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Choosing The Best Ashtray For Cigar Smoking
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The Five For The Freshmen
There Is A Proper Way For That Cigar
A Popular Name - Honduran Cigars
The Light Thomson Cigars

How to Entertain with Cigars
Knowing how to entertain with cigars is the perfect prelude to business. There's an old adage: "a cigar is just a cigar, but a good cigar is a smoke." If you've ever puffed on a premium robusto, corona or Churchill, you know exactly what that statement means. Nothing quite compares to the fresh bouquet of the fine brown tobacco wrapper, the spicy or peppery taste that fills your mouth as you puff, the meditative feeling that comes over you as you watch swirls of smoke waft through the room. Cigars have always been associated with success, accomplishment and conquest. In fact, one of the highlights of the BLACK ENTERPRISE Pepsi Golf and Tennis Challenge continues to be the annual smoker in which some of the nation's richest and most powerful African Americans engage in banter, comradeship and deal making while puffing on coronas and sipping cognac. by Robb Capielo 04-04-2006
New Humidor Tips
Cigars cannot be placed into a brand new humidor and be expected to stay fresh. Why? Unless it is properly prepared, there is not an adequate amount of humidity inside your humidor. That said, here are instructions on how to prepare a new humidor. Using a paper towel or a soft cloth, wipe down the entire inner surface of the humidor, including the inside of the lid, with distilled water. It is crucial that only distilled water be used for this since water drawn from any other source will contain bleach, calcium, chlorine and other chemicals and minerals that will clog your humidification unit and, worst of all, impart those flavors to your cigars. By Robb Capielo, April 04, 2006
Steals and Deals
Plus: new Cohiba Black already offered by BestCigarPrices.com
Mucho Corojo Means Maduro Camachos
Plus: ?Cigars Under the Stars? fund-raiser against California Proposition 86 to be held on Thursday
Hey, Mon, How About a Jamaican Cigar?
Plus: No more store for Sherlock, but The Humidor is open in Frisco
El Tiante Whelling And Dealing . . . Cigars!
Plus: U.S. Surgeon General is the one who's smoking something

Backwoods and Cuban Cigars

Cuban Cigars - The Brands & Histories
by : www.backwoods-and-cuban-cigars.info

The indigenous inhabitants of the islands of the Caribbean Sea and Mesoamerica have smoked cigars since as early as the 10th century, as evidenced by the discovery of a ceramic vessel at a Mayan archaeological site in Uaxact?n, Guatemala, decorated with the painted figure of a man smoking a primitive cigar. 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 smokers.

Around 1592, the Spanish galleon San Clemente brought 50 kilograms (110 lb) of Cuban tobacco seed to the Philippines over the Acapulco-Manila trade route. The seed was then distributed among the Roman Catholic missions, where the clerics found excellent climates and soils for growing high-quality tobacco on Philippine soil.

In the 19th century, smoking was common, while cigarettes were still comparatively rare. The 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 by hand".

Manufacture

Cigar makers in Puerto Rico, circa 1942

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 is a complete product that can be "laid down" and aged for decades if kept as close to 70 ?F (21 ?C), and 70% relative humidity, as the environment will allow. According to some experts,however, long-term aging requires significantly lower storage temperatures (for example, 40 ?F (4 ?C) is recommended for a 50-year storage). The higher temperatures which are usually used in standard storage will cause the 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 becomes dry, it can be successfully re-humidified so long as it has not been handled carelessly.

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, 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 cigars, chopped up tobacco leaves are used for the filler, and long leaves or even a type of "paper" made from tobacco pulp is used for the wrapper which binds the together.

Historically, a lector or reader was always employed to entertain the 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 brand may have arisen from this practice.

CUBAN CIGARS

Cohiba (Cuban brand)

Cohiba is a brand of cuban for two kinds of premium cigar, one produced in Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced in the Dominican Republic for General Cigar. The name cohiba derives from the Taino word for "tobacco". The Cuban brand is filled with top-quality tobacco which, uniquely to Cohiba, has undergone an extra fermentation process; it is a type as well as a brand.

Cohiba cuban was originally a private brand supplied exclusively to Fidel Castro and high level Cuban government and communist party officials. Often given as diplomatic gifts, the Coh?ba brand gradually developed a "cult" status. It was released commercially for sale to the public in 1982. Cuban Cohiba, the flavour of these cigars tends towards medium to full-bodied.

Hoyo de Monterrey (cuban brand) is the name of two brands of premium cigar, one produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced in Honduras for General Cigar. In 1831, Don Jose Gener y Batet emigrated to Cuba from Spain at the age of thirteen, where he worked on his uncle's plantation in Vuelta Abajo. Twenty years later, he would open his own factory in Havana and begin producing his own line, La Escepci?n. In 1865, after using his factory's profits to acquire one of the best tobacco farms in Vuelta Abajo, he registered a line named for it: Hoyo de Monterrey.

Montecristo (cuban brand) is the name of two brands of premium cigar, one produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced in the Dominican Republic for the Franco-Spanish tobacco monopoly Altadis SA. The Montecristo brand was created in 1935 by Men?ndez, Garcia y Cia, then the owners of the popular H. Upmann brand of cigars. Having just purchased the H. Upmann marque from J. Frankau & Co., Men?ndez and Garcia decided to produce their own subset of the regular H. Upmann line, called the H. Upmann Montecristo Selection.

Partagis (cuban brand) is the name of two brands of premium cigar, one produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced in the Dominican Republic from Dominican, Mexican, and Cameroon tobacco for General Cigar. The Spaniard Don Jaime Partagis Ravelo had worked in the Cuban tobacco business for years before establishing his own factory, Real Fibricas de Tabaco Partagis in 1845, on 60 Industria Street in Havana, one of the largest of its time.

Romeo y Julieta (Globla cuban brand) is the name of two brands of premium cigar, one produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced in the Dominican Republic for Altadis SA. The Romeo y Julieta marque was established in 1875 by Inocencio Alvarez and Mannin Garcia. The brand is named for the Shakespeare tragedy, Romeo and Juliet.

Quintero (cuban brand) is the name of two brands of premium cigar, one produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company, and the other produced from Nicaraguan and Honduran tobacco for the Franco-Spanish tobacco monopoly Altadis SA. The brand is believed to have been founded as Quintero y Hermanos in Cienfuegos, Cuba in 1924, the same year that Agustin Quintero built his factory. By the 1940s, Quintero was a major export brand and sold especially well in the Spanish market.

Other cuban cigar brands :

Multi-Local Brands = * Bolivar * Fonseca * Punch * Vegas Robaina * H. Upmann * Josi L. Piedra * Guantanamera

Local Brands = * Belinda * El Rey del Mundo * Sancho Panza * Diplomiticos * Vegueros * Juan Lipez * Quai d'Orsay * La Gloria Cubana * La Flor de Cano * Saint Luis Rey * Por Larraiaga * Ramin Allones * Rafael Gonzilez * Cabaias * Los Statos de Luxe * Gispert * Troya

Niche Brands = * Trinidad * Cuaba * San Cristibal de la Habana

Discontinued Brands = * Davidoff * Dunhill * La Flor de Caney * Cifuentes * La Escepciin * Maria Guerrero * Siboney * Don Alfredo * Don Cindido * Flor del Punto * La Corona * La Vigia * San Luis Rey

Backwoods Cigars

A pack of cigars (normaly comes in pack of 5) various flavours available (banana, wild rum, all natural, honey, honey berry, original) They cost about the same as a pack of cigaretts but you only get 5. Backwoods are great to roll weed / marijuana in. Backwoods is inexpensive brand of machine rolled cigars that are manufactored to appear hand rolled. Backwoods cigars come in packs of 8 in a resealable foil pouch. The rugged appearance and packaging is meant to appeal to the outdoors crowd, but they have also gained a following by marijuana smokers because the tobacco can easily be dumped so the shell can be used to smoke other substances. These cigars have a high nicotine content and are considered strong. Backwoods is the best blunt wraps you can find. Cigars wrapped in tobacco leaves. Unravel the backwood and stuff it with chron. They're all natural with lots of bomb flavors like honey, honey berry, banana, grape, and lots of others. You can roll your whole eighth with one backwood.

See other cigar brands list click the link below...

Cigar Brands List

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Antique Cigar Humidors

Popular Varieties Of Cigar Boxes
by: Eddie TobeyA cigar box can come in many shapes and sizes, and hold anywhere from five or six items to a complete collection containing hundreds of cigars. Great for gifts, cigar boxes serve Read more...