigars come from capitalist countries. No, they're wrapped in tobacco leaf -- one significant difference from cigarettes, which have rolling papers.

A "corona" is a standard-shape cigar with a length of between 5 and 6 inches. It has one end open and one end capped.

Tampa, Florida, is actually a significant maker of cigars. Tobacco itself, of course, is grown across the American Southeast.

"Cigar Aficionado" is owned by the same publisher as "Wine Spectator," but the name is not the same. "Aficionado" was likely chosen because it is a term that evokes Spain and Latin America. "Smoke" is a rival publication.

Unlike cigarettes, cigars are made to be puffed. The smoke is not drawn into the lungs. This is part of the basis for cigar lovers' claim that cigars are healthier than cigarettes.

A cigar that is too tightly packed and rolled doesn't allow rich flavors to develop. However, if leaves are too loose, a cigar will burn too fast. It's a tradeoff.

Kennedy bought up more than 1,000 Cuban cigars before instituting the ban. (Sigh. Another idol of incorruptibility falls).

Naturally, cigars are a bit more valuable when they have this quality. It's not unlike whisky, which can be single-malt or blended.

Don't believe us? A survey showed that the readership of "Cigar Aficionado" reported an average household income of $194,000. There's a reason why rich men in cartoons are often shown waggling cigars.

Cohibas are associated with Cuba's national cigar company, but there is also a Dominican brand of Cohibas. These latter kind are the only Cohibas that can legally be sold in the US.

Cigarillos are wrapped in tobacco leaf, like cigars (and unlike cigarettes). The difference is that they are smaller and thinner.

A cheroot is a small cigar clipped at both ends. Inexpensive to make, they were popular with the working man in South Asia, and make appearances in literature around 19th-century India and Burma.

This saying comes from the days when cigars were a prize in carnival games. (It's hard to imagine this happening in the health-conscious 21st century.)

The color in question is the color of the wrapper, the part of the cigar that is visible. Other colors include "candela," "maduro," and "claro."

What's the theory here, really? "My wife has just put in the hardest 10 hours she'll ever live through ... Boy, I need a smoke!"

"Hecho a mano" means the cigars were machine-bundled but finished by hand. However, cigars completely rolled by hand from start to finish are "totalmente a mano."

We can't go into details here. But suffice it to say that a cigar tube took on a strange role as a phallic stand-in in the biggest political/sex scandal of the 1990s.

Cigar smoking shouldn't be taken for a healthy habit, but it's almost certainly healthier than cigarette smoking. A lot of that has to do with the fact that cigarette smokers can easily go through a pack or more a day, while cigar smokers smoke on an irregular basis.

Sounds appealing, doesn't it? We'll stick with our daily cup of coffee, thanks!

Despite the unflattering name, the "filler" is probably the most important part of the cigar. It provides most of the taste, and the tightness or looseness of its leaves dictates the quality of the smoking experience.

Cigar-making was mechanized for the same reasons that nearly all industries get mechanized: It's faster and cheaper. That's why machine-made (or at least machine-finished) cigars will cost you less than hand-rolled.

While hand-rolling is a highly-respected tradition in Cuba, the country's two state-run manufacturers also use machines. However, many people who take the effort to find Cuban cigars want hand-rolled ones.

That's right, the United States has an real taste for cigars. Germany comes in second.

For larger numbers of cigarettes, you might own a cigar case as well. Some are even designed to preserve humidity, like portable humidors.

These look a bit like nail trimmers for pets. There's a circular opening and a blade that goes across, guillotine-style.

Binder leaves are bit tougher than the wrapper. They are also allowed to have some discoloration or irregularities, which the wrapper should not have.

Cigarettes vary quite little in length and width and shape, but not so cigars. To a cigar lover, "vitola" is very important.

"Parejo" means "similar" in Spanish; the name might come from the fact that this is the familiar or expected shape for a cigar. It's a cylindrical cigar with one end open, one capped, and straight sides.

This term essentially means "shaped." Shapes within this category include the "torpedo" and the "pyramid."

The "lector" read books to workers rolling cigars, to keep them from getting bored. This lovely tradition has largely died out with the advent of audiobooks, but is recalled in the stage play "Anna in the Tropics," about the reading of "Anna Karenina."

Yes, for a time, we were all encouraged to believe that nothing was hotter that a sexy young woman smoking a cigar. We suspect this died out because men did not, in fact, find it sexy for their girlfriends to look like a 19th-century robber baron.

Surprised? Connecticut, generally thought of as a Yankee state, is home to "Connecticut Shade" tobacco. You can see the protective canopies over the fields as you drive some of the Nutmeg State's highways.