I was wondering today, as I puffed on a Lot 23 Maduro and watched the delicate white-blue smoke drift into the sky above me on a clear Brisbane winter day, whether or not there is a connection, deep in my subconscious, between the joys of cigar smoke and the smoke my ancestors breathed in for hundreds of thousands of years around camp fires.

That lead to me to researching what deeper thinkers than I have said about cigars… which lead me to Sigmund Freud.

Freud’s most famous quote about cigars, of course, is that a cigar is sometimes just a cigar (and not a phallic symbol).

However I found this 1994 article in Cigar Aficionado that talks about Freud’s obsession with cigars in plenty of detail. I’d heard that Freud loved his cigars and died of mouth cancer, but I didn’t realize the full story – he smoked about 20 cigars a day from the age of 24 and died at the ripe old age of 83. Not a nice way to go but not a bad innings. It’s well worth reading in full but I’ll throw up some of my favourite sections:

Freud began smoking when he was 24 years old, following in the footsteps of his father, who was himself a smoker right up to age 81.

In his old age Freud was quoted as saying: “[cigars have] served me for precisely fifty years as protection and a weapon in the combat of life…I owe to the cigar a great intensification of my capacity to work and a facilitation of my self-control.”

If Freud inherited his passion for cigars from his father and inspired his patients to keep him supplied, he also endeavored to instill a love of smoking in his disciples, colleagues and the young men in his family. Hans Sachs, a member of Freud’s inner circle, once remarked that “[Freud] was so fond of smoking that he was somewhat irritated when men around him did not smoke. Consequently nearly all of those who formed the inner circle became more or less passionate cigar-smokers,” according to Freud, Master and Friend by Hans Sachs, (1944), Harvard University Press.

One of Perdomo’s cigar rollers shows us how it’s done.

One of the most common complaints you’ll hear from cigar smokers in Australia is the increasing heavy-handedness of State legislation. It’s one things to ban smoking of any kind from places likely to be frequented by non-smokers, such as restaurants, sporting facilities, and offices. It’s entirely another thing to ban smoking cigars in a dedicated cigar club. If I may be permitted a loose analogy, it is like banning street prostitution and then also lumping into the legislation banning sex between consulting adults in a brothel. Brothels are legal in most Australian states but smoking cigars in a cigar club is not? That doesn’t make much sense to me.

Like many cigar smokers I know, I have never been a cigarette smoker. Therefore, I am quite conscious that many people (myself included) do not like secondhand smoke. I don’t like to smoke cigars in public places where it might offend. Only an asshole would want to stick their cigar smoke in other people’s faces. As much as I don’t understand why people don’t appreciate the aroma of a premium cigar, I would never wish to force it upon them, any more than I would try to force a tee-totaller to drink a finger of Talisker.

Which is all the more reason to have dedicated venues for cigar smokers.

As I understand it, the main reasons for the introduction of heavier smoking restrictions are as follows:

1. Protecting non-smokers from secondhand smoke.
2. Protecting smokers from themselves.

The first point is obvious and I doubt many of us would disagree.

The second point is more troubling.

In a free society, it seems that people should have the right to eat, drink and smoke whatever they choose, as long as they aren’t hurting others in the process. The excuse used by governments to curb smoking is the burden on the public health system, which is reasonable, but does this apply to cigars?

The science conclusively says NO. The most comprehensive report on the subject (which I’ve blogged about before), a 1998 report called “Cigar Smoking: Overview and Current State of the Science” by David M. Burns that is published on the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s site, is very clear on the subject:

The pattern of excess disease risk among cigar smokers is not identical to that observed in cigarette smokers. Mortality ratios among cigarette smokers are much higher than those among cigar smokers for coronary heart disease, COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and lung cancer.

An explanation for the difference in mortality pattern between cigarette smokers and cigar smokers lies in differences in the depth and likelihood of inhalation of tobacco smoke between these two groups of smokers. Most cigarette smokers report inhaling the smoke into their lungs, while over three-quarters of the males who have only smoked cigars report that they never inhale.

The fraction of adult cigar smokers who smoke cigars every day is much smaller than the fraction of cigarette or smokeless tobacco users who use every day. This suggests that cigar smoking among adults, while probably able to cause addiction to nicotine, is less likely to do so than cigarette smoking or smokeless tobacco use. Data from California, which show that the recent change in cigar use among adults is largely an increase in occasional use, also suggests that the addictive potential of cigars is lower than that for cigarettes.

When cigar smokers don’t inhale or smoke few cigars per day, the risks are only slightly above those of never smokers.

So it seems clear that suggesting the risks associated with smoking cigars is the same as smoking cigarettes is not based on science. It’s like saying that the risk of riding a motor bike is the same as flying in a commercial plane. It just doesn’t work that way.

I’ve borrowed this from the Friends of Habanos site (thanks Rob!). It’s something I’m going to keep beside me during future smoking sessions, to help develop my palate and make me sound more intelligent. I just hope I don’t come across many “horse manure” cigars!

Cigar Flavour Wheel

I’m a big fan of science. As XKCD likes to say – “Science. It Works, Bitches”.

Unfortunately, cigars are regularly being subjected to bad science and bad journalism.

A few months ago, Parade magazine ran an article called “The Dangers of Pipes and Cigars”. In the article, they reference a report done recently by Columbia University which, the article claims, showed that “smoking pipes or cigars doubled the odds of having an airflow obstruction.”

If this were indeed true, many of us would have to seriously reconsider our cigar habits.

The problem many cigar smokers have with this report, however, is that it is based on fluffy science.

As Smoke Magazine pointed out recently:

The Columbia study contained no new research, but an examination of a previous study that included just 56 individuals who smoked either cigars or pipes and did not smoke cigarettes.

Moreover, the study itself says “few participants smoked pipes or cigars…Effect estimates in this group were therefore relatively imprecise…” No kidding; what the survey actually showed was that among cigar-only smokers, the odds for decreased airflow to the lungs increased a trivial 1 percent when adjusted for age, race, sex, and height, and were 37 percent less than non-smokers when more carefully adjusted for 13 factors also including body mass, education, family history, and so on.

Additionally, the study report states “no U.S. studies have reported on the possible effects of cumulative pipe and cigar smoking on lung function.” This is wrong. In fact, the impact of cigar smoking was exhaustively reviewed by the National Cancer Institute in its monograph on cigars published in 1998.

Incidence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) was examined using the American Cancer Society’s massive CPS-I study, which included 15,072 cigar smokers. The result? For those who smoked an average of 1–2 cigars per day, there was no impact at all vs. non-smokers up through age 64, and for those who do not inhale, no impact through age 79!

Now consider that in the U.S. in 2009, smokers of all types of cigars averaged just 2.93 per week and smokers of handmade, premium cigars averaged a grand total of 1.59 per week!

But the CPS-I results are nowhere mentioned in the Columbia “study.”

As I’ve said on the blog before when I covered the CPS-I study, I take my health very seriously and so I’m always keeping an eye out on the latest science on cigars and health. It is unfortunate that a lot of the media coverage on the subject is pretty fluffy and either out-right biased or based on bad science.

The Wall Street Journal has an article on cigar clubs today which I enjoyed. Perdomo gets a small plug too.

Here’s my favourite part of the article:

I have been struck by what seems the spontaneous camaraderie (not always the easiest thing to find in New York) enjoyed by those who frequent cigar bars. Also, as much as I hate second-hand smoke, particularly cigarette smoke, I can’t fully get aboard Mayor Bloomberg’s Orwellian plans to banish and tax smoking out of existence. I see lighting up a cigar at a ballgame, for instance, as an inalienable right, something the founders obviously would have written into the Declaration of Independence if they’d realized it was going to be a big deal two centuries later.

Read the full article here.

Last month (June 2010) saw a major cigar event in Russia. According to the site MyCigars.ru:

The evening was dedicated to the opening of Salon Award Cigar Clan Best of the Best. The event was held in a huge white tent in the middle of the exhibition center. Awards received:

The best Cuban cigar Vegas Robaina Famoso;
Best Dominican cigars Bossner Petr I Maduro;
Best Nicaraguan Cigar Perdomo Habano Maduro;
Best Honduran cigars CAO Italia Gondola;
Discovery of the Year Ashton Estate Sun Grown 22 Year Salute Torpedo;
Discovery of the Year Kirsanoff Collection Vegas De Montana Churchill.

Nick Perdomo accepts cigar award

Smokey Dan from The Smoking Den reviews the Perdomo 10th Anniversary Champagne Churchill.

Order your cigars here!

Time for another Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Maduro review, this one from a lady! It’s always great to see more ladies appreciating a fine cigar, so I thought I’d run this review, even though it’s a couple of years old.

The blog is called “Her Humidor Cigar Reviews”, it’s written by Lisa B. and she summarizes her lengthy review of the 10th Anniversary Maduro with this paragraph:

Overall, the cigar did not transition too much from it’s primary flavors. Once you get into the heart of the cigar, it pretty much gives you consistent enjoyable flavors of mocha, sweet cream and spice, then eventually rich leather, roasted nuts and smooth aged tobacco with a long finish. I had no complaints with the medium body and lack of a red pepper kick. However, there was some ligero present, it just doesn’t slap you around like a fuller-bodied peppery smoke. This cigar seemed intent on keeping me relaxed and comfortable. On that note, I strongly believe this is a cigar that everyone can enjoy. My husband, who prefers mild cigars, took a few draws off my cigar and almost didn’t give it back. The nerve of him!

Perdomo 10th Anniversary Maduro

Purchase your Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary cigars here.

Mark McGinty, who writes “The Boogle” blog, has recently reviewed the Perdomo 10th Anniversary Maduro.

The Perdomo 10th Anniversary is made with attractive Cuban-seed Nicaraguan Maduro wrappers and had one of the smoothest finishes I’ve tasted in a maduro. The cigar is beautiful, with a dark, even wrapper and an even roll. A bit on the side of heavy, but that’s the way I like it: with lots of smoke. I thought the cigar might burn a little too fast but the burn was even, with a slight crease at first that quickly evened out. This was fine tobacco, on the sweet side, with some mocha thrown in for good measure, and very, very smooth. Although this was a maduro, it didn’t taste or feel like a maduro, not until I was about halfway in and realized how strong the P- 10th A was. As I reached the end of the cigar I was pleased when the flavor barely changed and the cigar retained its shape and burn.

Read the full review here. Thanks Mark!

Perdomo Cigars: 10th Anniversary Maduro

Purchase your Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary cigars here.