Cigar facts & stats

Question 1

Which Caribbean island nation is especially famous for its hand-rolled cigars?

Accepted Answer

Cuba. Cuba, and its capital Havana, have been famous for hand-rolled cigars for centuries.

Question 2

What is a humidity-controlled box or room for storing cigars called?

Accepted Answer

A humidor. A humidor keeps cigars at steady humidity so the leaves do not dry out or grow mold.

Question 3

What is the outermost leaf of a cigar called?

Accepted Answer

The wrapper. The wrapper is the smooth outer leaf; inside it the binder holds the filler leaves together.

Question 4

In traditional cigar factories, what did the 'lectores' do?

Accepted Answer

Read newspapers and novels aloud to workers. Workers paid lectors to read aloud while they rolled, a tradition in Cuba and Tampa's cigar factories.

Question 5

European sailors first recorded seeing tobacco being smoked during whose 1492 voyage?

Accepted Answer

Christopher Columbus. Members of Columbus's crew saw the Taíno people of the Caribbean smoking rolled tobacco leaves.

Question 6

Traditional wooden cigar boxes were usually made from which aromatic wood?

Accepted Answer

Spanish cedar. Spanish cedar resists moisture and insects and has a pleasant scent, making it the classic cigar box wood.

Question 7

In a cigar, what is the leaf that holds the filler leaves together beneath the wrapper called?

Accepted Answer

The binder. The binder wraps the bunched filler leaves, and the finer wrapper leaf goes on over it.

The basics