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Cigarette

Cigarette

A cigarette is a small paper-wrapped cylinder (generally less than 120mm in length and 10mm in diameter) of cured and shredded or cut tobacco leaves. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder for the purpose of inhalation of its smoke from the filtered end, inserted in the mouth. The term, as commonly used, typically refers to a tobacco cigarette, but can apply to similar devices containing other herbs, such as cannabis. A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its smaller size, use of processed leaf, and paper wrapping; cigars are typically composed entirely of whole leaf tobacco. Cigarettes were largely unknown in the English-speaking world before the Crimean War, when British soldiers began emulating their Ottoman Turkish comrades, who resorted to rolling their tobacco with newsprint.

Manufacture and ingredients

In practice, commercial cigarettes and cigarette tobaccos rarely contain pure tobacco. Manufacturers often use a tremendous variety of additives for a number of purposes, including maintaining blend consistency, improving perceived blend quality, as preservatives and even completely changing the organoleptic qualities of the tobacco smoke. While this is true for many brands of cigarettes, in Canada, the major cigarette brands all contain 100% natural virginia leaf - No Additives. Some cigarettes (known as kreteks, clove cigarettes, or simply cloves) have cloves blended with the tobacco. This is done to enhance the smoker's pleasure by numbing the mouth and lungs and providing a mild euphoric effect. Lower-quality clove cigarettes simply have a clove essence added to the tobacco. In addition to additives, cigarette tobaccos, especially lower-quality blends, are often highly physically processed. During the original processing of leaf for cigarettes, the leaves are deveined, and the lamina is shredded or cut. Since the leaf is relatively dry at this point, these processes result in a significant amount of tobacco dust. Manufacturing operations have developed procedures for collecting this dust and remaking it into usable material (known as reconstituted sheet tobacco). The removed leaf midveins, which are unsuitable for use in cigarettes in their natural state, were historically discarded or spread on fields, because of their high nitrogen content. Procedures have been developed, however, to "expand" the stems, and process them for inclusion in the cigarette blends. All these procedures allow cigarette manufacturers to produce as many cigarettes as possible using the least amount of raw materials as possible. The most common usage of the cigarette is tobacco smoke delivery. The second most common usage of the cigarette is for marijuana smoke delivery. The hand rolled cigarette is the most common form of marijuana cigarette. Marijuana users will usually twist the ends of the cigarette to prevent fine cut marijuana buds from falling out. Tobacco users who roll their own cigarettes, however, will usually not twist the cigarette at the ends; hand rolling tobacco is made in strands so it doesn't have a tendency to fall out. Some cigarette smokers roll their own cigarettes by wrapping loose cured tobacco in paper; most, however, purchase machine-made commercially available brands, generally sold in small cardboard packages of 10 or 20 cigarettes in the United States and UK or 25 in Canada. Commercial cigarettes usually contain a cellulose acetate or cotton filter through which the smoker inhales the cigarette's smoke; the filter serves to cool and somewhat clean the smoke. Recently, cigarette rolling machines are also becoming popular. One can purchase tobacco in pouches or cans, usually at half the price of what one would pay for the same amount pre-rolled. One can get a rolling machine that makes filterless, or "straight" cigarettes, or one can purchase a machine that packs the tobacco into a pre-rolled form with a filter. These filtered papers usually come in boxes of 200, while unfiltered papers will come in packs ranging from 12 to 64, and some contain even more.

Sale

rolling papers Before the Second World War many manufacturers gave away collectible cards, one in each packet of cigarettes. This practice was discontinued to save paper during the war, and was never generally reintroduced. On April 1, 1970 President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, banning cigarette advertisements on television in the United States starting on January 2, 1971. However, some tobacco companies attempted to circumvent the ban by marketing new brands of cigarettes as "little cigars;" examples included Tijuana Smalls, which came out almost immediately after the ban took effect, and Backwoods Smokes, which hit the market in the winter of 1973-1974 and whose ads used the slogan, "How can anything that looks so wild taste so mild?" The sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors under 18 is now prohibited by law in all fifty states of the United States. In Alabama, Alaska and Utah the statutory age is 19, and legislation was pending as of 2004 in some other states, including California and New Jersey, to raise the age to 19, or even 21 in some cases. In Massachusetts, parents and guardians are allowed to give cigarettes to minors, but sales to minors are prohibited. Legislation was successfully passed on Long Island (New York) to raise the legal age in Suffolk county to 19, effective January 1st, 2005. Similar laws exist in many other countries as well. In Canada, most of the provinces require smokers to be 19 years of age to purchase cigarettes (except for Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, where the age is 18). However, the minimum age only concerns the purchase of tobacco, not use. Alberta, however, does have a law which prohibits the possession or use of tobacco products by all persons under 18, punishable by a $100 fine. Australia has a nation-wide ban on the selling of all tobacco products to people under 18. In the UK, cigarettes can legally be sold only to people aged 16 and over. However it is not illegal for people under this age to buy (or attempt to buy) cigarettes, so only the retailer is breaking the law by selling to under 16s. However, while bans stand in most countries for sales to minors, it is still common for merchants to disregard such laws as they are tough to enforce. Often the profits from selling cigarettes to minors illegally are much greater than the fines paid out in very infrequent times when they are caught. Some police departments in the United States occasionally send a clearly underage child into a store where cigarettes are sold, and have the child attempt to purchase cigarettes. If the vendor sells them to the minor, the store is issued a fine. This is by far the most common way in which cigarette vendors are caught when they sell cigarettes to minors.

Online cigarette stores

Online stores have recently appeared that offer foreign cigarettes to internet buyers. As many jurisdictions place high taxes on tobacco sales, these could be seen as an effort to avoid paying duty or taxes. Some online cigarette stores exist to sell tax-free cigarettes inside one's own country of residence as well. The legality of these stores is being questioned currently in the United States. Federal lawmakers contend that these stores are clear tax evasions. Recently in Michigan, several online stores have been subpoenaed by the state for the names and addresses of customers. The state has reportedly been sending out fines for each package purchased, contending tax evasion over Michigan's $2-a-pack law. This same action has [http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/jul05/342254.asp also taken place] in Wisconsin after the Wisconsin Department of Revenue received a list of several thousand buyers in that state from an online cigarette merchant. However, the effort to collect on the taxes from the listed residents was [http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/jul05/342847.asp stopped by order] of Governor Jim Doyle a few days later. Visa, Mastercard, and American Express have all refused to allow online cigarette stores to accept payment by credit-card.

Health effects

Smoking has been linked to lung cancer by many medical research institutions throughout the world (through the use of observational studies). Recent findings by the World Health Organization suggest that U.S. white male smokers have an 8% chance of acquiring lung cancer at some point in their lives, as opposed to the 2% chance of acquiring lung cancer among U.S. white male non-smokers. However, moderate cigarette smoking (<2 cigarettes daily) as well as second-hand smoke inhalation show no increase in lung cancer rates among U.S. white males in all credited observational studies. Certain other lung disorders, like emphysema, are also linked to cigarette smoking. Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage and underweight infants. Smoking also increases the chance of heart attacks and a variety of cancers. Long-term smokers tend to look older than nonsmokers of the same age, because smoking can increase wrinkling in the skin. Nicotine, the stimulant and active ingredient in cigarettes, is highly addictive. Children and pets may be poisoned from eating cigarettes or cigarette butts. Inhalation of toxic to carcinogenic components of tobacco smoke, like radon and radium-226, is understood to cause lung cancer. Much of the farmland used to grow tobacco in the United States is contaminated with radioactive material as a result of using phosphate-rich fertilizers. Studies by Winters et al., in the New England Journal of Medicine (1982), found that skeletons of cigarette smokers contained deposits of lead-210 and polonium-210, two isotopes formed by radioactive decay of radium found in the soil where tobacco plants are grown. For many years the tobacco industry presented research of its own in an attempt to counter emerging medical research about the addictive nature and adverse health effects of cigarettes. According to [http://stic.neu.edu/MN/6MMMEMO.HTM a 1994 prosecution memo] written by Congressman Martin Meehan to former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, many of these studies were found to be flawed due to their strong bias and poor methodology. A 2001 peer-reviewed [http://www.smokefreeforhealth.org/studies/YachBialous.htm article in the American Journal of Public Health] correctly accuses tobacco companies of using front groups and biased studies to downplay the health risks of smoking and secondhand smoke. Many countries and jurisdictions have instituted public smoking bans. In [http://newyork.sierraclub.org/nyc/spring_03_6.htm New York City], smoking is forbidden in almost all workplaces, although not enforced in some small neighborhood bars. In the USA, smoking is being banned in restaurants and bars. States from California to Delaware have adopted such a ban, causing much controversy between smokers, non-smokers, workers, and owners. Such bans are least popular in Southern states of the USA, such as Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, where tobacco continues to be a large part of the economy. In other states, these bans are extremely popular and seen as long overdue. Often smoking is allowed on the street (though in Delaware you must be 250 feet away from any public building), but in many locations of Japan it is against the law. In 2004, smoking was outlawed in all public buildings in the state of Maine. The 2004 ban on smoking in bars and resturaunts in New Zealand met with initial resentment from some bar owners, but was widely welcomed by the public at large. In many parts of the world tobacco advertising and even sponsorship of sporting events is not allowed. The ban on tobacco sponsorship in the EU in 2005 has prompted the Formula One Management to look for races in areas that allow the heavily tobacco sponsored teams to display their livery, and has also lead to some of the more popular races on the calendar being cancelled in favour of more tobacco friendly markets.

Contents of a cigarette

The leaves of the tobacco plant are first dried to make cigarettes, and then treated with a variety of chemicals, and many additional ingredients are added. Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic. The amounts of these ingredients can vary widely from one brand or type of cigarette to the next. This is especially true of the tar and nicotine content, the range of which is so extreme that an entire carton of some brands of cigarettes (e.g., Carlton) might contain less tar and/or nicotine than a single cigarette of a "full flavor" brand.

Consumption

Approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced globally each year by the tobacco industry, smoked by over 1.1 billion people.

Smoking Prevalence by Gender
	PERCENT SMOKING
REGION	MEN	WOMEN
Africa	29	4
Americas	35	22
Eastern Mediterranean	35	4
Europe	46	26
South-East Asia	44	4
Western Pacific	60	8
(2000, World Health Organization estimates)

Turkey has a higher percentage of adults who smoke than any other country; 60% of the population are smokers. Turkey

History

The use of tobacco in cigarette form is a relatively recent invention, becoming increasingly popular after the Crimean War. This was helped by the development of certain types of tobaccos that are suitable for cigarette use. During World War I and World War II, cigarettes were rationed to soldiers. During the second half of the 20th century, the adverse health effects of cigarettes started to become widely known and severe health warnings became commonplace on cigarette packets. The advent of the Internet revealed the prevalence of capnolagnia, a sexual fetish in which one gains gratification from watching others smoke, usually women smoking cigarettes.

Slang terms for cigarettes

Cigarettes have accumulated a variety of nicknames such as "smokes", "butts", "square" (from the shape of the box), "cigs", "ciggies", "stogs", "stogies", "snouts", "tabs" (especially in NE England), "loosey" (a single cigarette), "bogeys", "boges", "darts", "straights" (for factory rolled ones), "dugans" (especially in NYC), "hairy rags", "hausersticks", "jacks", "grits" and "fags" (the term "fag" is used more commonly in the United Kingdom; in the United States, it is primarily a derogatory term for a male homosexual). Cigarettes have also attracted somewhat fatalistic nicknames related to their effect on the smoker's health, such as "coffin nails", "cancer sticks" or "gaspers". In Australia, cigarettes are sometimes called "Doogans" or "Durries". A relatively new term emerged with the release of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones after a main character was offered a "death stick" in a nightclub. Cigarettes are also known in New Zealand as "rollies" for the self-rolled cigarettes and "tailies" for the factory rolled.
Brands
(links often show other meanings of the name, in many cases including that which the brand is named after) New Zealand
Most popular brands, worldwide
#Marlboro (see also Don Tennant) #Hongtashan #Mild Seven
Other brands
Main article: Cigarette brands
- Belomorkanal
- Benson & Hedges
- Basic
- Camel
- Carlton
- Chesterfield
- Consulate
- Davidoff
- Doral
- Ducados
- Death
- Derby
- Dunhill
- Djarum
- Eclipse
- Embassy
- Fortuna
- Gauloises
- Gauloises Blondes
- Golden Beach
- Gold Flake
- KOOL
- L&M
- Lambert & Butler
- Lark
- Lucky Strike
- Mayfair
- Medallion
- Mocne
- Moors
- Nat Sherman
- Natural American Spirit
- Next
- Newport
- Old Gold
- Pall Mall
- Parliament
- Prince
- Português
- R6
- Richmond
- Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc.
- Roxy
- Salem
- SG
- Silk Cut
- Superkings
- Viceroy
- Virginia Slims
- Winfield
- Winston

External links

- [http://airspace.bc.ca/ - Action on Smoking and Health]
- [http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/search/index.htm US Center for Disease Control - Smoking and Health Database]
- [http://www.globalink.org GLOBALink]
- [http://www.ingcat.org INGCAT - International Non Governmental Coalition Against Tobacco]
- [http://www.ncth.ca National Clearinghouse on Tobacco and Health - Canada]
- [http://www.srnt.org Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco]
- [http://www.tobacco.org Tobacco.org - Tobacco News & Information]
- [http://www.tobaccopedia.org TOBACCOpedia] Category:Tobacco th:บุหรี่

1 E-1 m²

To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists areas between 0.1 and 1.0 m². See also areas of other orders of magnitude.
- Areas smaller than 0.1 m²
- 0.1 m² is equal to:
- 1.08 square feet.
- 1000 cm²
- Area of a square with side length 316 mm.
- Surface area of a cube with edge length 129 mm.
- Area of a circle with radius 178 mm.
- Surface area of a sphere with radius 89 mm.
- 0.125 m² -- size of a European A3 paper sheet 297 x 420 mm. Approximate front size of a tabloid (evening) newspaper.
- 0.250 m² -- size of a European A2 paper sheet 420 x 594 mm. Approximate front size of a (morning) newspaper.
- 0.500 m² -- size of a European A1 paper sheet 594 x 840 mm
- Areas larger than 1.0 m²

External link

[http://www.ex.ac.uk/trol/scol/ccarea.htm Conversion Calculator for Units of AREA] Category:Orders of magnitude (area)

Tobacco

N. acuminata
N. alata
N. attenuata
N. clevelandii
N. excelsior
N. forgetiana
N. glauca
N. glutinosa
N. langsdorffii
N. longiflora
N. obtusifolia
N. paniculata
N. plumbagifolia
N. quadrivalvis
N. repanda
N. rustica
N. suaveolens
N. sylvestris
N. tabacum
N. tomentosa
Ref: [http://www.itis.usda.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=30562 ITIS 30562]
as of August 26, 2005 Tobacco (Nicotiana spp., L.) refers to a genus of broad-leafed plants of the nightshade family indigenous to North and South America or to the dried and cured leaves. Such leaves are often smoked (see tobacco smoking) in the form of a cigar or cigarette, or in a smoking pipe, or in a water pipe or a hookah. Tobacco is also chewed, "dipped" (placed between the cheek and gum), and consumed as finely powdered snuff tobacco, which is sniffed into the nose. The Spanish word "tabaco" is thought to have its origin in Arawakan language, particularly, in the Taino language of the Caribbean, said to refer to a roll of these leaves (according to Bartolome de Las Casas, 1552) or to the "tabago", a kind of y-shaped pipe for sniffing tobacco smoke (according to Oviedo), but Sp. tabaco (also It. tobacco) was comonly used to define medicinal herbs from 1410, originating from the Arabic "tabbaq", reportedly since the 9th c., as the name of various herbs. The word might then be European, and later applied to this plant from the Americas. Tobacco contains the alkaloid nicotine, a powerful neurotoxin that is particularly harmful to insects. All means of consuming tobacco result in the absorption of nicotine in varying amounts into the user's bloodstream, and over time the development of tolerance and dependence. Absorption quantity, frequency and speed seem to have a direct relationship with how strong a dependence and tolerance, if any, might be created. A lethal dose of nicotine is contained in as little as one half of a cigar or three cigarettes; however, only a fraction of the nicotine contained in these products is actually released into the smoke, and most clinically significant cases of nicotine poisoning are the result of concentrated forms of the compound used as insecticides. Other active alkaloids in tobacco include harmala. Major hazards of tobacco use, however, involve carcinogenic compounds in tobacco and tobacco smoke. Many jurisdictions have enacted smoking bans in an effort to minimize possible damage to public health caused by tobacco smoking.

History

tobacco smoking Native Americans used tobacco before Europeans arrived in America, and early European settlers in America learned to smoke and brought the practice back to Europe, where it became hugely popular. At extremely high doses, tobacco becomes hallucinogenic; accordingly, Native Americans generally did not use the drug recreationally. Rather, it was often consumed in extraordinarily high quantities and used as an entheogen; generally, this was done only by experienced shamans or medicine men. In addition to being smoked, uncured tobacco was often eaten, drunk as tobacco juice, or used in enemas. Early missionaries often reported on the state caused by tobacco, but as it spread into the west, it was no longer used in such large quantities or for entheogenic purposes. Religious use of tobacco is still common among many indigenous peoples, particularly those of South America. With the arrivial of Europeans, tobacco became one of the primary products fueling the colonization of the future America South, long before the creation of the United States. The initial colonial expansion, fueled by the desire to increase tobacco production, was one cause of the first colonial conflicts with Native Americans, and also soon became one reason for the use of African slaves for cheap labor. In 1609, John Rolfe arrived at the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia. He was the first man to successfully raise tobacco at Jamestown. The tobacco raised in Virginia at that time, Nicotiana rustica, was not to the liking of the Europeans, but Rolfe had brought some seed for Nicotiana tabacum with him from Bermuda. Shortly after arriving, his first wife died, and he married Pocahontas, a daughter of Chief Powhatan. Although most of the settlers wouldn't touch the tobacco crop, Rolfe was able to make his fortune farming it for export at Varina Farms Plantation. When he left for England with Pocahontas, he was wealthy. When Rolfe returned to Jamestown following Pocahontas's death in England, he continued to improve the quality of tobacco. By 1620, 40,000 pounds of tobacco were shipped to England. By the time John Rolfe died in 1622, Jamestown was thriving as a producer of tobacco and Jamestown's population would top 4,000. Tobacco led to the importation of the colony's first black slaves as well as women from England in 1619. The importation of tobacco into Europe was not without resistance and controversy, even in the 17th century. King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) published a famous polemic titled A Counterblaste to Tobacco in 1604. In his essay, the king denounced tobacco use as "[a] custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse." In that same year, an English statute was enacted that placed a heavy protective tariff on every pound of tobacco brought into England. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, tobacco continued to be the "cash crop" of the Virginia Colony. Large tobacco warehouses filled the areas near the wharfs of new thriving towns such as Richmond and Manchester at the fall line (head of navigation) on the James River, and Petersburg on the Appomattox River. Until 1883, tobacco excise tax accounted for one third of internal revenue collected by the United States government.

Cultivation

Sowing

Tobacco seeds are started very early in the year. The seeds are scattered onto the surface of the soil, as their germination is activated by light. In colonial Virginia, seedbeds were fertilized with wood ash or animal manure (frequently powdered horse manure). Seedbeds were then covered with branches to protect the young plants from frost damage. These plants were left to grow until around April. In the nineteenth century, young plants came under increasing attack from the flea beetle (Epitrix cucumeris or Epitrix pubescens), causing destruction of half the United States tobacco crop in 1876. In the years afterward, many experiments were attempted and discussed to control the flea beetle. By 1880 it was discovered that replacing the branches with a frame covered by thin cloth would effectively protect plants from the beetle. This practice spread until it became ubiquitous in the 1890s. Today, in the United States, unlike other countries, tobacco is often fertilized with the mineral apatite in order to partially starve the plant for nitrogen, which changes the taste. This accounts for the different flavor of American cigarettes from those available in other countries. There is, however, some suggestion that this may have adverse health effects attributable to the polonium content of apatite.

Transplanting

After the plants have reached a certain height, they are transplanted into fields. This was originally done by making a relatively large hole in the tilled earth with a tobacco peg, then placing the small plant in the hole. Various mechanical tobacco planters were invented throughout the late 19th and early 20th century to automate this process, making a hole, fertilizing it, and guiding a plant into the hole with one motion.

Topping and suckering

Once the tobacco plants are growing well, they will begin to produce shoots from the joint of each leaf with the stalk. These secondary shoots — known as "suckers" — are undesirable as they divert energy that could be directed into the leaves. They are removed in a process known as "suckering" (sometimes spelled "succoring" in older writing). Generally this is done by hand several times during the season. Recently anti-suckering compounds have come into use. At a certain stage of maturity, the plant will produce a flower cluster from its tip, as well as the tips of any suckers that remain on the plant. In order to divert more energy into the leaves, the plant is "topped" — the top is cut off.

Harvest

Tobacco is harvested in one of two ways. In the oldest method, the entire plant is harvested at once by cutting off the stalk at the ground with a curved knife. In the nineteenth century, bright tobacco began to be harvested by pulling individual leaves off the stalk as they ripened. The leaves ripen from the ground upwards, so a field of tobacco may go through several "pullings" before the tobacco is entirely harvested, and the stalks may be turned into the soil. "Cropping" is the term for pulling leaves off tobbacco. Originally workers cropped the tobacco and placed it on mule-pulled sleds. Later "tobacco harvesters" were invented - basically a trailer pulled behind a tractor. The harvester is a wheeled sled or trailer that has seats for the croppers to sit on and seats just in front of these for the "stringers" to sit on. The croppers pull the leaves off in handfuls, and pass these to the "stringer", who loops twine around the handfuls of tobacco and hangs them on a long wooden square pole. Traditionally, the croppers, down in the dark and wet, with their faces getting slapped by the huge tobacco leaves, were men, and the stringers seated on the higher elevated seats were women. The harvester has places for 4 teams of workers: 8 people cropping and stringing, plus a packer who takes the heavy strung poles of wet green tobacco from the stringers and packs them onto the pallet section of the harvester, plus a driver, making the total crew of each harvester 10 people. Interstingly, the outer seats are suspended from the harvester - slung out over to fit into the aisles of tobacco. As these seats are suspended it is important to balance the weight of the 2 outside teams (similar to a playground see-saw). Having too heavy or light a person in an unbalanced combination often results in the harvester tipping over especially when turning around at the end of a lane. Leaves are cropped as they ripen, from the bottom of the stalk up. The first crop at the very bottom of the stalks are called "sand lugs", as they are often against the ground and are coated with dirt splashed up when it rains. Sand lugs weigh the most, and are most difficult to work with. Water tanks are a common feature on the harvester due to heat, and danger of de-hydration for the workers. Salt tablets sometimes get used as well.

Pests

Pests of tobacco include the moths Endoclita excrescens, Manduca sexta, and Manduca quinquemaculata. Other Lepidoptera whose larvae use tobacco as a food plant include Angle Shades, Cabbage Moth, Mouse Moth, The Nutmeg, Setaceous Hebrew Character and Turnip Moth.

Curing

Turnip Moth Cut plants or pulled leaves are immediately transferred to tobacco barns, where they will be cured. Curing methods varies with the type of tobacco grown, and tobacco barn design varies accordingly. Air-cured tobacco is hung in well-ventilated barns and allowed to dry over a period of days. Fire-cured tobacco is hung in large barns where smoldering fires of hardwoods are kept burning. Flue-cured tobacco was originally strung onto tobacco sticks, which were hung from tier-poles in large cubical barns (Aus: kilns, also traditionally called [http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/oast Oasts]). These barns have flues which run from externally-fed fire boxes to the roof, heat-curing the tobacco without exposing it to smoke. Curing and subsequent aging allows for the slow oxidation and degradation of carotenoids in tobacco leaf. This produces certain coumpounds in the tobacco leaves and them give a sweet hay, tea, or fruity aromatic flavor that contribute to the "smoothness" of the smoke. The aging process continues for a period of months and often extends into the post-curing process. Unaged or low quality tobacco is often flavoured with these naturally occurring compounds. Tobacco flavoring is a significant part of a multi-million dollar industry.

Post-cure processing

After tobacco is cured, it is moved from the curing barn into a storage area for processing. If whole plants were cut, the leaves are removed from the tobacco stalks in a process called stripping. For both cut and pulled tobacco, the leaves are then sorted into different grades. In colonial times, the tobacco was then "prized" into hogsheads for transportation. In bright tobacco regions, prizing was replaced by stacking wrapped "hands" into loose piles to be sold at auction. Today, most cured tobacco is baled before sales under contract.

Types

Fire-cured

Fire-cured smoking tobacco is a robust variety of tobacco used as a condimental for pipe blends. It is cured by smoking over gentle fires. In the United States, it is grown in the western part of Tennessee, Western Kentucky and in Virginia. Latakia is a produced from oriental varieties of N. tabacum. The leaves are cured and smoked over smoldering fires of local hardwoods and aromatic shrubs in Cyprus and Syria. Latakia has a pronounced flavor and a very distinctive aroma, and is used in the so-called Balkan and English-style pipe tobacco blends. Fire-cured tobacco grown in Kentucky and Tennessee is used in some chewing tobaccos, moist snuff, some cigarettes and as a condiment leaf in pipe tobacco blends. It has a rich, slightly floral taste, and adds body and aroma to the blend. Tennessee]

Brightleaf tobacco

Prior to the American Civil War, the tobacco grown in the US was almost entirely fire-cured dark-leaf. This was planted in fertile lowlands, used a robust variety of leaf, and was fire cured or air cured. Sometime after the War of 1812, demand for a milder, lighter, more aromatic tobacco arose. Ohio and Maryland both innovated quite a bit with milder varieties of the tobacco plant. Farmers around the country experimented with different curing processes. But the breakthrough didn't come until 1854. It had been noticed for centuries that sandy, highland soil produced thinner, weaker plants. Captain Abisha Slade, of Caswell County, North Carolina had a good deal of infertile, sandy soil, and planted the new "gold-leaf" varieties on it. Slade owned a slave, Stephen, who accidentally produced the first real bright tobacco. He used charcoal to restart a fire used to cure the crop. The surge of heat turned the leaves yellow. Using that discovery, Slade developed a system for producing bright tobacco, cultivating on poorer soils and using charcoal for heat-curing. News spread through the area pretty quickly. The worthless sandy soil of the Appalachian piedmont was suddenly profitable, and people rapidly developed flue-curing techniques, a more efficient way of smoke-free curing. By the outbreak of the War, the town of Danville, Virginia actually had developed a bright-leaf market for the surrounding area in Caswell County, North Carolina and Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Danville was also the main railway head for Confederate soldiers going to the front. These brought bright tobacco with them from Danville to the lines, traded it with each other and Union soldiers, and developed quite a taste for it. At the end of the war, the soldiers went home and suddenly there was a national market for the local crop. Caswell and Pittsylvania counties were the only two counties in the South that experienced an increase in total wealth after the war. Confederate]

White burley

In 1864, George Webb of Brown County, Ohio planted Red Burley seeds he had purchased, and found that a few of the seedlings had a whitish, sickly look. He transplanted them to the fields anyway, where they grew into mature plants but retained their light color. The cured leaves had an exceedingly fine texture and were exhibited as a curiosity at the market in Cincinnati. The following year he planted ten acres (40,000 m²) from seeds from those plants, which brought a premium at auction. The air-cured leaf was found to be mild tasting and more absorbent than any other variety. White Burley, as it was later called, became the main component in chewing tobacco, American blend pipe tobacco, and American-style cigarettes. The white part of the name is seldom used today, since red burley, a dark air-cured variety of the mid-1800s, no longer exists.

Shade tobacco

It is not well known that the northern US state of Connecticut is also one of the important tobacco-growing regions of the country. However, long before Europeans arrived in the area, Native Americans harvested wild tobacco plants that grew along the banks of the Connecticut River. Today, the Connecticut River valley north of Hartford, Connecticut is known as Tobacco Valley, and the fields and drying sheds are visible to travelers on the road to and from Bradley Field, the major Connecticut airport. The tobacco grown here is known as shade tobacco, and is used as outer wrappers for some of the world's finest cigars. Early Connecticut colonists acquired from the Native Americans the habit of smoking tobacco in pipes and began cultivating the plant commercially, even though the Puritans referred to it as the "evil weed". The plant was outlawed in Connecticut in 1650, but in the 1800s as cigar smoking began to be popular, tobacco farming became a major industry, employing farmers, laborers, local youths, southern African Americans, and migrant workers. Working conditions varied from pleasant summer work for students, to backbreaking exploitation of migrants. Each tobacco plant yields only 18 leaves useful as cigar wrappers, and each leaf requires a great deal of individual manual attention after harvesting, some of which must be carried out in the drying sheds, where the temperature exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In 1921, Connecticut tobacco production peaked, at 31,000 acres (125 km²) under cultivation. The rise of cigarette smoking and the decline of cigar smoking has caused a corresponding decline in the demand for shade tobacco, reaching a minimum in 1992 of 2,000 acres (8 km²) under cultivation. Since then, however, cigar smoking has become more popular again, and in 1997 tobacco farming had risen to 4,000 acres (16 km²). The industry has weathered some major catastrophes, including a devastating hailstorm in 1929, and an epidemic of brown spot fungus in 2000. There is a Luddy/Taylor Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum in Windsor, Connecticut.

Perique

Perhaps the most strongly-flavored of all tobaccos is the Perique, from Saint James Parish, Louisiana. When the Acadians made their way into this region in 1776, the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes were cultivating a variety of tobacco with a distinctive flavor. A farmer called Pierre Chenet is credited with first turning this local tobacco into the Perique in 1824 through the technique of pressure-fermentation. The tobacco plants are manually kept suckerless, and pruned to exactly 12 leaves, through their early growth. In late June, when the leaves are a dark, rich green and the plants are 24-30 inches (600 to 750 mm) tall, the whole plant is harvested in the late evening and hung to dry in a sideless curing barn. Once the leaves have partially dried, but while still supple (usually less than 2 weeks in the barn), any remaining dirt is removed and the leaves are moistened with water and stemmed by hand. The leaves are then rolled into "torquettes" of approximately 1 pound (450 g) and packed into hickory whiskey barrels. The tobacco is then kept under pressure using oak blocks and massive screw jacks, forcing nearly all the air out of the still-moist leaves. Approximately once a month, the pressure is released, and each of the torquettes is "worked" by hand to permit a little air back into the tobacco. After a year of this treatment, the Perique is ready for consumption, although it may be kept fresh under pressure for many years. Extended exposure to air degrades the particular character of the Perique. The finished tobacco is dark brown, nearly black, very moist with a fruity, slightly vinegary aroma. Considered the truffle of pipe tobaccos, the Perique is used as a component of many blended pipe tobaccos, but is too strong to be smoked pure. At one time, the freshly moist Perique was also chewed, but none is now sold for this purpose. Less than 16 acres (65,000 m²) of this crop remain in cultivation, most by a single farmer called Percy Martin, in Grande Pointe, Louisiana. For reasons unknown, the particular flavor and character of the Perique can only be acquired on a small triangle of Saint James Parish, less than 3 by 10 miles (5 by 16 km). Although at its peak, Saint James Parish was producing around 20 tons of the Perique a year, output is now only a few barrelsful. While traditionally a pipe tobacco (and still available from some specialist tobacconists), the Perique may now also be found in the Perique cigarettes of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., in an approximately 1 part to 5 blend with lighter tobaccos. A similar tobacco, based on pressure-fermented Kentucky tobacco is available by the name Acadian Green River Perique.

Tobacco products

Snuff

Kentucky Snuff is a generic term for fine-ground smokeless tobacco products. Originally the term referred only to dry snuff, a fine tan dust popular mainly in the eighteenth century. This is often called "Scotch Snuff", a folk-etymology derivation of the scorching process used to dry the cured tobacco by the factor. European (dry) snuff is intended to be sniffed up the nose. Snuff is not "snorted" due to the fact that you do not want the snuff to get past the nose i.e.; into sinuses, throat or lungs. European snuff comes in several varieties: Plain, Toast (fine ground - very dry), "Medicated" (menthol, camphor, eucalyptus, etc.), Scented and Schmalzler (a German variety.) The major brand names of European snuff are: Bernards (Germany), Fribourg & Treyer (UK), Gawith (UK), Gawith Hoggarth (UK), Hedges (UK), Lotzbeck (Germany), McChrystal's (UK), Pöschl (Germany) and Wilsons of Sharrow (UK). Snuff has even been found to be beneficial in some cases of hay fever due to the fact that the snuff may prevent allergins from getting to the mucus membrane within the nose. American snuff is much stronger, and is intended to be dipped. It comes in two varieties -- "sweet" and "salty". Until the early 20th century, snuff dipping was popular in the United States among rural people, who would often use sweet barkless twigs to apply it to their gums. Popular brands are Tube Rose and Navy. The second, and more popular in North America, variety of snuff is moist snuff, or dipping tobacco. This is occasionally referred to as "snoose" derived from the Scandinavian word for snuff, "snus". Like the word, the origins of moist snuff are Scandinavian, and the oldest American brands indicate that by their names. American Moist snuff is made from dark fire-cured tobacco that is ground, sweetened, and aged by the factory. Prominent North American brands are Copenhagen, Skoal, Chisholm, and Kodiak also Grizzly. American moist snuff tends to be dipped. Some modern smokeless tobacco brands, such as Kodiak, have an aggressive nicotine delivery. This is accomplished with a higher dose of nicotine than cigarettes, a high pH level (which helps nicotine enter the blood stream faster), and a high portion of unprotonated (free base) nicotine.

Chewing tobacco

pH] Chewing is one of the oldest ways of consuming tobacco leaves. This practice is also known as dipping. Native Americans in both North and South America chewed the leaves of the plant, frequently mixed with lime. Modern chewing tobacco is produced in three forms: twist, plug, and scrap. A few manufacturers in the [United Kingdom] produce particularly strong twist tobacco meant for use in smoking pipes rather than chewing. These twists are not mixed with lime although they may be flavored with whisky, rum, cherry or other flavors common to pipe tobacco. Twist is the oldest form. One to three high-quality leaves are braided and twisted into a rope while green, and then are cured in the same manner as other tobacco. Until recently this was done by farmers for their personal consumption in addition to other tobacco intended for sale. Modern twist is occasionally lightly sweetened. It is still sold commercially, but rarely seen outside of Appalachia. Popular brands are Mammoth Cave, Moore's Red Leaf, and Cumberland Gap. Users cut a piece off the twist and chew it, expectorating. Plug chewing tobacco is made by pressing together cured tobacco leaves in a sweet (often molasses-based) syrup. Originally this was done by hand, but since the second half of the 19th century leaves were pressed between large tin sheets. The resulting sheet of tobacco is cut into plugs. Like twist, consumers cut a piece off of the plug to chew. Major brands are Days O Work and Cannonball. Scrap, or looseleaf chewing tobacco, was originally the excess of plug manufacturing. It's sweetened like plug tobacco, but sold loose in bags rather than a plug. Looseleaf is by far the most popular form of chewing tobacco. Popular brands are Red Man, Beechnut, and Mail Pouch. Looseleaf chewing tobacco can also be dipped. During the peak of popularity of chewing tobacco in the Western United States in the late 19th century, spittoons were a common device for users to spit into.

Snus

Swedish snus is different in that it is made from steam-cured tobacco, rather than fire-cured, and its health effects are markedly different, with epidemiological studies showing dramatically lower rates of cancer and other tobacco-related health problems than cigarettes, American "Chewing Tobacco", Indian Gutka or African varieties. Prominent Swedish brands are Swedish Match, Ettan, and Tre Ankare. In the Scandinavian countries, moist snuff comes either in loose powder form, to be pressed into a small ball or ovoid either by hand or by use of a special tool, or packaged in small bags, suitable for placing inside the upper lip, called "portion snuff". Since it is not smoked, snuff in general avoids generating many of the nitrosamines and other carcinogens in the tar that forms from the partially anaerobic reactions in the smoldering smoked tobacco. The steam curing rather than fire curing of snus has been demonstrated to generate even fewer of such compounds than other varieties of snuff; 2.8 parts per mil for Ettan brand compared to as high as 127.9 parts per mil in American brands, according to a study by the State of Massachusetts Health Department. It is hypothesized that the widespread use of snus by Swedish men (estimated at 30% of Swedish men, possibly because it is much cheaper than cigarettes), displacing tobacco smoking and other varieties of snuff, is responsible for the incidence of tobacco-related mortality in men being significantly lower in Sweden than any other European country; in contrast, since women are much less likely to use snus, their rate of tobacco-related deaths in Sweden is similar to that in other European countries. Snus is clearly less harmful than other tobacco products; according to Kenneth Warner, director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network, :"The Swedish government has studied this stuff to death, and to date, there is no compelling evidence that it has any adverse health consequences. ... Whatever they eventually find out, it is dramatically less dangerous than smoking." Public health researchers maintain that, nevertheless, even the low nitrosamine levels in snus cannot be completely risk free, but snus proponents maintain that inasmuch as snus is used as a substitute for smoking or a means to quit smoking, the net overall effect is positive, similar to the effect of nicotine patches, for instance. Snus is banned in the European Union countries outside of Sweden; although this is officially for health reasons, it is widely regarded as in fact being for economic reasons, since other smokeless tobacco products (mainly from India) associated with much greater risk to health are sold.

Gutka

Gutka is a tobacco product manufactured and used mainly in India. It contains sweeteners, food coloring and paan flavorings . It is used by constantly chewing without letting the juice go in and subsequently spitting the juice. This results in the walls of most public buildings to be covered in red stains called pichkari, especially in areas where males from lower income levels congregate.

Creamy snuff

Creamy snuff is a tobacco paste, consisting of tobacco, clove oil, glycerin, spearmint, menthol, and camphor, and sold in a toothpaste tube. It is marketed mainly to women in India, and is known by the brand names Ipco (made by Asha Industries), Denobac, Tona, Ganesh. According to the U.S NIH-sponsored [http://dccps.nci.nih.gov/TCRB/stfact_sheet_combined10-23-02.pdf 2002 Smokeless Tobacco Fact Sheet], it is marketed as a dentifrice. The same factsheet also mentions that it is "often used to clean teeth. The manufacturer recommends letting the paste linger in the mouth before rinsing."

Tobacco water

Tobacco water is a traditional organic insecticide used in domestic gardening. Basque "angulero" fishermen catch immature eels and kill them in an infusion of tobacco leaves before parboiling them in salty water for transportation to market.[http://www.buber.net/Basque/Food/food1.html]

Bibliography

- Breen, T. H. (1985). Tobacco Culture. Princeton Univerisity Press. ISBN 0-691-00596-6. Source on tobacco culture in eighteenth-century Virginia pp. 46-55
- W.K. Collins and S.N. Hawks. "Principles of Flue-Cured Tobacco Production" 1st Edition, 1993
- Fuller, R. Reese (Spring 2003). Perique, the Native Crop. Louisiana Life.
- Gately, Iain. Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization. Grove Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8021-3960-4.
- Graves, John. "Tobacco that is not Smoked" in From a Limestone Ledge (the sections on snuff and chewing tobacco) ISBN 0394512383
- That history of the Universal Leaf corporation (info about role of Danville-Richmond railroad in spread of Bright tobacco).
- Killebrew, J. B. and Myrick, Herbert (1909). Tobacco Leaf: Its Culture and Cure, Marketing and Manufacture. Orange Judd Company. Source for flea beetle typology (p. 243)
- Poche, L. Aristee (2002). Perique tobacco: Mystery and history.
- Tilley, Nannie May. The Bright Tobacco Industry 1860-1929 ISBN 0405047282. Source on flea beetle prevention (pp. 39-43), and history of flue-cured tobacco

External links

- [http://www.stogiefresh.com/ Stogie Fresh: The art and science of storing and aging cigars]
- [http://www.cigarenvy.com/ Cigar Envy: Reviews, feature stories, news and information on cigars.]
- [http://www.plot55.com/growing/nicotiana.html Growing Nicotiana species (Plot55.com)]
- [http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/thome/band4/tafel_033.html Image of Nicotiana tabacum from 'Flora von Deutschland Österreich und der Schweiz']
- [http://www.liberherbarum.com/Pn0500.HTM Nicotiana tabacum at Liber Herbarum II]
- [http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Nicotiana+tabacum Nicotiana tabacum at plants for a future]
- [http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/research_data/survey/mm4819fs.htm Nicotine, pH, and Moisture Content of Six U.S. Commercial Moist Snuff Products CDC tobacco research]
- [http://www-cie.iarc.fr/htdocs/indexes/vol83index.html Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking, Summary of Data Reported and Evaluation 2004] by the IARC.
- [http://www.greenfacts.org/tobacco/ A summary of the IARC report] by GreenFacts.
- [http://www.howdydave.com/snuff.html Dry Snuff].
- [http://www.swedish-snus.com/snus-health.html Swedish snus site]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3300769.stm BBC report on questions re European Union partial ban on some smokeless tobacco products (i.e. snus)] Category:Solanaceae Category:Herbal & fungal stimulants Category:Herbal & fungal hallucinogens Category:Entheogens Tobacco Category:Nicotinic antagonists Category:Monoamine oxidase inhibitors ko:담배 ja:タバコ simple:Tobacco

Herb

A herb (pronounced "hurb" in Commonwealth English and "urb" in American English) is a plant grown for culinary, medicinal, or in some cases even spiritual value. The green, leafy part of the plant is typically used. General usage differs between culinary herbs and medicinal herbs. A medicinal herb may be a shrub or other woody plant, whereas a culinary herb is a non-woody plant. By contrast, spices are the seeds, berries, bark, root, or other parts of the plant, even leaves in some cases; although any of these, as well as any edible fruits or vegetables, may be considered "herbs" in medicinal or spiritual use. Culinary herbs are distinguished from vegetables in that they are used in small amounts and provide flavor rather than substance to food. In botany, a herb is a plant that does not produce a woody stem, and dies, either completely (annual herb) or back to the roots (perennial herb), at the end of the growing season. The term herbaceous means either having the characteristic of a herb or being leaf-like in color and texture. A related term, used only in the United States, is forb, which means a non-woody plant that is not a grass and is not grass-like. This means that the term forb excludes sedges (Cyperaceae) and rushes (Juncaceae) along with grasses (Poaceae).

External links

- [http://herbsociety.org/ The Herb Society of America] Category:Plants Category:Herbs ja:ハーブ

Cigar

:This page is about the tobacco product; for other meanings, see Cigar (disambiguation). Cigar (disambiguation), Macanudo, Romeo y Julieta)]] Romeo y Julieta A cigar is a tightly rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco, one end of which is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the smoker's mouth or lungs. The word cigar is from the Spanish word cigarro, which the Oxford English Dictionary suggests is a variation on cigarra, Spanish for "cicada", due to its shape, especially that of what is now called the perfecto. Other sources have indicated that it may be derived from the Maya language word sikar, "tobacco". Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in such nations as Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua and the United States of America. Cigars manufactured in Cuba are widely considered to be without peer, thanks both to the unique characteristics of the Vuelta Abajo region in the Pinar del Río Province at the west of the island, where a microclimate allows for unequalled tobacco to be grown, and to the skill of the nation's cigar-makers.

History

microclimate

Origins

The indigenous inhabitants of the islands of the Caribbean Sea and Mesoamerica have smoked cigars since at least the 900s AD, as evidenced by the discovery of a ceramic vessel at a Mayan archaeological site in Uaxactún, Guatemala, decorated with the painted figure of a man smoking a primitive cigar. Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus is generally credited with the introduction of smoking to Europe, an action which is often termed the "discovery" of smoking, despite his having borrowed the practice from the indigenous Americans. 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 cigar smokers. In the 19th century, cigar smoking was common while cigarettes were still comparatively rare. The cigar business was an important industry, and factories employed many people before mechanized manufacturing of cigars became practical. However, all modern cigars of high quality are still rolled by hand; some boxes bear the phrase Hecho a Mano, "Made by Hand", as proof.

U.S. 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 regime, 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. [http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2322,862,00.html] Cigars obtained prior to the embargo are not considered contraband, and became known as "pre-embargo Cubans". As of 2005, 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.

Revival of interest

During the mid- to late 1990's in the United States, numerous cultural phenomena caused the popularity of cigar smoking to skyrocket. Lavish dinner events, or "smokers", were held in virtually every metropolitan area of consequence across the United States. Celebrities, radio and television talk-show hosts, politicians, blue-collar workers, and even a large number of women – a fact surprising to some observers – were drawn to the allure of the cigar. The sudden resurgence in cigar smoking created demand that was difficult to supply. Additionally, the significance of America's Cuban trade embargo – imposed some 30 years earlier, before many of the new aficionados were born – suddenly became very evident. Cigar retailers, a good number of them new establishments looking to capitalize on the craze, could name their price on virtually every type and brand of cigar. Some even refused to sell any one customer an entire box at a time, regardless of the fact that only a very few could afford to, as a courtesy to their other customers. In the rush to meet demand, the quality of many premium cigars suffered for brief periods of time. Eventually, consumer demand so far outpaced supply that many of those who took it up had to cease the practice altogether. For many, this was mainly due to either lack of supply or overinflated prices. For others, the newness of the fad had simply worn off. By 2005, cigar prices have descended to reasonable levels, and supply of the best brands is abundant for those who continue to enjoy cigar smoking – even in the face of public scrutiny and disapproval.

Manufacture

brand of cigar 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 [http://www.tobaccopedia.info/Cigars_and_cigarillos/Production_practices/Cultural_practices/Curing/Natural_curing.html curing], takes between 25 and 45 days and varies substantially based upon climactic 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 [http://www.tobaccopedia.info/Cigars_and_cigarillos/Production_practices/Cultural_practices/Fermentation.html fermentation], is carried out under conditions designed to help the leaf die slowly and gracefully. Temperature and humidity must be 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 [http://www.tobaccopedia.info/Cigars_and_cigarillos/Production_practices/Cultural_practices/Sorting.html 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 manufacturers specifications, it will be used in the production of a cigar. The creation of a quality cigar is still performed by hand. An experienced cigar roller can produce hundreds of exceptional, nearly identical cigars per day. The rollers keep the tobacco moist - especially the wrapper, and use specially designed crescent shaped knives 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 un-capped ends are cut to a uniform size. From this stage, the cigar is a complete product that can, to the best of anyone's knowledge, be kept indefinitely - under the proper conditions. (Indeed, Sotheby's recently auctioned off cigars kept in the damp basement of an Irish castle for centuries. Reportedly, they still smoked well.) Cigars are known to have lasted for decades if kept as close to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and 70% relative humidity, as the environment will allow. Once purchased, this 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 cigar 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 them 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 cigar together. Historically, a lector or reader was always employed to entertain the cigar factory workers. This practice became obsolete once audio books for portable players became available, but is still practiced in some Cuban factories. Legend has it that it was because of one of these lectores' choice of reading material that one of the best known brands earned its name. At the H. Upmann factory in Havana, the lector had the custom of reading the works of Alexandre Dumas. So loved were Dumas' works by the workers, that they asked the factory owner to let them produce a cigar as homage. The new cigars were branded Montecristo, in reference to The Count of Monte Cristo, and the boxes that carried them bore the image of three swords, in reference to The Three Musketeers. The Montecristo brand continues to be one of the most popular in the world to this day. (See Cigar Brands). In fact, the Montecristo brand was created when Alonso Menendez purchased the Particulares factory in July 1935, as Min Ron Nee documents in "An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars." In that book, he reproduces an August 1935 issue of Habano magazine which announces the purchase of the factory and the launch of new cigar brand, Montecristo.(The first Montecristo cigars were made in the Particulares factory, not H. Upmann. The magazine does not mention the romantic story of the workers demanding a homage to Dumas. The logo (three swords surrounding a fleur de Lis) was designed by a British cigar importer John Hunter Morris and first appeared in print in August 1936. The cigar was made, for a time, in the H. Upmann factory, after Menendez bought it in 1937.

Composition

Cigars are composed of three types of tobacco leaves, whose variations determine smoking and flavor characteristics:

Wrappers

A cigar's outermost leaves are its wrappers, which come from the widest part of the plant. It determines much of the cigar's character and flavor, and as such its color is often used to describe the cigar as a whole. Colors are designated as follows, from lightest to darkest:
- Double Claro – very light, slightly greenish (also called Candela, American Market Selection or jade); achieved by picking leaves before maturity and drying quickly; often grown in Connecticut
- Claro – light tan or yellowish. Indicative of shade-grown tobacco.
- Natural – light brown to brown; generally sun-grown.
- Colorado Claro – mid-brown; particularly associated with tobacco grown in the Dominican Republic
- Colorado – reddish-brown (also called Rosado)
- Colorado Maduro – dark brown; particularly associated with Honduras-grown tobacco
- Maduro – dark brown to very dark brown
- Oscuro – black, often oily in appearance; tend to be grown in Nicaragua, Brazil, Mexico, or Connecticut Some manufacturers use an alternate designation:
- American Market Selection (AMS) – synonymous with Double Claro
- English Market Selection (EMS) – can refer to any color stronger than Double Claro but milder than Maduro
- Spanish Market Selection (SMS) – either of the two darkest colors, Maduro and Oscuro Lighter colors indicate earlier picking and milder flavor; darker colors indicate later picking, stronger and sweeter flavors due to the presence of sugars and oils, and longer fermenting.

Fillers

The majority of a cigar is made up of fillers, wrapped up bunches of leaves in its cigar's interior. Fillers of various strengths are usually blended to produce unique cigar flavors. The more oils present in the tobacco leaf, the stronger (less dry) the filler. Types range from the light-flavored (dry) Seco, through the medium Volado, and on to the strong Ligero. Large-gauge cigars have a greater capacity to contain filler, and thus have greater potential to provide a full body and/or complex flavor. Fillers can be either long or short; long filler uses whole leaves and is of a better quality, while short filler, also called "mixed", uses chopped up leaves as well as stems and other bits.

Binders

Binders are elastic leaves used to hold together the bunches of fillers.

Size and shape

Cigars are commonly categorized by the size and shape of the cigar, which together are known as a vitola. The size of a cigar is measured by two dimensions: its ring gauge (its diameter in sixty-fourths of an inch) and its length (in inches). For example, most non-Cuban robustos have a ring gauge of approximately 50 and a length of approximately 5 inches. Robustos which are of Cuban origin always have a ring gauge of 50 and a length of 4 7/8 inches.

Parejo

The most common shape is the parejo, which has a cylindrical body, straight sides, one end open, and a round cap on the other end which is cut off before smoking. Parejas are designated by the following terms:
- Coronas
- Petit Corona (5" x 42)
- Corona (5 1/2" x 42)
- Corona Extra (5 1/2" x 46)
- Robusto (5" x 50), also called Rothschilds after the Rothschild family
- Long Corona (6" x 42)
- Toro (6" x 50)
- Lonsdale (6 1/2" x 42), named for Hugh Cecil Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale
- Grand Corona (6 1/2" x 46)
- Julieta a.k.a. Churchill (7" x 47), named for Winston Churchill
- Giant Corona (7 1/2" x 44)
- Double Corona (7 3/4" x 49)
- Panatelas – longer and generally thinner than Coronas
- Small Panatela (5" x 33)
- Short Panatela (5" x 38)
- Slim Panatela (6" x 34)
- Panatela (6" x 38)
- Long Panatela (7 1/2" x 38)

Figurado

Irregularly-shaped cigars are known as figurados and are sometimes considered of higher quality because they are more difficult to make. Figurados include the following:
- Torpedo - Like a parejo except that the cap is pointed.
- Pyramid - Has a broad foot and evenly narrows to a pointed cap.
- Perfecto - Narrow at both ends and bulged in the middle.
- Presidente/Diadema - shaped like a parejo but considered a figurado because of its enormous size and occasional closed foot akin to a perfecto.
- Culebras - Three long, pointed cigars braided together. Arturo Fuente, a large cigar manufacturer based in the Dominican Republic, has also manufactured figurados in exotic shapes ranging from chili peppers to baseball bats and American footballs. They are highly collectable and extremely expensive, when publically available. In practice, the terms Torpedo and Pyramid are often used interchangeably, even among very knowledgable cigar smokers. Min Ron Nee, the Hong Kong-based cigar expert whose work "An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars" is considered to be the definitive work on cigars and cigar terms, defines Torpedo as "cigar slang." He adds, "In the old days, [torpoedo] could mean a perfecto or a pyramid shape cigar. After the [Cuban] Revolution the meaning leans toward the pyramid rather than the perfecto. Some cigar authorities insist that the correct meaning of a torpedo should be referring to a perfecto and not a pyramid. The majority of people [who use torpedo to mean pyramid] have got it wrong. I find it rather funny that a slang word can be incorrectly misunderstood by the majority." In other words, Nee thinks the majority is right (because slang is defined by majority usage) and torpedoes are pyramids by another name.

Flavor

Virtually all cigar aficionados enjoy the practice because of the rich and varied flavors one observes when smoking, although some eschew the connoisseurial qualities in favor of other factors. For those drawn by taste, each brand and type of cigar carries different qualities of taste. Generally, cigars with lighter colored wrappers are milder in flavor and have less of a smoky aftertaste. Darker wrappers are typically richer in flavor, although the specific flavors are not unique to any particular style or type of tobacco. Unlike cigarettes, cigars taste very little of smoke, and usually very much of tobacco with overtones of other tastes. A fine cigar - especially ones of Cuban origin prior to 1990, can have virtually no taste of smoke whatsoever. Some of the more common flavors one observes while smoking a cigar include:
- Leather
- Spice
- Cocoa / chocolate
- Peat / moss / earth
- Coffee
- Nut
- Apple
- Vanilla
- Honey The most ardent enjoyers of cigar smoking will sometimes keep personal journals of cigars they've enjoyed, complete with personal ratings, description of flavors observed, sizes, brands, etc. The qualities and characteristics of cigar tasting are very similar to those of wine, Scotch, beer, cognacs and tequilla. Within a given specification, there are endless varieties. This dynamic is part of the appeal to which cigar smokers are continually drawn.

Popular culture

tequilla tequilla Cigars are often presented as stereotypical rich man's accessory. Cigars are often smoked to celebrate good fortune, especially the birth of a child. 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 their 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. The risk of addiction is lowered by today's anti-smoking forces which would not have credited the smells and the litter of a midcentury American railway "lounge" car, nor that of a home where the paterfamilias had his favorite Sunday afternoon cigar, and cigar smoking today returns to its ritual origins because of anti-smoking pressure. 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. Being challenged on the "phallic" shape of the cigar, Freud is supposed to have replied "sometimes, a cigar is only 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 "a woman is only a woman: but a good cigar is a smoke" and "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. Several storylines in Seinfeld revolve around or pay regard to a box of Cuban cigars in season 4. 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 akwardly describing the experience as "almost sensual". A large variety of fictional characters have smoked cigars:
- Numerous characters from Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, including the title character, Albert de Morcerf, and Baron Franz d'Epinay
- Bender from Futurama
- Archie Bunker from All In The Family
- Cosmo Spacely from The Jetsons
- James Bond smokes cigars in both Live and Let Die and Die Another Day
- Franz Sanchez, villain from the James Bond film Licence to Kill
- Xenia Onatopp, female henchwoman from the James Bond film GoldenEye
- Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard TV series and movie.
- Pops Racer and Inspector Detector from Speed Racer
- Boss from Hamtaro (although the cigar is brushed out in American edits of the anime)
- Jayne Cobb of Firefly (smokes a cigar as he plays snooker during the opening of Shindig)
- Jet from Cowboy Bebop
- John Hannibal Smith and Faceman from The A-Team
- Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3
- Tony Soprano from "The Sopranos"
- the Man with No Name from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"
- Toby Ziegler from The West Wing
- Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld
- Columbo played by Peter Falk
- J. Jonah Jameson, of Spider-Man fame
- Alan Shore (James Spader) and Denny Crane (William Shatner) of Boston Legal
Health issues
Cigar smokers typically do not inhale the smoke, instead puffing it into their mouths, not reaching their lungs, unlike cigarette smokers. Cigar smokers consequently have lower incidence of lung cancer and emphysema than cigarette smokers, but still higher than that of non-smokers. Some people have mistakenly assumed that cigars therefore 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. However, a number of scientific studies suggest the link between cigarette smoke and various maladies, including lung cancer.
See also

- Smoking jacket
- Humidor
- Cigarman
- Gaboon
- Cigarillo
- Famous cigar smokers
External links

- [http://www.cigarpass.com/forums Internet Cigar Community] - Friendly cigar forum, cigar reviews, cigar trading, hot cigar deals and more
- [http://www.fujipub.com/cigar Fuji Publishing Cigar Page] - Collection of the best online cigar pages - One of the first cigar portals
- [http://www.cigarcyclopedia.com/ Cigar Cyclopedia] - Online news and commentary site on cigars by the publishers of Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars
- [http://www.cigarzilla.net cigarzilla] - chat online, in realtime with other cigar smokers
- [http://www.cigarenvy.com Cigar Envy] - Cigar ratings and reviews, feature articles, news, and information for novice and veteran cigar smokers
- [http://www.stogiefresh.com Stogie Fresh] - The Art and Science of Storing and Aging Cigars
- [http://www.mycigarblog.com/ My Cigar Blog] - A Malaysian's journey in search of the perfect cigar!
- [http://www.unprofitable.biz/blog/ Cigar&Co.] - Another interesting blog about cigars
- [http://www.cigargroup.com/ Cigar Group] - organization of cybersmokers
- [http://www.eherf.com eHERF] - Your Friendly Cigar Forum
- [http://www.stogiesmoke.com Stogie Smoke] - Another blogger's journey into cigar smoking and accessories
- [http://www.cigarweekly.com Cigar Weekly] - Online magazine
- [http://cigars.about.com/library/weekly/aa040801a.htm Speaking Cigar at About.com] - Cigar-related terminology and definitions
- [http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2322,486,00.html Cigar Aficionado: Cigar 101] - a guide to shapes and sizes Category:Tobacco ja:葉巻きタバコ

British Empire

The British Empire was the world's first global power and the largest empire in history. It was a product of the European Age of Discovery that began with the global maritime empires of Portugal and Spain in the late 15th century. By 1921 the British Empire held sway over a population of about 470–570 million people—roughly a quarter of the world's population—and covered about 14.3 million square miles (more than 37 million km²), almost a third of the world's total land area. Though it has since almost completely disappeared, there remains a strong influence across the world, such as in economic practice, legal and government systems, the spread of many traditionally British sports (such as cricket) and also the spread of the English language.

Background: The English and Scottish Empires

The Anglo-Norman Kingdom

In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, conquered England and made asserted his right to be king, giving England its first overseas territory (Normandy). The new rulers had dual roles. First, as kings of England they were sovereign lords. Second, as dukes of Normandy, they were vassals of the kings of France. This led to centuries of conflicts which ended with their loss of French holdings in 1558. In the meantime, the annexation of Ireland began in 1172 and Wales was conquered in 1282.

Growth of the overseas empire

1282, site of England's first overseas colony.]] The overseas British Empire — in the sense of British oceanic exploration and settlement outside of Europe and the British Isles — was rooted in the pioneering maritime policies of King Henry VII, who reigned 1485–1509. Building on commercial links in the wool trade promoted during the reign of his predecessor King Richard III, Henry established the modern English merchant marine system, which greatly expanded English shipbuilding and seafaring. The merchant marine also supplied the basis for the mercantile institutions that would play such a crucial role in later British imperial ventures, such as the Massachusetts Bay Company and the British East India Company. Henry's financial reforms made the English Exchequer solvent, which helped to underwrite the development of the Merchant Marine. Henry also ordered construction of the first English dry dock, at Portsmouth, and made improvements to England's small navy. Additionally, Henry sponsored the voyages of the Italian mariner John Cabot in 1496 and 1497 that established England's first overseas colony - a fishing settlement - in Newfoundland, which Cabot claimed on behalf of Henry.

Henry VIII and the rise of the Royal Navy

The foundations of sea power, having been laid during Henry VII's reign, were gradually expanded to protect English trade and open up new routes. King Henry VIII founded the modern English navy (though the plans to do so were put into motion during his father's reign), more than tripling the number of warships and constructing the first large vessels with heavy, long-range guns. He initiated the Navy's formal, centralised administrative apparatus, built new docks, and constructed the network of beacons and lighthouses that greatly facilitated coastal navigation for English and foreign merchant sailors. Henry thus established the munitions-based Royal Navy that was able to repulse the Spanish Armada in 1588, and his innovations provided the seed for the imperial navy of later centuries.

The Elizabethan era

Elizabethan era.]] During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe in the years 1577 to 1580, only the second to accomplish this feat after Ferdinand Magellan's expedition. In 1579, Drake landed somewhere in northern California and claimed for the Crown what he named Nova Albion ("New Albion", Albion being an ancient name for Britain), though the claim was not followed by settlement. Subsequent maps spell out Nova Albion to the north of all New Spain. Thereafter, England's interests outside Europe grew steadily, promoted by John Dee, who coined the phrase "British Empire". An expert in navigation, many of the early English explorers visited him before and after their expeditions. His conception was derived from Dante's book Monarchia. A Welshman himself, his use of the term British fitted with the Welsh origins of Elizabeth's Tudor family. Humphrey Gilbert followed on Cabot's original claim when he sailed to Newfoundland in 1583 and declared it an English colony on August 5 at St John's. Sir Walter Raleigh organised the first colony in Virginia in 1587 at Roanoke Island. Both Gilbert's Newfoundland settlement and the Roanoke colony were short-lived, however, and had to be abandoned due to food shortages, severe weather, shipwrecks, and hostile encounters with indigenous tribes on the American continent. The Elizabethan era built on the past century's imperial foundations by expanding Henry VIII's navy, promoting Atlantic exploration by English sailors, and further encouraging maritime trade especially with the Netherlands and the Hanseatic League. However, the Elizabethan navy suffered severe defeats against the Spanish fleets in the Anglo-Spanish War following the Spanish Armada campaign, which weakened the Royal Navy and allowed Spain to retain effective control of Atlantic sea lanes until the 1630s, when decisive victories by the Dutch made the Netherlands the dominant seafaring nation in the Atlantic.

The Stuart era

The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) helped to strengthen England's advance toward becoming a major naval power, but this naval advantage was lost in the attack upon Spain by the disastrous Drake-Norris Expedition of 1589, and subsequent naval and land defeats at the hands of Spain in the 1590s thwarted attempts to settle North America, and helped damage the English Exchequer. However it d