Havana


Book Description

Long relegated to boardrooms and back room card tables, the cigar has emerged to attain mass appeal while still holding on to its macho mystique. Amid the wide assortment of cigars available, the Havana stands head and shoulders above the rest. An ideal introduction for the neophyte as well as a superb guide for the aficionado, this book reviews the hallowed history of cigars in Cuba, and describes in detail the processes involved in creating them. Original photography reveals the beauty of the land and the hands and faces of the craftsmen and women behind each Havana cigar. Also included is an invaluable catalogue raisonne of Havana cigars.




The Impossible Collection of Cigars


Book Description

In the highly anticipated new volume in Assouline’s bestselling Ultimate Collection, The Impossible Collection of Cigars envisions the ultimate humidor brimming with the most remarkable cigars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from the most prestigious makers. Like the pop of the Champagne cork, the flick of the lighter or the strike of the match and the first draw of the smoke are synonymous with celebration, relaxation, and comradery. A luxurious pause from the world around, an exceptional, hand-rolled cigar has cemented itself as a civilized passion and genteel hobby over the course of centuries.




Havana Cigars


Book Description

Over 130 cigars are featured in this guide to Havana cigars, catalogued by brand and type, and accompanied by life-sized photographs. Each entry is also accompanied with the statistics of each cigar: its style, aroma and scent. The authors suggest the ideal times and settings for each cigar, and which meals a particular cigar could follow. There are also sections on cigars of the past, the cigars most difficult to find, collectors' items, and cigar manufacture.




The Cuban Cigar Handbook


Book Description

The most definitive guide to Cuban cigars: The Cuban Cigar Handbook profiles the history of cigars in Cuba and features an extensive guide to over 200 varieties. For more than two centuries, Cuban cigars have been heralded as the best cigars in the world. More than just a cigar, they're an art form, with tobacco growers and hand-rollers considered artists. Today, there are more than 200 varieties to discover, and this essential guide highlights each one. Featuring insights from industry experts like Gary Korb and Denis K. Toulouse, The Cuban Cigar Handbook presents an in-depth look at a wide range of fascinating topics, including: - a complete history of Cuban cigars - how to spot fakes - stories of celebrated cigar aficionados from Ernest Hemingway to Rudyard Kipling - the best Cuban rum to pair with a cigar - vivid descriptions of Cuba and its environs - dynamic profiles of growers, hand-rollers, and producers - and so much more! The Cuban Cigar Handbook tells the history of cigars in Cuba and includes an extensive guide to over 200 varieties. Tasting notes for all varieties of cigars explain what makes each type different from the others, and how to spot fakes. And should you get thirsty, this book also includes a guide for how best to pair Cuban cigars with Cuban rums. Light up a cigar, sit back, and read fascinating stories about notable cigar aficionados to learn what attracted the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Rudyard Kipling to Cuban cigars. The Cuban Cigar Handbook is the ideal gift for the cigar smoker in your life. This is the ultimate handbook for any burgeoning cigar enthusiast or seasoned connoisseur.







The Ultimate Cigar Book


Book Description

First published in 1993, The Ultimate Cigar Book has become a classic in its field, and is generally credited with having helped launch the current cigar smoking craze. It has been reprinted numerous times in the United States, and is now sold worldwide. No other book contains as much detailed and factual information on virtually every facet of cigar making and cigar smoking. And now this trendsetting been has been revised in this fourth edition for the aficionado of the future! Forget 1492. This book starts out in B. C. (Before Columbus) and transports the cigar enthusiast on a fun and fact-filled adventure into virtually every realm of today’s popular and growing cigar smoking pastime. Written by one of the most knowledgeable and internationally-celebrated pipe and cigar authors of our time, Richard Carleton Hacker’s well-known wit and wisdom will keep the reader enthralled with every turn of the page, as he takes you on an information-packed would tour of cigars. Starting off with a history of cigar smoking, the author then shows us how cigars are made today (handmade, handrolled, and machine made), divulges the secrets of finding the “perfect” cigar, and discusses the ritual of smoking and how to properly care for and store our cigars. From there the book lists a number of innovative cigar accessories, suggests which beers, wines, whiskeys, brandies, and cognacs go with what cigars, enlightens us with a chapter on cigar smoking celebrities, and concludes with the world’s first International Compendium of virtually every cigar brand known today, complete with histories and observations on taste, according to the author’s HPH (Highly Prejudiced Hacker-Scale) ratings. If that was not enough, there is even a dictionary of CigarSpeak! The Ultimate Cigar Book is the most comprehensive, factual, and up-to-date book for the cigar smoker or for those who just want to learn more about the fascinating and popular world of cigar smoking.




The Book of the Havana Cigar


Book Description




Churchill's Cigar


Book Description

During the Second World War, Churchill's cigar was such an important beacon of resistance that MI5, together with the nation's top scientists, tested the Prime Minister's supplies on mice rather than risk sabotage. Today Winston Churchill and his cigar remains a global icon, memorialised by a 107 foot statue of a cigar in Australia, while his cigar stubs are treasured as relics. Using original archival research and exclusive interviews with Churchill's staff, Stephen McGinty, an award-winning journalist, explores Churchill's passion for cigars and the solace they brought. He also examines Churchill’s lasting friendship with Antonio Giraudier, the Cuban businessman who for twenty years stocked Churchill's humidor, before fleeing Castro's revolution.







El Lector


Book Description

"El Lector will find a broad and appreciative audience and will become a landmark in the study of Cuban and Latin American cultures." —Roberto González Echevarría, Yale University The practice of reading aloud has a long history, And The tradition still survives in Cuba as a hard-won right deeply embedded in cigar factory workers' culture. InEl Lector, Araceli Tinajero deftly traces the evolution of the reader from nineteenth-century Cuba To The present and its eventual dissemination to Tampa, Key West, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. In interviews with present-day and retired readers, she records testimonies that otherwise would have been lost forever, creating a valuable archive for future historians. Through a close examination of journals, newspapers, and personal interviews, Tinajero relates how the reading was organized, how the readers and readings were selected, and how the process affected the relationship between workers and factory owners. Because of the reader, cigar factory workers were far more cultured and in touch with the political currents of the day than other workers. But it was not only the reading material, which provided political and literary information that yielded self-education, that influenced the workers; the act of being read to increased the discipline and timing of the artisan's job.