| Ever wonder where cigar smoking began? So have I | | | | note, remember this though, all modern high quality |
| so I decided to look into it, here's what I found. | | | | cigars are hand rolled with some cigar boxes still |
| Cigars have been around for over 1,000 years! The | | | | bearing the phrase "Hecho a Mano" , which means |
| original native population of the various islands in the | | | | made by hand, to prove the cigars were handmade. |
| Caribbean as well as the rest of Mesoamerica began | | | | Unfortunately for cigar connoisseurs, the cigar got |
| making and smoking cigars as early as 900 AD. How | | | | mixed up in the politics of the Cuban Missile Crisis in |
| do we know this? Archaeologists discovered a | | | | 1962 when John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro were |
| ceramic vessel at a Mayan dig site in Uaxactun, | | | | butting heads and Kennedy wanting to impose |
| Guatemala which was painted with the likeness of a | | | | sanctions on Castro's Communist government, |
| man smoking a cigar. | | | | ordered a trade embargo against Cuba which is still in |
| The explorer, Christopher Columbus who found the | | | | place as of this writing in February of 2006. |
| Americas by accident when looking for a shorter | | | | Americans were not allowed to buy the Cuban cigars |
| trade route to India, is credited with introducing | | | | which are still considered by most to be the finest |
| smoking to Europe and even with the actual | | | | cigars available. One interesting tidbit is that before |
| discovery of smoking even though just like his | | | | signing the executive order putting the embargo into |
| "discovery" of the Americas, the true credit belongs | | | | effect, Kennedy had his press secretary Pierre |
| to someone else which in this case would be the | | | | Salinger go to Cuba and pick up 1,000 Petit H. |
| indigenous people of the Caribbean. Two of his | | | | Upmanns Cuban cigars. Once Salinger delivered the |
| crewmen from his 1492 voyage, Rodrigo de Jerez | | | | cigars Kennedy signed the order. |
| and Luis Torres reportedly went ashore in Cuba and | | | | The cigars which were bought before the embargo |
| smoked tobacco wrapped in husks made from maize | | | | were considered legal and were known as |
| and were therefore the first Europeans to smoke | | | | "pre-embargo Cubans". It is still to this day illegal for |
| cigars. | | | | Americans to buy or import Cuban cigars, however |
| By the 19th century cigar smoking had become | | | | as usual with embargoes or prohibition there is a large |
| commonplace, while cigarettes were still relatively | | | | scale smuggling trade where they can be obtained |
| rare. The manufacturing of cigars had become an | | | | and in addition with the use of home computers and |
| important industry and many people were employed | | | | the internet it has become very easy for Americans |
| by cigar makers in factories before the ability to | | | | to get Cuban cigars from other countries like Canada |
| mechanize the process became available. As a side | | | | where no embargo exists. |