Page 38 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

36  INTRODUCING CUBA

Cuban Cigars

The cigar is an inextricable part of Cuba’s culture, history,
and even, for some, its essence. It is known that cigars
were used by the indigenous Indians. After Columbus’s
voyage, tobacco, regarded in Europe as having therapeutic
qualities, was imported to Spain. However the first smokers
were imprisoned, because people believed that cigar smoke
produced diabolical effects. Even so, tobacco grew in
popularity and was later exported to other European nations, Tobacco (cohoba) was used
where government agencies were set up to maintain a by Cuban Indians during
monopoly over the product. After the Revolution, the US religious rites to invoke the gods.
They either inhaled the smoke
embargo had a serious effect on the international sale of through a tubed instrument
cigars (puros), but since the 1990s the fashion for cigar or smoked the rolled leaves.
smoking has given a boost to sales.

The tripa is the inside, the “core” of the The capa is the wrapper leaf on
cigar with the filler leaves. In handmade the outside of the cigar. It gives it
cigars, the tripa consists of tobacco leaves its smooth, velvety look as well
which have been selected in order to as its colour.
obtain a particular flavour.

The head (or top
part of the cigar) is
cut off before
smoking.
The Parts of a Cigar
Foot Cigars can be either handmade or machine-
made. With handmade cigars the inside
consists of whole tobacco leaves, while
The capote is the binder leaf that
holds the inner part together and machine-made cigars are made up of
keeps it compact. leaves that are blended and then shredded.
Brand Names
There are 33 brands of Cuban cigar on the market today. Below
are four, each represented by a marquilla, or label, which is placed
on the cigar box to identify the brand. Some designs have not
changed since first marketed.

The anillo, the band that goes
around the central part of the
cigar and bears its brand name,
has a curious history. It is said
that in the 18th century,
Catherine the Great of Russia,
Montecristo (1935) Cohiba (1966) a heavy smoker, had her cigars
wrapped with small bands
of cloth so they would not
leave stains on her fingers.
Her eccentricity soon became
fashionable. The first commercial
cigar band was produced in 1830
by the manufacturers Aguila de
Oro. Above is a band produced
Cuaba (1996) Vegas Robaina (1997) by the Cuban cigar-maker
Romeo y Julieta in 1875.

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