Cigar Guide

Your Guide To The Worlds Top Cigars

  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 cigar comes from the Spanish cigarro, which in turn derives from the Mayan word for tobacco, siyar.

Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Philippines, and the United States. Cigars from Cuba are particularly famous.

Choose a country...

Brazil	Canary Islands	Costa Rica
Cuba	Denmark	Dominican Republic
Germany	Holand	Holland
Honduras	Indonesia	Italy
Jamaica	Mexico	Nicaragua
Philippines	Puerto Rico	United States
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Read our latest article on Business  How to Properly Store a Cigar You have just finished smoking a fine maduro cigar. It had a perfectly blended sweet but strong flavor. The cigar came out of a box that you purchased earlier today. After you put your cigar out, you realize...

Read our latest article on Forex   Hypnosis - How it can help you stop smoking today Hypnosis - How it can help you stop smoking todayDoes Hypnosis Therapy Give You The Willpower Stop Smoking What is Stop Smoking Therapy in Hypnosis? Every smoker would been alerted-- by family members,...

Did you Know... 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 die slowly and gracefully. 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, unbaled, reinspected, 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 70 ºF (21 ºC), and 70% relative humidity, as the environment will allow. According to some experts, however, long-term cigar aging requires significantly lower storage temperatures (for example, 40 ºF (4 ºC) is recommended for a 50-year storage). The higher temperatures which are usually used in standard cigar storage will cause the cigar to deteriorate after several years, resulting in an eventual corruption of the cigar's flavor. 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.