A Study of Cigar Smokers
Jim Callahan CIS English Composition 3rd Hr May 2, 2005
I. Secondary Research Mark Twain once said, “If there are no cigars in Heaven, I shall not go.” Mark Twain, like many men, enjoyed cigars for their flavor, simplicity and the experience of a cigar. The first native people of North America, more than likely the Mayans, were the first to harvest and smoke the tobacco plant. The first tobacco plantations were set up in Virginia in 1612, but the first cigar didn‟t reach America until 1762. Israel Putnam, who later became a general in the Revolutionary War, was a British General who returned home from Cuba with a plethora of Cuban Cigars and tobacco. Soon after, factories were set up to process the tobacco from the Cuban seed, and to create authentic Cuban wrappers. Cigar smoking spread from Spain to the rest of Europe in the 1700‟s. At the end of the century, cigar factories were being set up in France and Germany. The British did not accept cigar smoking as fashionable until the 1820‟s. Cigars really started to take off in America after the Civil War; some of the better known cigars were made out of a factory in Conestoga, Pennsylvania; hence the nickname “stogie.” A demand for Cuban tobacco always existed because of its higher quality. The United States embargo on Cuba meant that Cuban cigars were no longer legal in the U.S. This caused an impact on cigar smokers because they had nowhere to turn for quality cigars. Cigar families from Cuba relocated to South America and Africa to start business again (History). An amazing amount of time goes into making quality cigars. Two to four “filler leaves” are laid end to end and rolled into two halves; this is called “bunch.” The bunch is then pressed into a wood mold to hold shape, then molded filler is selected;
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the lower quality filler is trimmed to make the cigar rounder. Then a wrapper is chosen, the stalk is stripped from the binder and the wrapper is cut to exact size. The bunch is then laid across the wrapper which is wound carefully across the binder, and then it is stuck together with a drop of vegetable gum. A small piece of round wrapper is cut from the trimmings and is used to form the cap (the end part which is cut off). Finally, the open end is cut straight down for the desired length (History). Since such quality goes into the making of cigars, consumers pay special attention to the way they handle a cigar and smoke it. Cigar smoking demands certain etiquette, if you will. First of all, cigars are meant to be stored in a special room or box called a “humidor.” These rooms are kept at a climate of 70% humidity and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Shops that carry quality cigars usually will have a “walk-in humidor” where boxes upon boxes are stored so that they will remain fresh for many years. After selecting a cigar, the cigar needs to be cut properly in order to draw smoke from the end of it. The best way to cut a blunt-ended cigar is to lay the cutter down on a flat surface, place the cigar inside and snip it. Cigars of different shapes and sizes may cut a different way. Cutting a cigar may seem simple, but a bad cut can cause the whole thing to unravel. Next, the band should be removed. Although this step is not necessary, a smoker does not want to appear to be showing up anyone next to him by smoking a more expensive cigar. Lighting the cigar is somewhat like cutting, because a bad light can ruin the cigar itself. It‟s best to use a butane torch lighter or a simple wood match to establish a hot flame which won‟t alter the taste of the tobacco. In order to get a nice even burn on the cigar; one needs to spin the cigar around the flame to get all areas burning at the
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same rate. Rarely do cigar smokers hang the cigar in their mouth the whole time; they will leave it sit in the ash tray periodically, savoring its taste. Also, ashes are tapped off much less frequently then off a cigarette. Leaving a longer ash on the cigar keeps it burning cool and slow (Smoke). After reading all of these rules and regulations, I wondered what sorts of things fit the description of a “typical” cigar smoker. What would a cigar smoker wear, how old would they be, how would they dress, how would they act? II. Preconceptions My prior knowledge lead me to believe that cigar smoker is a white male somewhere in his 40‟s who enjoys golf, dresses more on the formal side of casual, has a decent paying job and is somewhat of an intellectual. I think these are probably stereotypical generalizations, but they are what came to mind. These characteristics, I believe, are associated with more recognizable people that smoke cigars. For example, a few professional golfers always smoke while playing; Larry Laoretti never takes a cigar out of his mouth during the game. Cigars have also been associated with wealth and fame; take popular magazine Cigar Aficionado. Each month Cigar Aficionado has a celebrity posing with a cigar; Sharon Stone, Rush Limbaugh, Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola and Rudy Juliani have all graced the cover. Two former U.S. Presidents: Grover Cleveland and John F. Kennedy smoked cigars, and our current President George W. Bush “smokes an occasional cigar.” This information seems to solidify my preconceptions of cigar smokers: white, middle aged, powerful and intellectual.
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But what I found through talking to smokers and men in the cigar industry proved my original thoughts false. III. Interviews When asked what he liked about his line of work the most, 12-year cigar smoker and five-year employee of Smoke Inn in West Palm Beach, Florida. Chuck Stark responded, “The friendships that develop. Cigars break down all boundaries.” Chuck told me that one day in the shop the President of the PGA sat with the owner of “some portopotty company” and talked to one another just like plain people despite their drastic occupational differences. “I started smoking cigars when I could steal them from my dad,” said Stark. His favorite place to smoke cigars prior to the devastation of Hurricane Frances was underneath a big olive tree in his yard at night, “There was something about sitting under the shade of that tree that was relaxing,” reminisced Chuck. He believes that the flavor is what truly makes the cigar appealing. “Although people like different things, word of mouth causes people to try new things,” he remarked. Stark also commented on the popular trends in cigars. One new idea cigar manufacturers are toying with is something called “infusion.” In this process, different herbs and oils are added to the tobacco before they are rolled to create a different and unique taste, a good example of this is Jonathan Drew‟s Acid Cigars. When deciding on a cigar to smoke, Chuck tries to choose companies who are still family owned and operated by descendants of the original founder of the business. While many “cigar families” still exist today and produce cigars, many are being bought out by larger corporations. “Smoking a cigar made by a cigar family creates a perception
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of quality,” commented Stark. When asked what separates a cigar smoker from another member of society, Stark commented, “A cigar smoker will typically break down preconceptions of smokers being bad people, although they aren‟t really different from another member of society. Cigar smokers are conscious of being able to smoke where they want, but if it became a problem, they would put it out.” Next I interviewed my brother-in-law John Dennehy; he and his partner Abe Dababneh own Smoke Inn, a chain of three cigar stores in the southern Florida area. Acid Cigars worked with the owners of Smoke Inn to create the Acid Ming Cigar especially for the shop. John was influenced to get into the tobacco industry by his father Sean, who was the previous owner of Smoke Inn. “I always enjoyed cigars,” explained Dennehy, “And my dad basically asked me to come and own the shop, and I said yes.” John describes the right atmosphere for a cigar shop as, “more of a place to just hang out. Guys like a place to go and not be bothered, and we offer that. People talk about similar things here, from sports to politics and about everything else.” In talking about his customers, he said a wide variety of people come and enjoy cigars. Lawyers, doctors and accountants tend to smoke the more expensive cigars, but just because some have more money then others doesn‟t mean they necessarily spend more on cigars. He also has men with no jobs who come in as well and smoke cigars right along with people from a higher socioeconomical standing than them. He also said that great diversity exists in groups of people who smoke cigars. More and more Blacks, Asians and an overall younger crowd are smoking cigars. When asked what makes cigar smokers a subculture, John answered, “Cigars bring people together.” Whether they differ on politics, sports, or other topics, the
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disagreements seem to disappear when men get together and smoke together. “Cigar smokers are sick of people telling them what they can and can‟t do; they don‟t like people bitching about the smoke or the smell,” exclaimed Dennehy. “They feel cigar smoking is a form of relaxation, whereas cigarette smokers are different because of addiction. Cigar smokers do it for the joy of the cigar.” Because of his work, John has had the privilege of meeting many interesting people and even a few famous people as well. He has met Michael Jordan, to whom he gave cigars; Avo Uvezian, founder of Avo Cigars; Oscar De La Hoya, professional boxer; and Jonathan Drew, creator of Acid Cigars. He has also talked to a few players of the New York Mets team during their spring training. “Everyone comes from a different cut of life,” he explained, “I‟ve gotten to meet many cool people who I wouldn‟t have regularly been able to because of my line of work.” In order to create a well balanced series of interviews, I wanted to talk to someone who is an occasional cigar smoker in contrast to one who is more committed and works in an actual shop. For this, I chose Ross Lind; I met Ross at my sister‟s wedding where he and my brother-in-law discussed different cigars and humidors for awhile in the bar. Ross has been a cigar smoker for about four years now, and he says he likes to smoke cigars mostly outside and later on at night. He usually purchases his cigars at a smoke shop or a casino, he also orders online occasionally. I asked him what he thinks separates a cigar smoker from a cigarette smoker, and he said, “Cigars are more for relaxation, not that you have to smoke them, you just enjoy the taste of the smoke.” He commented that he isn‟t worried about the heath risks of smoking because so much less smoke is inhaled
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compared to that of cigarettes. In order to get a proper feel for this subculture, I needed to go to a real cigar shop. IV. First Impressions I went to three different tobacco shops, all of which I thought would be places for cigar smokers to hang out and smoke. All but one offered a place for people to smoke inside; this was Tobacco Grove in Burnsville, MN. Tobacco Grove opened after the success of their main store in Maple Grove and seemed to be doing quite well. Tobacco Grove offered a place for cigar and pipe smokers to hang out and smoke in a friendly environment. When I walked in, the cash register was immediately on the left; behind it was a world of cheaper cigars coming in small boxes and packs of specialty cigarettes, pipes and cutters were also for sale behind the register among other things. Off to the right was a wall with several pictures of people smoking cigars. Further on the right was a cozy living room area complete with a fireplace, coffee table, a leather couch and two tan easy chairs, and a big screen T.V complete with a satellite setup and a DVD player. The coffee table was filled with past issues of Cigar Aficionado Magazine and other publications related to cigar smoking. The table also included large brass bowls used for ashtrays with leaf-like things coming off the side for holding multiple cigars; there was also a container of pretzels, many torch style lighters, cutters, and a jar in which to put cigar bands. Overlooking this living area was a bar-type counter top with about six chairs and the same kinds of ashtrays all around. Past the cash register was a selection of house-blended pipe tobaccos, and a little bit further ahead was the 240square-foot walk-in humidor which contained all sorts of sizes and shapes of cigars.
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On the outside of the humidor, 45 vaults for personal humidification were available to rent. There was a door at the back of the humidor which lead to a room with a poker table; more ashtrays and a bunch of poker chips were lying on the table. Also in the store; a selection of lighters was available for purchase especially for lighting cigars. The store certainly had a relaxing vibe to it. I noticed they paid special attention to the lighting, furniture color and paintings through the store all of which seemed very friendly to me. It seemed like a place where a man could escape the world and his problems and smoke in peace without anyone nagging at him about health risks or the smell. It was a place for him to enjoy his hobby with other men who feel the same way as he does. I was starting to put together why people would want to smoke cigars in the first place, and why cigar smoking is something different than other hobbies. Then to further validate my new discovery, I decided to fully indulge myself into this interesting subculture I was studying. V. Observations After spinning around on the Burnsville Parkway a bit in the wrong direction, I finally arrived to this building which simply said “Tobacconists” on the outside with a leaf logo. I went inside curiously and a man greeted me at the door smoking a cigar. I sat down on a chair in the living room area where three other men probably in their late 30‟s were all smoking cigars and watching T.V. They all seemed to be focused on the Pro/Am Golf Tournament, and this was the current topic of conversation. Behind me was a younger guy around the age of 25 at the bar area, he was wearing a nicer black sweater. His shaggy bleach blond hair draped into his eyes. He was talking to a woman who was about ten years
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older then he was, and he said, “You don‟t mind the smell of this?” She replied, “No, I love the smell, that‟s why I came.” This woman appeared to be one of wealth and class judging by the nicer clothes that she had on. The three men all in their 30‟s or 40‟s were wearing more comfortable clothes; one wore a button-up flannel shirt and glasses, one had a wind suit type outfit with a hat that said “Titelist” and the other had black pants and a nice black sweater; he kept his coat on. All of the guys seemed to be interested in this golf game; they all talked about how funny Bill Murray, player in this particular tournament, acted in his movies. The conversation about Murray eventually lead to talk about golf in general. The men conversed about how often they played, where they played, and they shared some memories of good and bad golf shots. Then the man wearing the wind suit started talking to the man in the flannel about his cigar. He said that he was smoking a CAO MX 2, which means that the cigar is wrapped in a “Maduro” flavored wrapper twice. The man in flannel was smoking an Arturo Fuente 858 Flor Fina which appeared to be falling apart on him. He made a comment about the cigar falling apart to the guy next to him and he said, “Yeah, I‟ve had that happen to me before, but at least you can still smoke it.” After he finished talking, I put on my coat and left for the day. Since this was only my first day of observing, I didn‟t really know what to look for or to expect, but a weekend later I went back and had particular things in mind to look for instead of just getting a flavor for the place, like etiquette and the way these men develop relationships with strangers through a cigar.
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Again I walked into the store and this time I just sat down on the couch without saying anything to anyone. There were about six guys in the shop; all seemed friendly and very relaxed at first glance. One man sitting on the farther chair was wearing a black sweater and khakis; he had removed his pair of cowboy boots and closely watching the football game while smoking a cigar which had the band removed. He held his cigar in that traditional way with the index and middle finger on the top and the thumb on the bottom. I saw him re-light the cigar about four times using matches. There was another man similar in age sitting in the other chair; he was an Asian man wearing a hat and glasses. This man wasn‟t smoking, but seemed to be quite interested in the T.V. A few minutes later a very large man with a beard wearing a tan shirt and pants came over and stuck his private parts in the Asian man‟s face and said, “Teabag.” I of course laughed because this is exactly the humor that I have picked up on from shows like Howard Stern, but some of the guys didn‟t get it. The worker said, “Yeah, balls on your chin is a different story.” Around ten minutes later the worker assembled the other guys to play poker in the back room. The manager said that betting is illegal but it would be appreciated if everyone made a five dollar “donation.” The guys playing poker joked about a man sitting at the bar possibly being an undercover cop. The man with the cowboy boots said, “Nah, he‟s got too nice of a laptop to be a badge.” After I realized that I wasn‟t invited to play cards, everyone left and I found that I was the only one there, so I decided to head out. I felt that this time went better than
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the first, but I still wasn‟t completely satisfied for I had not completely discovered how cigars bring men together. The final visit would change this. On the next visit, the guy working was the owner of the store, he was wearing these weird yellow glasses and a black “Tobacco Grove” T-Shirt, he was very friendly and had no problem with me hanging around. All the guys sitting there were talking about the High School Boys Hockey State Tournament; the final game was on the T.V. I mentioned that our hockey team took third in state, and some of them knew about that and thought it was interesting that I was from New Prague. Tom, sitting on the chair, was a heavier set guy with a beard and a New Yorker accent. Right away he looked like an interesting guy who would be cool to talk to. He introduced himself to Jim, on the couch, and shook his hand. He then got talking about how he was a good hockey and baseball player in high school. He talked about his High School team made fun of the Holy Angels team because while they were saying prayers before a game, his team would traditionally chant “Booze, Cigarettes and Broads.” He said, “Before games, we would drink a sixpack and smoke a few Camels.” Then he said he had a great story for us from his college days. This guy attended Saint Cloud State University and talked about all the drinking they did there and how some guy was this legend at being able to drink really fast. Well, Tom one night decided to challenge this guy, “I told this guy that I bet him I can drink a can of beer faster then he can drink a pony,” he explained. Everyone figured Tom had no chance, and he said that there was money all over on the table, about $100. He took a bottle opener and stabbed the bottom of the
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can, then put it up to his mouth and opened it and it was gone in about 20 seconds. He said that everyone was blown away because they had never seen anyone shotgun a beer before. He then made the comment “I think beer shot-gunning was responsible for many many nights of vomiting at Saint Cloud.” At this point, Jim said that he had to leave; Tom shook his hand again and said how nice it was meeting him. Then Tom started talking to me; he just looked over and said, “Yeah, when I was your age I was really into cigarettes and pipe tobacco. Now I love cigars but all my wife does is bitch about it.” He mocked his wife saying, “Eew, you stink, you stink all the time, eew.” He then introduced himself to me and we shook hands and he said “Jim, when you get older you are going to remember that you talked to me and you will remember what I am going to tell you. When deciding to get married, you have to ask yourself, „Do you want to be lonely, or do you want to be miserable?‟” After talking to this man, it occurred to me that Chuck Stark‟s statement, “Cigars break down all boundaries” was true. The fact that this man was willing to share his deeper thoughts on life with me was enough to validate Chuck‟s remark.
VI.
Conclusion Men come together to enjoy cigars and the company of one another. One‟s
wealth, race, opinion, clothing, and occupation do not matter when cigars are smoked. Cigar smokers are friendly people who are willing to talk, even to an 18-year-old kid doing a research paper; when I was in these shops, although sometimes ignored, I basically felt like I was one of the guys. Cigar smokers are not only white males with
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money; there is so much diversity in smokers which reflects the fact that they will accept anyone into their subculture as long as they have the common love of the cigar. There is so much discrimination in this world, and it is amazing that something like a small cigar shop can change opinions on people that differ from one another, but it is completely true. Cigars really do make people forget their differences and come together regardless of differences.
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VII.
Appendix
Tobacco Grove “Bar Area”
The employee that I met right away and the owner
The “Teabag” Guy at the poker table
The Walk-In Humidor
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John Dennehy (Left) at Acid Ming Release Party
Abe Dababneh (Middle) Same party
A Typical Cutter
Cigar Bands
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Works Cited Dennehy, John. Personal Interview. 13 Jan 2005. “History of the Cigar” Zimagal 17. Jun. 1998 13. Feb. 2003 . Lind, Ross. Personal Interview. 15 Jan 2005. “Smoke and Fire – The Ritual and Discipline of Cigar Culture.” Tripod 13. Dec. 2003 13. Feb. 2005 . Stark, Chuck. Personal Interview. 16 Jan 2005.
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