I was still quite young when I realized that for two hundred years the intermission between the first and second acts at the Opera in Paris has been timed to last precisely nineteen minutes. That provides enough time to stroll from my opera box to the bar, to acquire glasses of Veuve Clicquot Champagne for my date and myself and to find a place to stand overlooking the grand staircase, there to ponder on the qualities of the Champagne, the opera, or the romantic history of the exquisite rococo building in which I was standing. If there was anything at all to destroy this otherwise perfect setting, it was the knowledge that the eight minutes remaining in the intermission did not offer enough time to enjoy the cigar I was carrying in the inner pocket of my smoking jacket.

Whatever I may have been as a young man, I was not completely obtuse, so it did not take long to realize that the solution of the most sophisticated cigar smokers during such occasions was to turn to a cigarillo, one of those small, thin elegant cigars meant largely for those who do not have the leisurely hour or so that a Churchill or a Double Corona requires. Today, more than half of all European cigar smokers carry a cigar case in their right hand jacket pocket and a small, elegant white box of cigarillos in their other inner pocket.

Cigarillos have never become the rage in the United States and only now are gaining wide acceptance in countries like Israel, Australia and Brazil. In Europe, however, where a famous Davidoff advertisement made them fashionable about twenty five years ago, more than two billion cigarillos are smoked every year. The cigarillo smoking population tends to be male, over forty years of age, a member of the free professions, and high above the average income levels of their countries.

Whether you call them cigarillos or, as some producers do, small cigars, mini cigars or in Spanish-speaking countries, puritos, is unimportant. By whatever name they go, their standard weight is three to four grams, their length can vary from seven to ten centimeters, their diameter is from five to eight millimeters and most have a slight taper at one end.

Unlike the best cigars, cigarillos are machine-made. This is not to say they pour off the assembly line at 12,000 a minute the way cigarettes do. But even at their more stately pace of about 500 a minute for those made with homogenized wrappers or between 15 to 30 a minute for 100 percent tobacco cigarillos, their manufactured nature may set off alarm bells among purists. Being put off by this is silly though, for the best cigarillos are a delight and, especially at their reasonable price, most definitely worth trying.

The cigarillo-manufacturing process has become pretty standard since the 1950s. Whether one takes a tour of Henri Winterman's factory in the Dutch town of Eersel, Villiger Cigar's plant in Tiengen, Germany, or Dannemann's Lubeck site, the procedure would seem pretty much the same.

Tobacco leaves, having arrived from the warehouse in 15 kilo jute bags, are first mechanically beaten to remove the main stem and as many veins from the leaves as possible to avoid the harsh taste that such impurities can produce. The resulting leaf fragments are blended and then moved by belt to machines with awaiting homogenized binder material precut into the individual shapes needed for different cigarillo models.

On most machines, natural binders are stored in paper-lined rolls mounted on bobbins like outsized spools of thread. Sprayed periodically with a fine water mist, each precut binder is fed at precise intervals to the filler-dispenser opening. There they are mechanically rolled around a measured amount of the blend and sealed with a faint brush stroke of cellulose paste to form the bunch or bundle. The crude cigarillos are then cut to whatever length the model calls for. Some shaping is also performed, such as the squaring of cigarillos that German smokes prefer. In a separate department, packers then supervise the filling of cartons, tins or wood boxes with 10 or 20 cigarillos, the standard issue. All packages get a stiff, protective paper lining. Carton packs are sealed in cellophane.

Even those cigarillos with homogenized binders (75% tobacco and 25% cellulose), such as Dannemann's Speciale can provide a very good smoke. "Homogenized" wrappers also mean a lower price. Formed into tape-like rolls, this mostly tobacco material facilitates that snappier 500-per-minute rate that can't be managed with individually cut natural binders. The suggested retail for such cigarillos is about half what it is for the 100 percent tobacco variety.

Be prepared to be charmed by the packages in which many cigarillos come. Nobel cigars, famous for their turn-of-the-century-style turquoise cigarillo package, set the early quality standard for the product. As a result, smokers came to expect the best cigarillos be packed in similar hard-edged carton boxes, wrapped in cellophane. But Dannemann, and other manufacturers, eschewing total me-tooism, offer some of their leading brands in steel "tins," which they tout as better protection against crushing. The Dutch firm AGIO goes yet another way, offering its top-of-the-line small cigars, Balmorals, in cedar boxes, promising an enhanced cigar aroma because of the impact of the fragrance of such wood on tobacco.

Unlike cigar smokers, aficionados of cigarillos do not have to worry very much about storing their favorite smokes. Europeans typically smoke five to ten cigarillos a day, so a package of ten or even twenty goes quickly and long term storage is not a real concern. Those who buy in quantity or smoke less will find that their regular cigar humidor will help preserve cigarillo quality. Another advantage of storing cigarillos in a humidor is that it raises the level of humidity of the cigar. Considering that Europeans like their cigars with only about 15% humidity and most Americans, Israelis and Australians prefer 40% or more, storage in even the simplest humidor will add to the pleasure of most smokers.

Those new to the pleasures of cigarillos should keep in mind that despite their small size and sometimes remarkable mildness, these are still cigars and even the mildest of them are not meant to be inhaled. Following are two brief lists, the first of my own favorite cigarillos and the second of others I consider worth trying.

My Personal Favorites

Davidoff Mini-Cigarillos; Partagas Puritos; Macanudo Ascots; Villiger ; Don Diego Preludes; Monte Cruz; Baccarat; Dannemann Smoker's Club or Speciale; Nobel Petite; Henri Winterman's Cafe Creme; AGOIS, Balmorals.

Other Cigarillos Worth Trying

Willem II, No. 30 Milds; Panter Mignon or Mignon Deluxe; Acios, Lights; Menaris, Mild and Sweet; Tuitsumatra, Elegant; Mercator Bronco; King Edward Specials; Indioz, Milds; J. Cortes Grand Luxe.

© Daniel Rogov