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Tobaco &
Cigars
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Popular Culture
Cigars are often presented as
stereotypical rich man's accessory. Cigars are often smoked to
celebrate good fortune, like the birth of a child, a
graduation, a big business accomplishment, etc. . Some buy and
keep a cigar 'for luck' with regard to a bet, with the
intention of smoking it after winning the bet.
King Edward VII enjoyed smoking
cigarettes and cigars, but his mother, Queen Victoria, did not
like smoking. After her death, legend has it, King Edward said
to his male guests at the end of a dinner party, "Gentlemen,
you may smoke." In his name, a line of cheap American cigars
has long been named King Edward.
It is perhaps important for the cigar
smoker to ritualize the habit and to smoke fine and expensive
cigars, for the addictive element of cigarettes is also
present in the cigar: nicotine.
The smoker can minimize their risk of addiction,
and resulting cancers, by treating the cigar as a special
occasion, and as noted above logging their smokes. This comes
closest to the Native American use of the tobacco plant.
Two men who died during the zenith of
the cigar's popularity owing ultimately to nicotine addiction
and the consequent oral cancer were President Ulysses S. Grant
of the USA and Dr. Sigmund Freud.
Although Grant was able for the
duration of the Civil War to stop drinking, he was most often
seen with a cigar and after his Presidency, Grant contracted
cancer. Not wishing to leave his wife Julia penniless, Grant
decided to write and publish his memoirs while in great pain.
Freud likewise succumbed in the 1930s
to a habit which he seems to have been reluctant to
psychoanalyze. Challenged on the "phallic" shape of the cigar,
Freud is supposed to have replied, "Sometimes, a cigar is just
a cigar."
Interestingly, two famous men with
the name Marx were cigar smokers. Karl Marx
and Groucho Marx
were both heavy cigar smokers.
Famous quotes about the cigar include
not only Freud's but also from a Rudyard Kipling poem: "A
woman is only a woman: but a good cigar is a smoke." Also:
"What this country needs is a good five cent cigar." The cigar
was also a staple for vaudeville jokes and slapstick, from the
overexcited new father who says "have a baby, my wife just had
a cigar" to the exploding cigar which may have been a coded proletarian
gesture of resistance to the cigar, which with the top hat and
tails was the semiotic for "capitalism" in the early 20th
century.
In
Stalag 17, P.O.W. JJ Sefton admits that he trades
cigarettes with the Germans because he has no need for them;
he only smokes cigars.
Several storylines in the 1990s
sitcom Seinfeld
revolve around or pay regard to a box of Cuban cigars in
season 4. Cigars rolled by Dominicans were part of a storyline
on a season-8 episode.
In the animated series,Futurama Bender regularly smokes cigars because it makes him look cool.
Cigars were allegedly part of the
sexual relationship between President Bill Clinton and Monica
Lewinsky (see Monicagate).
Since apart from certain forms of
heavily cured and strong snuff,
the cigar is the most potent form of self-dosing with tobacco,
it has long had associations of being a male rite of passage,
as it may have had during the pre-Columbian era in America.
Its fumes and rituals have in American and European cultures
established a "men's hut"; in the 19th century, men would
retire to the "smoking room" after dinner, to discuss serious
issues.
Also, the third installment of Hideo
Kojima's famous Metal Gear Solid series, Metal Gear Solid 3:
Snake Eater, features a brief portion in which the main
character describes why he thoroughly enjoys cigars, somewhat
awkwardly describing the experience as "almost sensual."
Famous jazz musicians, most notably
Miles Davis, were proud cigar smokers, appreciating their fine
flavor & aroma, though never did they smoke on major stage.
According to Davis, his favourite brand was Augusta, a rare
brand only sold in restaurants & coffee shops, or directly to
certain famous people, like Davis.
Health issues
According to the CDC (Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention) and the National Cancer
Institute, "cigars contain the same toxic and carcinogenic
compounds found in cigarettes and are not a safe alternative
to cigarettes." Unlike cigarette smokers, cigar smokers
typically do not inhale the smoke but rather draw the smoke
into their mouths. Because cigar smoke generally does not
reach the lungs, cigar smokers have a lower incidence of lung
cancer and emphysema than cigarette smokers, but still a
higher incidence than that of non-smokers.
Some people have mistakenly assumed
that cigars pose no health risk, but cigar smokers are
statistically more likely to develop cancer of the mouth,
tongue, or larynx than non smokers. The extent of the
additional risk is disputed. The health consequences of
occasional cigar smoking (less than daily) are not known, and
there are few peer-reviewed and published scientific studies
that address the issue of increased risk posed by cigar
smoking either to its users or to bystanders.
US Embargo on Cuba
The cigar became inextricably
intertwined with political history on February 7, 1962, when
United States President John F. Kennedy, intending to sanction
Fidel Castro's communist government, imposed a trade embargo
on Cuba. Americans were thus prohibited from purchasing what
were at the time considered the finest cigars on the market,
and Cuba was deprived of a large portion of its customers.
According to Pierre Salinger, then Kennedy's press secretary,
the president ordered him on the evening of February 6 to
obtain a thousand Petit H. Upmanns Cuban cigars; upon
Salinger's arrival with the cigars the following morning,
Kennedy signed the executive order which put the embargo into
effect.
Cigars obtained prior to the embargo
are not considered contraband, and became known as
"pre-embargo Cubans".As of 2006, it remains illegal for
Americans to purchase or import Cuban cigars. As is usual with
embargoes, there exists a lively smuggling trade, coupled with
elevated prices and rampant counterfeiting.Cuban cigars purchased in ports
overseas such as Jamaica and other Caribbean islands are often
counterfeit. The cost of Cuban cigars range dramatically, and
most likely the genuine product is sold at the same price that
each cigar is sold at the same price the factory in Cuba is
selling their cigars for.Cuban cigars not only have the
mystique of being a "banned" item to purchase and they are
more importantly considered by most cigar aficionados to be
the best "smoking experience" of all cigars. Cigars from Cuba
are derived from tobacco components found throughout the
country of Cuba: meaning the filler, the actual tobacco, and
wrapper all come from different portions of the island. This
may be why the Cuban cigar is considered to be the best, and
why Cigar Aficionado magazine always rates new Cuban cigars as
the best. All cigar production in Cuba is controlled by the
Cuban government. Unlike other cigar companies, where each
brand is harvested and rolled in its own factory, all Cuban
cigars are rolled in 2 or 3 different factories in Cuba. Cuban
cigar rollers are notorious as being the most skilled rollers
in the world. 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.
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