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The Greatest Cigar Discoveries - Long Read
#1
The Greatest Cigar Discoveries

Over the time that the cigar has been in existence, it has managed to acquire a vast and entertaining mythology, a variety of pleasant traditions and a whole following of the most diverse objects that must always accompany it today. And behind each of these objects lies a real discovery, the most important of which rightfully belongs to Luiz de Torres and Rodrigo de Jerez, companions of Christopher Columbus. These were the first to bring the cigar to the Old World in the year 1492.

Cigar boxes
The men, who thought them up: the brothers Herman and August Upmann
The year of their discovery: 1844

The Upmann family business was banking, but it could never have been called a successful business, nor really described as unsuccessful. Everything the Upmanns did was done with an assiduousness and attention to detail that were purely German, and what they achieved was the result of hard work and conscientiousness.
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But the success of the cigar business that they decided to run as a sideline caused doubts among many. The brothers themselves looked at cigars as an outlet from the rigours of business, something they could enjoy putting their heart and soul into. But the sceptics were firm in their assertions that the idea was an extravagant whim. Which is very probably the reason that the name of Upmann is to this day connected only with cigars that bear the brand name H. Upmann, while the existence of the family bank is known only to specialists.

But even with a business that was started purely for the love of it, Herman and August Upmann tried to make a certain amount of profit. Well before the first H. Upmann warehouse was opened in 1844, the brothers had been organizing the supply of Cuban cigars to Germany so as to present them to German clients of the bank on the signing of successful contracts and the conclusion of deals. These cigars had traditionally been shipped to Europe in casks or leather sacks and sold singly. But a rich client of the Upmann Bank could hardly be given a single cigar as a gift, nor could he be given a dozen cigars wrapped in a piece of paper – presents of that kind would only raise a forced smile. And that was not the impression of their bank the Upmanns wanted to create, when they gave their clients cigars as gifts. The answer was to present the cigars in a special box, and to ensure the success of this promotional project, the Upmanns soon began investing in the production of boxes that were specifically designed for cigars.

The boxes were made from expensive cedar wood and decorated with the inscription H. Upmann. On being presented with such a gift, the bank’s clients would smile good-naturedly and go back home to tell their friends about the good deal they had made and the expensive present they had been given. It was then that the second – and far more significant – aspect of the Upmann brothers’ ingeniously simple idea came to light. The rich client would open his cigar box after dinner in the evening to offer a good friend a cigar – and see the name H. Upmann on the box. And so would the good friend. And when the cigars were finished, the rich client would keep the box for cigars of other brands.

Thus the box with the company name not only helped the Upmanns promote their bank by giving suitable presents to their clients, they were also a fine advertisement for a new cigar production business. Soon all the cigars made at the Upmann factory were packed in boxes, and it was not long before Upmann cigars were a product apart in the tobacconists of Europe. They were sold in fine boxes inscribed by the manufacturer and graded by size, while all the other cigars were sold singly out of casks and sacks. It did not take competitors long to discover wherein the Upmanns’ success lay... And where today can you find an expensive cigar without a box?

Cigar bands
The man, who thought them up: Gustave Bock
The year of his discovery: 1854

There are numerous stories and legends ascribing the invention of the cigar band to a whole variety of people. But all these stories are based on the false assumption that cigar bands were originally designed to protect smart gloves from tobacco and nicotine stains. Some of those, who have researched into the history of cigars, have credited Catherine the Great – who loved cigars and supposedly wrapped them in a silk band so as not to stain her white gloves – with their invention. Others have assigned the honoured role of cigar-band inventor to the London dandies, who wrapped the end of their cigars in paper for the same reason as Catherine the Great. But in fact, the story of the invention of the cigar band was much simpler and more prosaic. The sharp increase in the number of cigars supplied to Europe during the 1850s resulted in fierce competition among producers, and in those days cigar manufacturers had few effective means at their disposal for dealing with competitors.
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The cigar band, invented by Gustave Bock towards the end of 1854, was one of the most effective marketing ploys of its time. Until the appearance of cigar bands, bearing the logo of the manufacturing company and the brand name, cigars were supplied to Europe in casks and leather sacks (boxes had not yet been invented) without any personalized form of identification apart from the markings on the cask or the sack.

In the shops cigars were sold straight from the sack – and from that moment effectively lost their name. It was to form an image of his favourite brand in the mind of the consumer that Gustave Bock thought up the idea of cigar bands. In this way the producer could bring the name of his product to the consumer and with a good deal of probability rely on the consumer’s loyalty to the brand.

Cigar box engraving
The man, who thought it up: Ramon Allones
The year of his discovery: late 19th century
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By the end of the 19th century all cigar manufacturers were beginning to pack their products in boxes with the result that they had become the accepted means of packaging and ceased to attract the same attention to the brand. The next discovery – which had an equal effect on both the cigar trade and advertising in general – was made by Ramon Allones, a cigar manufacturer who is little known today. He was the first to embellish his boxes with decorative ornamentation. Production costs were higher, but the bright colours and beautifully engraved brand name attracted more attention and were better remembered by consumers. The arms of Castile and Leon and the arms of Havana, surmounted by the golden royal crown of Spain and framed with elegant flourishes and the twin columns of Hercules, from which the inscription Ramon Allones hung proudly – such was the first engraving on a cigar box.

Public reading
The man, who thought it up: Julian Rivero
The year of his discovery: 1865

Among the men, who made a great contribution to the history of cigar production, Julian Rivero, the owner of the El Figaro cigar factory in Havana, stands out for the fact that his contribution did nothing to advertise the product or affect relations with the cigar sellers. What Rivero did was to bring entertainment to the cigar factory.
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For many years the unions of workers at the cigar factories in Cuba had complained at the monotony of their work and the fatigue it caused. They would spend twelve hours a day at work without a break and without any opportunity to relax. Discontent was so high that there were frequent boycotts and strikes. Julian Rivero’s idea was to put a chair in the middle of the factory floor and have a man sitting there, who would read aloud to the workers. He could read interesting books loudly and with expression, read the latest news bulletins, tell jokes and in general provide the workers with a form of entertainment. This had the effect of making the working environment much more pleasant and calming the workers down, despite the fact that their pay was not increased by a single centavo. After a short time the success of this practice was repeated by other cigar factory owners and managers in Cuba. Many credit Jaime Partagas with being the first to introduce entertainment of this kind to the workplace, but in fact it was not till a year later, in 1866, that he began the practice. On the other hand, his reader was given not simply a chair, but a proper rostrum.

Fidel Castro’s communist regime had a serious influence on factory readings and today, instead of reading works of fiction, there are orators making propaganda speeches that last for many hours – the law on the need for the ideological instruction of the masses at cigar factories was signed by Fidel Castro personally.

The humidor
The man, who thought it up: Zino Davidoff
The year of his discovery: mid 20th century

The humidor was invented in the mid 20th century – which is comparatively recently, when compared with the many centuries that the cigar itself has existed. So how did people manage to do without this – to our modern-day view – essential accessory?

The answer, it appears, is very simple.

The humid tropical climate of Central America – the home of the cigar – is ideally suited to the storing of tobacco: not too dry, not too moist. Although the European climate differs widely from the tropical climate, it can still provide the necessary conditions for a cigar’s ‘survival’. In particular, summer in the flat regions of Europe is humid and warm, and that is an environment conducive to keeping a cigar at its best. But in winter, it is much harder for a cigar to retain its original qualities: tobacco deteriorates rapidly, when it’s cold.
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In the olden days, when they tended to keep open fires, cigars were kept in specially unheated rooms, where there were optimal conditions of humidity and temperature. Stone walls, strong oak doors and wooden panelling on the inside walls of the basement rooms of European h­ouses and castles provided ideal conditions for storing cigars. This sort of room acted like a huge humidor, where cigars could be wrapped in warm material and kept for as long as was required.

And had not central heating – which, unlike the open hearth, could maintain equality of temperature and humidity throughout a building – been widely introduced by the middle of the 20th century, no one would have given a thought to inventing a special container for cigars. As Europe got warmer, it literally dried up, and this overall ‘drought’ had an imme­diate effect on the quality of the cigars sold in Europe. Now it is hard to believe, but at the time practically all the cigars, left on the shelves of the European shops for only a few days, began to deteriorate and could no longer provide smokers with the pleasure they expected.

The first person to turn his attention to this serious problem was Zino Davidoff, who had just returned from Cuba. For a man, who had learned all the subtleties of the cigar business, the difference in quality between one and the same cigar in its native land and in Europe was obvious. And it was this man, who loved quality tobacco and good cigars, that thought up the idea for making a special container, which would maintain optimal conditions of humidity for a cigar irrespective of the microclimate of the place in which it was stored.

The first humidors were ordinary cupboards, in which a vessel contai­ning water was placed or a small wooden box with a piece of moist fabric on the bottom. The quality of the cigars that Davidoff stored in these early humidors was noticeably different from the qua­lity of those that were sold in European tobacconists at the time. Finally convinced of the benefits of his invention, Davidoff decided to use it in the battle with his competitors by insisting that all shops that sold Davidoff cigars should store cigars in the new container. In the event of refusal, he threatened to stop supplying his products.

But despite the fact that the benefits of the humidor were evident, the novelty was not accepted everywhere. For example, the first major serial production of Davidoff cigar humidors was not begun by the subsidiary company, Monti, until 1968! And in France and Spain it was only a mere 15-20 years ago that humidors became widely used. Like every great innovation, the real importance of the humidor was only recognized many years after its invention.

by ELDAR TUZMUKHAMEDOV
"God is a havana smoker, I've see his gray clouds"
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#2
I am gonna have to print out all the knolwledge you are posting and make a binder for reference.  Thanks LZ
THEY CALL ME THE SHEPHERD!!! AKA LK HUNTER, FACE BOOK MARIO HUNTER, THE GREAT ONE HUNTER, ETC.
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#3
I have always liked that history piece LZ
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#4
LZ you double posted this I will remove the second one.
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#5
What a great thread!  Nothing in the world like these beautiful rolled up leaves!
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#6
That was a really interesting read... Good post!
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#7
Yes great post Indeed. But i want to say if you are smoking a Cohiba cigars and it is giving you great taste you forgot all the history. hahahahaha just kidding.

 

great budy. great work
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