How Hand Rolled Cigars Are Made

Hand-rolled cigars are pure tobacco and the choice of cigar lovers around the world. When you hand roll your own, you control every detail, from the strength of the filler to the flavor of the wrapper leaf. With a little bit of practice, you'll be able to fill your humidor with your own creations. Below is a video of Cuban cigas being rolled

Cigars and Scotch. Matching Cigars To Whiskey

Like two peas in a pod of the luxury world, cigars and whiskey can often be found together. Both known as two of the finer things in life, when used jointly, they work to enhance the drinking and smoking experience. This is particularly true when the drink being consumed is single malt scotch. Known as the Cuban cigar of the whiskey world, single malt scotch is the perfect drink to take out for a smoke.

What is Single Malt Scotch?

While many people know what single malt scotch entails, some people may not be completely clear. But, in actuality, the concept of single malt scotch is singularly simple: single malt scotch is essentially barely-malt whiskey made in Scotland that comes from only one distillery, allowing it to carry distinct aromas and flavors. In terms of whiskeys, single malt scotch is the most laudable: the Scottish have the title of world’s greatest whiskey in the bag…pipe.

Why are Cigars a Good Fit with Single Malt Scotch?

Cigars and single malt scotch have similar mantras: they both invoke specifics of the land and the maker; tobacco plants and barley both aim to remember their roots. To demonstrate this, cigars from different regions have different flavors: a Dominican Republic cigar will taste different than a cigar from Honduras. This is because each cigar aims to capture the distinct taste of the land and of the tobacco manufacturer, leaving no two cigar brands alike. Single Malt Scotch is the only type of whiskey that possesses this same ability; giving drinkers a cup of originality.

Some whiskeys journey through so many distilleries that they - like a whiskey that has drank too much of itself - forget who they are. This results in a whiskey with flavors that are vague, with little semblance to the roots of their homeland. Single Malt Scotch, however, stands out because it is processed through a single distillery. In addition, while other whiskeys can contain mixtures of corn, wheat, and unmalted barley, single malt scotch uses malted barely as the sole grain ingredient. This, ultimately, succeeds in instilling single malt scotch with the true taste of Scotland.

What Kinds of Cigars Compliment Single Malt Scotch?

There are a variety of cigars that compliment certain whiskeys, as if telling them that they have nice ryes. With single malt scotch, however, there are certain cigars for which this feat is tailor made; there are certain cigars that go better with single malt scotch than with nearly anything else.

There are two main routes to take when complimenting single malt scotch. The first route couples a mild cigar with a mild single malt scotch while the other route couples a strong cigar with a strong single malt scotch.

Mild Cigar and Mild Single Malt

When pairing a mild cigar with a mild single malt, the outcome isn’t just a bunch of mildness: the mild cigar and mild single malt won’t cause an urge to meditate among those who consume them. Instead, the mildness of each works together to enhance each other, resulting in a very unique experience.



A Highland Park single malt scotch and a La Flor Dominicana are examples of two things that go well together, tag teaming each other to create a truly luxurious experience. Highland Park scotches are known for being smooth, balanced, and filled with overtones of honey. A La Flor Dominicana is a mild cigar with anything but mild flavor, filled with the tastes of the Dominican Republic. When consumed together, a Highland Park and a La Flor Dominicana work together to enhance the experience, drawing out the best attributes of the tobacco and the whiskey.

Strong Cigar and Strong Single Malt

Pairing together a strong cigar with a strong single malt may seem like asking for trouble, as if each item will try to be stronger than the other, ultimately arm wrestling to see who has to pay the bar tab. However strong each item is, when paired together, they actually work with each other, complimenting each other’s strengths and erasing weaknesses.

A nice strong scotch is the Lagavulin Single Malt. Characterized by peatiness and iodine overtones, the Lagavulin couples well with the Joya De Nicaragua Antano 1970, a very full bodied, robust cigar. When this scotch and this cigar are consumed together, the result is a very flavorful, potent, and, above all, smoky experience. For this reason, if this experience could talk, it would sound like Beau Arthur.

What Kind of Cigars Contrast with Single Malt Scotch?

On the other end of the spectrum, there are a variety of cigars that contrast with single malt scotch, hitting heads to offset each other. Because these cigars and whiskeys have different attributes - putting the weak with the strong and vice versa - it may seem like these pairings will result in some sort of rivalry: the cigars and the scotch brawl, the fight ensuing until the cigars are crushed and the scotch tipped over. But, in actuality, the contrast works rather well.

There are two main routes to take when contrasting with single malt scotch. The first route couples a strong cigar with a mild single malt scotch while the other route couples a mild cigar with a strong single malt scotch.

Strong Cigar and Mild Single Malt

Pairing together a strong cigar with a mild single malt has the ability to take away from the pungency of the cigar, arming the single malt with a little more gusto. This results not in the cigar losing its flavor, but in the scotch becoming enhanced. As both a full body and mild body meet in the middle, the result is sure to please about anybody, whether they themselves are full or mild..

A very mild single malt scotch is a Dalwhinnie. Known for being slightly peaty and very aromatic, the Dalwhinnie is about as smooth as they come. It’s full of sweet flavor and tastes a bit like it’s coated in honey. A Dalwhinnie goes perfectly with a La Aurora 100 Anos. Made from very rare Corjo tobacco, these cigars are full of flavor and body. When taken together, the Dalwhinnie and La Aurora work to provide an experience that is strong and mild in all the right places.

Mild Cigar and Strong Single Malt

A mild cigar can use a good strong single malt, a strong drink that can provide enhancement, smoothness, and open the humidor when the lid’s on too tight. Like pairing a strong cigar with a mild single malt, the attributes of both enhance each other, like opposites that attract, pulling the best characteristics out.

The Laphroaig single malt scotch is among the strongest flavored scotches around. While these are typically aged for ten years, some rare ones are as old as 40. While some people have found that the peaty aroma of the whiskey is enhanced by adding a bit of water, others find that it is enhanced by smoking a Macanudo. Macanudo cigars may as well be synonymous with the word “mellow” as they fill the smoker with a sense of smoothing calm. When consumed together, the Laphroaig and the Macanudo work together to supply the consumer with a mellow peatiness.

Overall, these two things go together as well as any dynamic duo: Laurel and Hardy, Laverne and Shirley, Cigar and Single Malt. While some cigars complement single malt scotch, others contrast with it. But, both equations equal satisfaction. Allowing the true flavors of each other’s lands, cigars and scotch single malt work to bring together the best of all cultures involved, leaving the world a little smaller, and a little more luxurious.

Famous Female Cigar Smokers

We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s a man’s world.” While this may be true for some areas - professional football, construction sites, Y chromosomes - it’s certainly not true for everything; sometimes you have to look a little close to discover the girl inside the hobby.

Cigars, for instance, may seem like a male past time. This is particularly true when it comes to Hollywood. From Groucho Marx to the Rat Pack, from Milton Berle to George Burns, many famous cigar smokers are men. But, adorning the wrappers with lipstick residue, not all famous cigar smokers are male. Lighting up in a celebration of all things made of sugar and spice and everything nice, more and more Hollywood women are securing roles as cigar loving dames.

Linda Evangelista: A Canadian Supermodel, Evangelista is known as one of the pioneers of the 1980’s and 1990’s fashion industry. Part of a group known as “The Trinity” - along with Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell - Evangelista is credited as being one of the sparks that ignited the world’s obsession with modeling. She is well known both for her cigar smoking and her dramatic hairstyles. In 1995, she became the first women to be featured on the cover of Cigar Aficionado.

Demi Moore: Originally known for her roles in teen-targeted movies, Moore has become one of the leading actresses in Hollywood. From movies such as Ghost and G.I. Jane, she has made a name for herself onscreen. Off screen, she has been the source of controversy on more the one occasion. Whether it is for posing nude during her pregnancy or for her marriage to a much younger man, Moore has found herself the target of the tabloids. But, she has muddled through with grace and perseverance, refusing to apologize for her choices. An avid cigar smoker for years, she was featured on the cover of Cigar Aficionado in 1996.

Sharon Stone: Lauded and ridiculed for performances, Stone has received everything from a Golden Globe to a Razzie. A former fashion model turned Star Search winner turned actress and producer, she has been in the spotlight for decades. She turned heads when she modeled nude for Playboy in 1990 and turned heads again when she (nearly modeling nude) shot an infamous scene from the film Basic Instinct in 1992. Though there is some media speculation that she is no longer a smoker, Stone was featured on the cover of Cigar Aficionado in 2004.

Susan Lucci: Originally known for her role on All My Children, Lucci eventually became infamous for being a lady who could not catch a Daytime Emmy break. Between 1978 and 1998, she was nominated for 18 awards, but failed to win any. This made her the butt of the joke among some members of the media. Finally, in 1999, the joke ended when she won a long awaited Day Time Emmy. She has also appeared in a variety of primetime TV shows and made-for-television movies. She made an appearance on the cover of Cigar Aficionado in 1999.

Gina Gershon: Appearing in a slug of television shows, including Ellen, Just Shoot Me, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Ugly Betty, Gershon has done a bit of everything. She has appeared on movies as well as Broadway productions. She attended Beverly Hills High School with Lenny Kravitz, and has been linked to John Cusack and Owen Wilson. Gerson had bit parts in many notable 1980’s films as well as larger parts in some cult classics. She was featured on the cover of Cigar Aficionado in 1998.

These are certainly not the only women in Hollywood who know how to treat themselves to a stick of luxury. The movie and television industry, like life itself, is full of females discovering a past time that was once synonymous with being male. As more and more women, throwing down their inferior cigarettes in a fit of rage, turn to stogies, the male stigmatism the cigar industry once harbored will begin to fade away... like a puff of smoke.

Jennifer Jordan is an editor and staff writer for http://www.whatsknottolove.com. At home in a design firm in Denver, Colorado, she writes articles specific to the finer things in life.

Famous Male Cigar Smokers

We all have it in our minds: the image of an avid cigar smoker. The image my brain generates is of someone looking relaxed, content in his refinement as the cigar dangles from his mouth like the lollypop of a happy child.

Perhaps the image in your mind equates cigars with yourself, or perhaps you equate them with a family member – a rich uncle puffing in between hardy laughs, a jolly aunt whose cigar covers up portions of unwanted facial hair. Whomever you equate with cigars, chances are you also equate them with someone famous.

Prominent Puffers and What They Had to Say about Them

Groucho Marx: Known for physical comedy and not owning eyebrow tweezers, Groucho Marx is thought to be one of the greatest comedians in history. Perhaps even more famous than his comedy was his affinity for cigars. For him, they appeared to be almost a permanent body part, like an extra limb.

He was once quoted as saying, “Given the choice between a woman and a cigar, I will always choose the cigar.” This could perhaps be one reason why all three of his marriages ended in divorce.

Winston Churchill: A British Statesmen and eventual Prime Minister, Winston Churchill was known as one of the truest and best orators ever to have spoken. From this famous mouth of his, a cigar was almost always found.

He was once quoted as saying, “I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them." Seeing how he smoked between 8 and 10 cigars a day, he seemed to apply this sacred rite quite frequently.

George Burns: A comedian who gained fame in his early years for being so damn funny and in his later years for being so damn old, George Burns was rarely photographed without a cigar. He took cigars with him on stage and chose what brand to smoke based on how long each brand would stay lit.

He was once quoted as saying, “Happiness? A good cigar, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman - or a bad woman; it depends on how much happiness you can handle.”

Sigmund Freud: The man behind the psychoanalysis curtain, Freud began smoking at the age of 24 and averaged 20 cigars a day. A lifetime smoker, he often believed he was not able to work without smoking a cigar.

Though he often saw phallic symbols in everything, he was once quoted as saying, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Yes, and sometimes a mother is just a mother instead of a love interest.

Mark Twain: The man who wrote tales of young boys learning about life on journeys down the great Misssissipp’ was an avid cigar smoker. Whether smoking as Mark Twain, or smoking as Samuel Clemens, he smoked somewhere between 22 and 40 cigars a day.

He was rumored to have once said, “If smoking is not allowed in Heaven, I shall not go.”

Franz Liszt: A Hungarian composer and pianist, Franz Liszt was a forefather of romantic music. Known as the greatest pianist of his time, he was attuned to great cigars.

He was once quoted as saying, “A good Cuban cigar closes the doors to the vulgarities of the world.”

King Edward VII: The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, King Edward VII was born in 1841. A man of voracious appetite, he often ate five meals (each consisting of ten courses or more) and smoked 12 large cigars and 20 cigarettes per day.

With the words, “Gentleman, you may smoke,” after his coronation in 1901, he ended the intolerance for tobacco that was a cornerstone to his mother’s reign.

Whether your image of the “cigar smoker” is someone famous, the product of the famous merged together (perhaps a Sigmund Freud and Grouch Marx love child), or someone completely unknown, avid cigar smokers have two things in common: they enjoy what they’re smoking and (as attested in the above quotes) they certainly can’t complain.

Source: Jennifer Jordan is an editor and staff writer for http://www.whatsknottolove.com. At home in a design firm in Denver, Colorado, she writes articles specific to the finer things in life.

Cigar Aficionado. Cigar Popularity Makes A Comeback

Cigar Sensibilities

Little did Mark Twain realize when he coined the phrase, "If I cannot smoke in heaven, then I shall not go," that it would become the battle hymn of this decade’s most vogue fashion statement—cigar smoking. It’s been hard to ignore the phenomenon. A dormant industry up until a few years ago, cigars have made an incredible comeback. Manufacturers are reporting record sales and can’t keep up with the orders. Investors have been snatching up public offerings from cigar companies. A humidor previously owned by John F. Kennedy fetched a whopping half million dollars at an auction last year.

Why the sudden resurgence in popularity? Most industry experts attribute the growth to a number of factors. Certainly, the 1992 debut of Cigar Aficionado, an upscale magazine produced by Wine Spectator publisher Marvin Shanken, played a large part in elevating the awareness and status of cigar smoking. It introduced a new generation of consumers to cigar events, cigar clubs, and terms like "cigar-friendly establishment." No longer looked upon as a symbol of vulgarity or pomposity, the cigar’s association with the entertainment industry has helped propel it to downright respectability. Hollywood stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mel Gibson, among others, have adorned the cover of leading magazines, brandishing their favorite "stogie." George Hamilton successfully launched a line of cigars under the H. Upmann label, and recently opened a cigar bar in the New York, New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas bearing his name. Even women, who in the past were derided for the practice, have developed a passion for cigars and are consuming them in record numbers.

Statistics aside, what is it about cigars that makes them so darned appealing? Quite frankly, they taste good. Like a fine wine, the flavor characteristics vary from cigar to cigar, and even within a particular brand. Cigars can range from smooth and creamy in flavor, all the way up to spicy and peppery, as with Cuban cigars. And quite frankly, there is simply no better way to finish a meal than by enjoying a fine cigar with a glass of cognac or port.

The aura, the ritual of cigar smoking has created a whole new setting for social interaction. It is quite common today for strangers to begin a conversation by sharing thoughts about the brand of cigars they’re enjoying. It is not surprising, therefore, that cigar bars have been opening up across the country in astonishing numbers. In years past, one would simply purchase a cigar for home consumption. Nowadays, cigar lounges with names like Club Macanudo, The Cuba Club, and The Grand Havana Room are catering to young professionals who can enjoy the comforts in a living room-type setting, but with cocktail service, big screen television, and even the rental of private humidor lockers. Chiropractor and entrepreneur Dr. Craig Berko has even developed a successful nationwide networking event called, aptly, "The Cigar Schmooze."

A PRIMER TO CIGAR SMOKING

Cigars are currently manufactured in several countries, including Cuba, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Brazil, and the Philippines. Cuban cigars, illegal in the United States, are considered to be the world’s finest. However, the quality from other countries has improved dramatically in recent years and, in many cases, rival their Cuban counterparts.

When selecting a cigar, there are certain pre-smoking characteristics one should look for, such as construction and aroma. A well-constructed cigar will be smoothly rolled, but should not be too tight. Don’t be afraid to ask your tobacconist for assistance or advice. A full-flavored cigar should be consumed with a big meal, not on an empty stomach. A beginner might wish to start off with a mild cigar, such as a Macanudo, before progressing to more complex flavors. Whatever you do, just remember one thing: do not inhale. Simply take a puff, letting the flavor circulate within your mouth, and then blow out the smoke.

Once you’ve made your cigar selection, it is important that they remain properly humidified. A cigar that has been allowed to dry will burn unevenly and too fast; a cigar that is over-humidified will be tough to draw from. A humidor (a humidified storage receptacle) will maintain your cigars for months, and sometimes even years, to come. Humidors vary in size and price, and are an excellent investment for anyone who truly enjoys the pleasure, and not the fad, of cigar smoking.

Exactly how long the current craze will last is anyone’s guess, but most industry experts agree that there are at least another three or four years before popular interest wanes. Expect prices to increase as more-and-more consumers jump on the cigar bandwagon. Nevertheless, it’s well worth taking advantage of the increased popularity, both in terms of the numerous, new smoking venues and the vast array of cigars available to the general public. Keep an open mind to new and different brands. You just might find a brand that stays with you a lifetime.

If you have any cigar-related questions, feel free to contact Roy at roy@cigarfriendly.