A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder leaf which holds the filler together, and a wrapper leaf, for appearance and flavor, which is often the highest quality leaf used. Often there will be a cigar band printed with the cigar manufacturer’s logo. Modern cigars can come with two or more, highlighting special qualities such as age and origin of the tobaccos used. Cigar smoking carries a variety of serious health risks, including developing cancers, and respiratory, cardiovascular, periodontal and other diseases.
Cigars
Cigarros
Zigarren
Although the specific origin of the cigar is unknown, a Mayan ceramic pot from Guatemala dating back to the 10th century depicts people smoking tobacco leaves tied together with a string. The practice of tobacco smoking was widely diffused among many of the islands of the Caribbean in the pre-Contact period. It was first observed by European Age of Discovery explorers when encountering the indigenous Taino people of Cuba in 1492. Following the first wave of European colonization, tobacco became one of the primary products fueling European colonialism, and also became a driving factor in the incorporation of African slave labor. The Spanish introduced tobacco to Europeans in about 1528, and by 1533, Diego Columbus mentioned a tobacco merchant of Lisbon in his will, showing how quickly the traffic had sprung up. The French, Spanish, and Portuguese initially referred to the plant as the “sacred herb” because of its alleged medicinal properties.
雪茄
Сигары
Cerutu
In time, Spanish and other European sailors adopted the practice of smoking rolls of leaves, as did the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors. Smoking primitive cigars spread to Spain, Portugal, and eventually France, most probably through Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal, whose name became the root of the word nicotine. Later, tobacco use spread to the Italian kingdoms, the Dutch Empire, and, after Sir Walter Raleigh’s voyages to the Americas, to Great Britain. Tobacco smoking became familiar throughout Europe, in pipes in Britain, by the mid-16th century. Spanish cultivation of tobacco began in earnest in 1531 on the island of Hispaniola. In 1542, tobacco started to be grown commercially in North America, when Spaniards established the first cigar factory in Cuba. Tobacco was originally thought to have medicinal qualities, but some considered it evil. It was denounced by Philip II of Spain and James I of England.
السيجار
सिगार
Cygara
In 1869, Spanish cigar manufacturer Vicente Martinez Ybor moved his Principe de Gales (Prince of Wales) operations from the cigar manufacturing center of Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida to escape the turmoil of the Ten Years’ War. Other manufacturers followed, and Key West became an important cigar manufacturing center. In 1885, Ybor moved again, buying land near the small city of Tampa, Florida and building the largest cigar factory in the world at the time in the new company town of Ybor City. Friendly rival and Flor de Sánchez y Haya owner Ignacio Haya built his factory nearby the same year, and many other cigar manufacturers followed, especially after an 1886 fire that gutted much of Key West. Thousands of Cuban and Spanish tabaqueros came to the area from Key West, Cuba and New York to produce hundreds of millions of cigars annually. Local output peaked in 1929, when workers in Ybor City and West Tampa rolled over 500 million “clear Havana” cigars, earning the town the nickname “Cigar Capital of the World”. At its peak, there were 150 cigar factories in Ybor city.
Cigares
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