That cigars are "in" is beyond question. Cigar dinners have become as popular as wine tastings; from North America to the Middle East, cigar clubs are opening at an unprecedented pace; an increasing number of restaurants now boast cigar menus; and just about everybody, whether they smoke one dollar cigars or seventy dollar cigars, is talking about them.

For many consumers as well as for restaurateurs and retail out- lets, this new love will involve a certain amount of learning. In certain circles, for example, it has now become as fashionable to talk about cigar makers such as Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo, Davidoff and Cohiba as it is to talk about the three star restaurants at which one has dined and the great vintge wines one has drunk.

Like wine, cigars also have their own language and in addition to being familiar with their country of origin, the type of tobacco used and the method of rolling the cigar, true aficionados must also be able to evaluate cigars based on their weight, body, aroma, smoothness and balance. More than this, the special language of cigars includes a large variety of names and numbers. The true aficionado must realize, for example, that in order to be categorized as a "Churchill", a cigar must be between 16.75 and 17.80 centimeters long and must have a thickness or "gauge" of between 47 and 50 (which in every day language translates to 1.70 - 1.75 centimeters). And thanks largely to the popular magazine "Cigar Aficionado:, cigars now have their own rating scale (95-100 - classic; 90-94 - outstanding; 80-89 - good to excellent; 70-79 - average to good commercial quality; under 70 - don't waste your money).

In fact, the language used in evaluating cigars is no more or less poetic than those applied to wines. The "Cigar Aficionado" for example, writes that the top rated Churchill cigar of the world, which is produced by Cuban company Romeo Y Julieta is: "an outstanding cigar that is dominated by chocolate and coffee flavors, has a full-flavored finish and lots of spices". The Churchill of another cigar-maker, Cohiba, was described as "an elegant, with a tendency towards a light draw, but filled with perfectly balanced mild flavors of coffee and nuts and an overall flowery character".

Many will also learn how to gain maximum pleasure from their cigars. One must, for example, master the art of placing a cigar alongside the ear, and then rolling it between three (never two or four) fingers in order to uses the senses of touch and hearing to determine its solidity, texture and humidity content. In order to gain a first impression of the quality of the tobacco, the cigar must then be sniffed. (It is considered ultimately vulgar to lick the surface of the cigar with the tongue). Only then can the cigar be lit and can one reach a final evaluation, determined by whether the cigar has a good taste, undertones of fruits or flowers, a pleasing finish and whether it burns too quickly or too hot.

Nor should either restaurateurs or consumers think that merely buying, talking about and smoking cigars is enough. Cigars, like wine and fine cheeses, need their special storage spaces. Because a cigar in which the tobacco has become dry is a bad cigar, the minimum equipment one needs is a commercially made humidor, a heavy, humidity controlled, storage box. For some, however, their humidors must be custom made. Some are made of teak wood, others of wood that are encased in sterling silver. Some will have multiple layers, and yet others will have large temperature and humidity controlled cabinets built to hold their cigars. And then, of course, one can enter into the world of cigar-related gadgets, included among which are specialty scissors for trimming the tip of the cigar; ashtrays designed for different sizes and styles of cigars; and a large variety of pocket or purse sized containers in silver, leather or aluminum that hold anywhere from two to five cigars (Cases that hold only one cigar imply that you are stingy, because you have no intention of giving your companion one of your cigars; and those that hold more than five are too bulky to be considered elegant).

The Health Aspect

In many countries, cigars, like cigarettes, must display a government play a government warning against the dangers of smoking. Cigar smokers say that this is unfair. Their claim that cigar smoking is less hazardous to the health than cigarettes is based primarily on the fact that very few cigar smokers inhale when they smoke, thus exposing them to practically no danger of lung cancer. Cigar lovers do not, however, like to cite the statistics of the Surgeon General of the United States or of the Ministries of Health in France, Holland and England, all of which seem to support the notion that cigar smokers are far likelier to develop cancer of the lips, mouth and upper palate than non smokers. To the most dedicated cigar smokers, however, elegance and satisfaction and not health are the real issues.

© Daniel Rogov