THE BASICS
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried tobacco that's ignited and sucked on to draw smoke into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown especially in the tropics, most notably in Cuba, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras, as well as in Brazil, Cameroon, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines and the eastern United States. The word comes from sikar, the Mayan-Caribbean Indian word for smoking, which became cigarro in Spanish.
WHO STARTED CIGAR SMOKING?
Two of Christopher Columbus's crewmen are said to have been presented dried tobacco leaves by natives on the island of Hispaniola in 1492. They encountered tobacco leaves again in Cuba, where the Tainos people smoked them rolled in palm or plantain leaves. The sailors acquired the habit and took it home, and it spread across the globe.
WHY IS IT ENJOYABLE?
Oral fixations and armchair psychology aside, it's all about flavour. Cigar smokers can wax every bit as poetically (and as tediously) as wine snobs, with references to spicy, peppery (red or black), sweet, harsh, burnt, green, earthy, woodsy, cocoa, roasted, aged, nutty, creamy, cedar, oak, chewy, fruity and leathery overtones and undertones.
THE DISSENTING OPINION
It's a vile, disgusting habit. It has a demonstrable health risk. It's expensive. You can never get the smell out of carpets, drapes, clothing, pores and hair.
WHAT ELSE AFTER FLAVOUR?
Smoothness and size. Cigars are light, medium or heavy in strength of smoke. They are measured by length (in inches) and ring size (diameter). A small, light cigar might be a Romeo y Julieta small panatella, which is five inches long and has a ring size of 33 (meaning it is 33/64ths of an inch wide); a large, heavy cigar might be a Partagas gran corona, which is 9 inches long and has a ring size of 47.
SO WHAT'S ALL THIS ABOUT CUBAN CIGARS?
They are one of life's most luxurious indulgences. Demand - especially after the cigar craze erupted in the 1990s - far exceeds production, which is why they're so bloody expensive (easily surpassing Dh100 for a good one). The Caribbean island's soil, climate and humidity are perfect for growing tobacco, and manufacturing standards remain high. Beware, however: Cuban cigars are heavily counterfeited, especially in the US, which continues its economic boycott of the communist country.
WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO KNOW?
Quite a lot - about fillers, binders and wrappers, lighters, cutters and humidors, hand-rolled vs machine-made, cigar varieties and makers, and more - but M's editor, who inexplicably has failed to include the cigar in her vast appreciation for the finer things in life, refuses to approve an extra page here. Fortunately, a good tobacconist and Smoke and Cigar Aficionado magazines can provide more expertise.
THE BEST CIGAR MOVIE EVER
Harvey Keitel stars in the wonderful
Smoke
, a 1995 independent film directed by Wayne Wang that's centred in a Brooklyn smoke shop and deftly weaves together the life-affirming stories of its owner and customers.
CIGARS IN POP MUSIC
Have a Cigar by Pink Floyd, A Small Cigar by Jethro Tull, The Man with the Cigar by Herman's Hermits.
A CIGAR PALINDROME
Cigar? Toss it in a can! It is so tragic!
AN EASY GUIDE TO LIFE
"If a woman knows a man's preferences, including his preference in cigars, and if a man knows what a woman likes, they will be suitably armed to face one another." - Colette
Five famous cigar smokers
WINSTON CHURCHILL
Affect a bulldog-like grimace, flash the "V" for victory sign and clamp a big cigar in your teeth, and everyone will know who you're impersonating. The imposing Churchill, at seven inches long and with a ring gauge of 47, is named for the British leader, who enjoyed eight to 10 smokes a day.
KING EDWARD VII
"Gentlemen, you may smoke," said the new king shortly after taking the throne in 1901. Thus ended the ban that Queen Victoria had imposed on the royal premises. Earlier, in 1866, the then-Prince of Wales quit his London gentlemen's club over its no-smoking policy.
MARK TWAIN
"If there are no cigars in heaven, I shall not go," Twain said. "I smoke in moderation," he also said. "Only one cigar at a time." He went through up to 40 a day.
RUDYARD KIPLING
It was the Nobel Prize-winning English writer and poet and macho chronicler of colonialism who observed: "A woman is a woman but a good cigar is a smoke."
SIGMUND FREUD
The father of psychoanalysis, who saw symbolism practically everywhere, conceded that "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." He enjoyed an average of 20 stogies a day.