The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cigars Book

Lighting Up, Kicking Back     1
If You Know Just a Little, Start Here     3
Fire Away!     5
A Basic Sampling     6
Lighting Up: It's a Gas     8
Luck of "The Draw"     9
Where Can You Smoke?     10
Anatomy of a Cigar     11
Grab Your Wallet: What You'll Pay     13
What's in a Name?     14
Where There's Smoke, There's Fire     19
Desperately Seeking Cigars     20
Tobacconist or "Seegar Seller"?     21
Spirited Sales-Liquor Stores and Cigar Bars     23
Pasta or Cuban Corona?-Cigars at Restaurants     24
Cigars: In the Mail, on the Net     25
Lead Me to Your Humidor     26
When to Walk Away     28
Bite a Hot Dog, but Clip Your Cigar     31
The Cutting Edge     32
The "V"-Cut     32
The "Pinhole" Cut     34
The "Puncture" Cut     35
The Straight or Guillotine Cut     37
Two Blades: Better Than One?     39
The Scissors Decision     40
The Price of a Good Cut     41
Antique Cutters     41
C'mon Baby, Light My Fire     42
Paper's No Match for Cigars     42
Lighter Fluid: Cigar Arson?     43
Wood Is Good     44
It's a Gas     44
Ashtrays: Give Your Cigar a Break     45
Ya Gotta Speak Da Language     47
Basic Cigar Speak-Talking the Talk     48
The Box Score     49
Is It a Premium Smoke?     50
Branded a "Winner"     50
Is Wood Always Good?     51
Boxed In: Feeling the Pressure     51
Don't Let a Machine Make Your Cigar     53
Shorted Out-Turn On to Long Filler     55
Where Was Your Cigar Born?     56
What You See Is What You Get     59
Brown Is the Color of My True Love's Cigar     60
Double Claro, Candela, Jade, or American Market Selection (AMS) Wrappers     61
Natural or Claro Wrappers     62
Colorado Claro or English Market Selection (EMS)     62
Colorado, Corojo, and Habana2000 Wrappers     63
Maduro Wrappers     64
Double Maduro, Oscuro, or Maduro Maduro Wrappers     65
Size Does Matter     66
The Size That's Right for You     68
Eenie, Meenie: Popular Lengths and Shapes      69
Gigante, Presidente, Immensa     72
Double Corona     72
Churchill     72
Panatela     72
Lonsdale     73
Corona Grandes     73
Corona Extra, Corona Royale     73
Corona     73
Petite Corona     74
Robusto, Rothschild, Toro     74
Belvedere, Ascot, Demitasse     74
Daring to Be Different     74
Belicoso, Petite Belicoso     75
Culebra     75
Pyramid     75
Torpedo     76
Perfecto     76
In Search of Perfection     79
What's Inside Your Cigar?     81
How Your Cigar Is Orchestrated     82
From Mild to Wild: Work Your Way Up     83
"Pumping Up" to a Full-Bodied Smoke     84
Is This a Strong Cigar?     85
Finding a Heavenly Body     86
Honduras     87
Mexico     88
Dominican Republic     89
Strength Is Relative     89
Havana Cigars     93
We Don't Blend No Stinkin' Cigars!     94
Full Body: In the Spanish Style     96
How Cuban Seed Traveled Around the World     97
Are Cuban Cigars the Best?     99
Can a Government Make a Good Cigar?     100
Habanos SA: The Second Cuban Revolution?     101
The Name Game     102
Faking You Out: Know Your Cubans     105
Was My Cuban Cigar Made by Hand?     107
The Myth and Magic of Havana Cigars     109
Cuban Cigar: Still Champion     110
So You Want to Be a Smuggler?     111
My Cigar Just Exploded     112
In Search of Consistency     113
Pricey Stuff     115
Have-a-Havana     115
How the Cigar Becomes a Star     117
Don't Try This at Home: Creating a Cigar     118
Awaking the "Sleeping" Leaf     119
Giving a Cigar "The Look"     121
The Art of Cigar Rolling     124
The Roller at Center Stage     125
Cigar Rolling: A Silky Touch with Steel Muscles     126
The Art of Filler Bunching     127
Bonding with Binders     129
Cigar Molds: Full-Court Pressure     129
Wrapping It All Up     132
"Capping" Off the Cigar     133
Filler Up, Bind It, Wrap It Up!      137
Fillers: Bulking Up     138
Cuba: The One and Only     138
Smooth Dominican     139
Honduras: Packing a Punch     140
Nicaragua: Revolution, Recovery, and Rebirth     142
Costa Rica and Panama     143
Doing the Samba in Brazil     143
Oh, Mexico, the Sun's So Hot     144
"Hey Mon, Come to Jamaica"     145
Dutch Treat from Indonesia, Java, and Sumatra     146
Binders: Keeping It All Together     146
Ecuador, Java, and Sumatra: Bound by Binder     147
Stay Outta My Tobacco Patch: Cuba     147
Honduras and Nicaragua Spice It Up     148
Mexico: Bound to Be Best     148
Wrappers: Pretty as a Picture     148
Snuggled Under a Blanket     149
The Wrapper King of Connecticut     150
Cameroon: The African Connection     151
Wrappers from the East     152
The Mojo of Mexico and Maduro     153
Happily Ever After     155
Why New Cigars Get Married     156
The Three-Month Wedding Night     159
Gotta Crush That Bug Right Outta My 'Gar!     161
Farewell to the Tropics     162
Totally Tubular Cigars     162
The Cellophane Debate     163
Boxed and Ready to Travel     164
Where Cigars Grow Up     167
I Was Born in a Log Cabin...     169
Native Smokes: Close, but No Cigar     171
"This Is Better Than Gold!"     173
Aging: It Worked for Wine     175
What Tobacco Learned from Wine     176
Tobacco Farming: Getting Your Hands Dirty     177
From Green Bay to Bombay     181
You'd Be Amazed Where This Stuff Grows     182
Tobacco in Europe's Backyard     183
The World's Most Sensitive Crops     185
Why Cigar Leaf Is Different     186
Change the Conditions, Change the Taste     186
"Growing" a Good Cigar     189
The Care and Feeding of Baby Tobacco     190
Infants in the Nursery     190
Taking It to the Field     191
Pinch Me, I'm Budding     192
Mold and Pestilence at Play in the Fields of Tobacco     193
The Beetles: Live on Stage     194
Mold: Good in Blue Cheese, Bad on Tobacco     195
Pick a Winning Leaf     196
Fermentation: Sweating the Small Stuff     201
Airing It Out      202
Can a Leaf Make the Grade?     204
Sorting Leaves by Size     205
Sorting Leaves by Texture     205
Sorting Leaves by Appearance     206
Bring on the Heat     206
A Tobacco-Leaf Striptease     211
Baling Out: Putting Tobacco to Rest     211
The Long Sleep     214
Making a Home for Your Cigars     217
Gettin' Around the Tropics     218
Blending in and Around the Caribbean     219
Location Is Everything     219
Making a Home for Your Cigars     220
Too Dry     221
Too Moist     221
Too Hot     221
Too Cold     222
Just Right: The 70/70 Rule     222
Adding to Your Enjoyment     225
Keeping Your Stogies Fresh     227
Top Reasons for Stashing Stogies     228
Humidors: From Palaces to Plastic Bags     229
Cigar-Shop, Restaurant, and Cigar-Club Lockers     230
Zip-Seal Bags and Vacuum Sealers     232
Plastic Boxes     233
Tabletop Humidors     234
Free-Standing "Vaults"     237
Built-In Humidors      238
How Do I Keep These Things Moist?     241
Help! My Cigar Dried Out     244
Better with Age: Aging Your Cigars     245
You Can Take It with You     246
Cigar Cases     246
Travel Humidors     247
Alternative Smokes     251
Shorties: The Quickie Smoke That Satisfies     252
Big Cigar Taste, Small Package     252
Petite but Powerful     254
Cigarillos: A Cigar of Sorts     255
A "Tin" Pack     257
What's Dry-Curing?     258
Sweet Smokes     259
A Rainbow of Fruity Flavor     259
A Cigar and a Drink All in One     260
X-Smokes: Herbs, Berries, 'n' Roots     261
Baubles, Bangles, and Bands: Cigar Stuff     263
Bands, Boxes, and Labels     264
The Cigar Box as an Advertisement     265
Humidors: The Fancy Stuff     267
Collectible Cigar Curiosities     267
Modern Smoking Collectibles     271
Rating Your Smokes     273
Going by the Numbers     274
Scoring Your Cigars     274
When to Forget a Rating     275
A Funky, Earthy Taste with a Hint of Berries? Not!     276
What You Do Taste     277
How to "Taste" Your Cigar's Aroma     277
How to Describe a Cigar     278
Prime Factors     279
Appearance     280
Lighting and Burning     280
Construction     280
Taste     280
"Dear Diary..."     281
Appearance and Presentation     282
Lighting and Burning Properties     284
Construction     285
Taste     285
Comments and Final Scoring     281
Eat, Drink, Smoke, and Be Merry     291
Where, When, and How to Smoke     293
You Can't Tell the Brand Without a Band     294
Burning Up     295
A Study in Shrunken Ashtrays     295
The Attack of Old Cigar Butt     296
Treatment for the Unfinished Cigar     296
The Case of the Smoldering Stogie     297
The Lopsided Patient     297
The Split-Wrapper Syndrome     299
"Put Out That Smelly Cigar!"     299
Smoking on the Home Front     302
The Smoking Den     303
Banished to the Dungeon     303
Clearing the Air      303
When Kids Are Involved     304
On the Road With Smokes     304
A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine, and Cigars     307
After-Meal Smokes     307
The Cigar as a Dinner Companion     309
The Classic Meal     310
A Lighter Touch     311
A Little Spice     311
The Cigar as Dessert     311
A Drink with Your Cigar     312
A Jug of Wine     313
Beer: A Clear Choice     314
Fortified Wine Has Muscle     315
Very, Very Sherry     315
Any Port in a Storm     316
High Spirits     316
Brandy and Cognac     317
Scotch Whiskies and Bourbon Whiskies     317
Distilled Spirits, Liqueurs, and Mixed Drinks     319
Nonalcoholic Drinks     320
A Cigar "Party"     321
Poker Party!     321
Dinner at a Diner     321
'Gars and Golf Gala     322
A Roll in the Leaves     322
Your Place in History     323
Cigar Speak Glossary     325
Index     333