The Ultimate Cigar Book: 4th Edition

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The two shortcomings of The Illustrated History of Cigars arise from a generally overzealous love of Cuban cigars and a failure to adequately describe non-Havana stogies and their lineage. The former quirk is in evidence when the authors claim Havana cigars are produced from tobacco that has been aged for four years. This might have been possible when The Illustrated History of Cigars went to press more than five years ago, but today there is little chance that the Cuban government can afford such a luxury.

In this elegiac offering to the pinnacles of hand-rolled tobacco, world-renowned expert Nicholas Foulkes guides you through the myths, legends, nuances and delicious realities of the smoke-savouring universe, serving as an introduction for the novice and a reference for the connoisseur.The guidance in The Illustrated History of Cigars is excellent, but sometimes more fascinating are the tidbits of history, from the origin of cigarettes to the myth that young Cuban women roll cigars on their thighs. There are other things to quibble about in The Cigar Companion, such as Bati's recommendation for restoring dry cigars. The author suggests wetting the bottom of a cigar box and putting the box into a sealed plastic bag, which seems a very haphazard method for restoring what are likely very precious, old smokes. He also says that no cigars are worth aging for more than 15 years. There are a few smokers coughing on their pre-Castro Havanas at that idea. The most futile and disastrous day seems well spent when it is reviewed through the blue, fragrant smoke of a Cigar." Evelyn Waugh The recommendations and history in the book are both first-rate, and the presentation adeptly avoids being overbearing. For example, the authors state that there is still some controversy about the geographic origin of the tobacco plant, citing both Mayan and ancient Chinese texts as proof. Wisely, they then sidestep a polemic by leaving the matter to historians and the reader's own discretion. Cigar smokers have seen a lot of changes over the past two years. New cigar brands and the introduction of additional lines or sizes by established manufacturers have flooded the market. And new connoisseurs have become a fast-developing audience, eager for any available information on what they are smoking.

If Holy Smoke is a challenge to read, The Ultimate Havana is a cool breeze of a book. (Wait a minute! Two books with “ultimate” in their titles?) The novel is set in Miami and the Dominican Republic. It’s essentially a crime thriller involving Cuban tradition, counterfeit cigars, mobsters and a lot of misdirection. This is the book you take to the beach with you and light up the biggest cigar you have. It’s cigar noir at its best. Le Roy and Szafran are not didactic, even when the subject is more tangible than digging for botanical or historical artifacts. In a section that seems pretentiously titled "The Art of Smoking," the authors dispense showy advice: "Where pleasures are concerned, rules are meaningless." While this may be stretching it a bit, this attitude is refreshing, especially to cigar smokers who have enough people telling them what to do with their stogies. The authors seem to feel the same way, distancing themselves from the hordes of self-proclaimed cigar scientists with one very bold statement: In fact, today’s best sources for information about the cigars themselves are found online. I mean, you’re using one of those as you read this. So, instead of recommending the three “best” cigar books that are the usual type of guides, allow me to offer a mix of educational, enlightening, and entertaining reading about our wonderful world of cigars. The Ultimate Cigar BookYou should smoke whatever, however and wherever you please as long as you enjoy it and are contented....For over half a century great minds, great public speakers and brilliant theoreticians have claimed to have established a set of rules for what they readily dubbed the art of cigar smoking. Some insisted that the rings should not be removed, others recommended removing them, some made a ritual of lighting the cigar, others insisted that cigars should never be re-lit, some systematized the way the end should be opened and still others even laid down the pattern a smoker's day should follow. This is nothing but hot air. If rules are a must, there should be only one: to please yourself. Five hundred dollars per year, but with that you get a discount on our best cigars. And you get my personalized attention.’” Cabrera Infante starts at the beginning and muses on the discovery of cigars by Columbus’ crew, then moves gently to the manufacture and different forms of cigars. The book really gets going when you get to the references to performers like W.C. Fields to Edward G. Robinson to Groucho Marx, among others. Groucho is something of a hero to Cabrera Infante. Lots of cigars get smoked in this book. And there’s a lot of fighting about who’s got the best cigar, the ultimate Havana. Lantigua even includes scenes reminiscent of iconic events like Cigar Aficionado’s Big Smoke. Willie is the main character in a mystery series of four books. The Ultimate Havana is number two.

Despite all of the legitimate business being done in the name of cigar capitalism, there is still one grossly undersold product in the cigar-accessory market: knowledge. Cigar Aficionado readers call the magazine daily with countless questions about aging, storing, touring, smuggling and smoking. And inevitably they ask: "Isn't there a book about all this?" Cabrera Infante riffs on the movie The Natural, in which “the villains smoke cigars, so do the heroes; all the baseball players smoke cigars as big as their bats. All except Robert Redford, that is.” The author reminds us of the scene in Citizen Kane when Joseph Cotton’s aged character nags the reporter to bring him a couple of cigars. There are so many more recollections. The Illustrated History of Cigars is better than any rival publication because it exceeds expectations, even for such a costly book. Oversized, like most coffee-table volumes, it contains excellent photography, lithography and brilliant captions. The translation is also top-notch, giving the main text a lively, engaging tone. Exploring not just the extraordinary story of tobacco and cigars but also a history that has been instrumental in the foundations of societies and cultures, Cigars will take you on an astonishing journey through landscapes, scents and an incredible roll call of the great, the good and the not-so good. The cigar has provided solace and a chance for worldly contemplation to generations of thinkers, businessmen, writers, entrepreneurs and connoisseurs.The world is full of books about cigars, most of them guides to the “best,” for the “connoisseur,” and for “idiots” (really). At least one claims to be “complete.” And there’s the problem. No published book, because of the time it takes to research, write, and print can possibly be complete given the speed at which the cigar industry is producing new cigars or old cigars with new blends, or old blends with new wrappers, or old and new blends in new sizes. (I think I’ve confused myself.)