A Brief History of the Cigar Industry

No one knows who originally discovered tobacco.  Europeans became aware of tobacco when Christopher Columbus came to the Carribean.  There is evidence that the Mayans used tobacco in religious ceremonies and its use probably predates the Mayans into one of the earlier Central American cultures.  In any case its discovery and use is Central American in origin.

The first cigars that Columbus saw were smoked by the native Indians of what is now Cuba.  They consisted of raw cured tobacco leaves twisted into a wrapper made of dried corn husks.  The tobacco monopoly, Tabacalera, in Seville Spain manufactured the first cigars in the form we know today in the early 1700s.  They manufactured the first cigars with a filler, binder, and wrapper.

The idea of this construction was exported to Cuba in 1740 when Real Compania de la Habana was created by royal decree.  The tobacco industry in Cuba was originally a Spanish state monopoly.  Demand outstripped supply by 1821 and by royal decree the monopoly was in effect broken up.  New producers emerged throughout the island.

Cuban cigars continued to grow in popularity as more brands were produced.  This trend lasted through the 1800's and into the first half of the 20th century.  The Cuban revolution of 1959 brought an end to Americans smoking Havanas when the  United States declared an embargo on all Cuban products in 1961.  The most devastating effect on the Cuban cigar industry came when Fidel Castro nationalized the business.  Most of the famous makers took their seed tobacco and their names and headed for other places in the Caribbean to make their cigars.

The three major areas where production were moved to the Dominican Republic, Honduras, send Nicaragua.  Dominican produced cigars are usually smooth, mild and slow burning.  Honduras cigars are usually more full bodied than Dominicans with tobacco as rich as Cuban but with a slightly different flavor.  Nicaraguan cigars are usually full bodied and aromatic.