She is spicy, intense, mellow, and full-bodied,
It is a faithful companion and a weapon of freedom
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On October 25, 1881, a small life was born in a family in Magala, Spain. People were extremely anxious, because the baby did not cry, and the midwife did not move how to turn it over and beat it.
Doctors almost gave up on this "stillborn", and the mother was almost heartbroken
At this time, the newborn's uncle, Don Salvador, had a clever move, he lit a cigar, took a deep breath and blew it into the baby's small nostrils.
A miracle happened - the little guy's hands and feet suddenly moved together, and he let out a cow-like cry!
Picassotu as a child
Don Salvador relished the incident for many years, claiming it was a miracle created by cigar smoke.
This little baby was later "one of the greatest artistic geniuses of the 20th century," Picasso. It was originally an interesting story in the history of cigars, but it made us interested in the cigars behind the smoke and their origins with art.
Open a bottle of champagne and talk about cigars today.
01 The Best "Styling Companion" for Celebrities
Many cultural and artistic celebrities are loyal followers of cigars. Instead of asking who among American movie stars smokes cigars, ask who doesn't smoke cigars.
Pictured is Demi Moore.
Like other luxuries, cigars are not "necessary", but they open a new door to understanding for those willing to try.
Hollywood actress Demi Moore smoked a cigar with such elegance that the cigar seemed to be able to speak between her fingers.
Demi looks directly into the camera, everything is in silence, such a graceful gesture is really unique. The smoke is also determined by her domineering.
Madonna took numerous pictures of smoking cigars to establish her own image of independence and fearlessness, which is a new women's manifesto that subverts the traditions of patriarchal society. Originally it was a man's plaything, but it was picked up by her and blended in.
A wild that belongs to Mai Jie alone, has been ignited by a cigar
A crow resting on a lit cigar is one of the most famous photographs of film director and suspense master Hitchcock. It was a promotional photo taken in 1962 during a break in the filming of the movie "Bird".
Cigars and movies have also formed an indissoluble bond
The 19th-century Cuban national hero and poet José Martí once said, "Cigar smoke is the cigar leaf of the Indians, the consolation of the thinker, the intoxication of the imaginative architect to the air next to the marble and the aroma of the breasts." ”
And so on, the unique charm of cigars for gentlemen and ladies is endless. Every intoxicating and obsessive way of life is bound to have its own particular appeal, and so are the cigars.
Alpacino in "Smell the Woman" also played the style of a cigar
02 "The Eleventh Finger of God"
Cigars can be traced back to the Mayan period. In the Temples of the Mayans, reliefs and decorations on the walls depict them "swallowing clouds and spitting fog" in religious ceremonies, and the tobacco they smoked was the precursor to the cigar.
800-950 AD excavated from the Mexican Mayan civilization
This palace-patterned clay pot depicts a ruler smoking a cigar.
Columbus did not find the haunting gold in the New World, but found a cigar known as the "eleventh finger of God."
In 1492, Columbus brought tobacco seeds back to Europe, and this plant from the New World was immediately spread all over the world.
But as a new thing that "invaded" Europe, the popularity of cigars did not happen overnight. During the reign of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, she took a strict anti-tobacco stance.
In Spain, for example, the Inquisition referred to cigar smokers as "devils" and imprisoned them as heretics. But a forbidden book is difficult to defeat the charm of cigars.
Edward VII
After Queen Victoria's death in 1901, her lifelong cigar-loving heir, Edward VII, summoned his close friend to Buckingham Palace, holding a lit cigar in his hand, and the new king solemnly declared: "Gentlemen, you can smoke." ”
The picture shows the king and Queen Alexandra, the queen's sister.
Edward VII, who never smoked a cigarette, is said to have smoked 12 cigars a day.
Edward VII strongly advocated that gentlemen throughout England learn to smoke cigars. In his eyes, smoking cigars was something a gentleman really deserved to do.
The Royal Train Salon of Edward VII
Since it is difficult for ordinary people to have the financial strength to fully enjoy its fun, the first Europeans who smoked cigars were some rich people who dared to be innovative, so they also formed the characteristics of luxury and elegance of cigars.
This Faberge Art Nouveau gold diamond cigarette case was a special gift received by Edward VII in 1908
It has a royal blue enamel on its surface and is wrapped around a snake made of diamonds, with a knotted head and tail.
The representative writer of aestheticism, Oscar Wilde, was a prominent figure in Europe during this period. Wilde loves to express his disdain and contempt for the mundane with his calm and leisurely cigar smoking. In his masterpiece of the novel, "Portrait of Dowling Gray", he borrowed the words of the character and said: "It is elegant and delicate, and you will never get tired of tasting." What more could you want? ”
Oscar wilde
"Smoke a 30-ring cigar when you're 30 and a 50-ring cigar when you're 50."
- An ancient Cuban adage
Cigars and cigars grow together, in a series of complex etiquette and rules, so that the mood becomes calm, the mentality becomes calm. How to enjoy cigars?
03 Embark on a magical journey through cigars
As a way of life, Yunyan will tell the taste and aesthetic. Smoking a cigar is a ritual and gesture.
The gentlemen of Downton Abbey would also have a cigarette time after dinner.
How do I start smoking a cigar? First, of course, find the one you want to taste the most. Not only are everyone's taste different, but at different stages of life, there is one of their favorite at the moment, and it is good to choose the one that suits their state of mind at this moment.
American magazine Cigar Aficionado selects the top 25 cigars of 2021 that just passed (top 9)
Like red wine, cigars are natural, and the real quality cigars are handmade. Freshly shipped cigars are like newborn beings, fresh and bouncy.
Cigars are kept under "double 70" conditions throughout the production process: the relative humidity is about 70%, and the temperature is controlled at 70 degrees Fahrenheit (about 20 degrees Celsius).
Louis Vuitton cigar storage box with temperature and moisture detection system/ one-horned deer selection
The collection of cigars is not called "collection", but "raising". The longer you keep it, the better the flavor. The existence of the humidor not only allows the cigar to have a better place to live, experience alcoholization and be more mellow, but also is itself a manifestation of aesthetic pursuit.
Humidors and cigar cutters have become a stage for artists, designers, craftsmen to show their skills, and even become a powerhouse for luxury goods. / A fine wood-inlaid humidor by French artist Paul-Élie Ranson, auctioned by the Musée d'Orsay for 25,000 euros in 2018
19th century Tahan-inlaid multi-layered humidor/one-horned deer selection
As the exquisite humidor is carefully opened, 25 of Havana's finest cigars glow in bronze or antique mahogany furniture, and a smell of secret preserves comes to your nose... You look at them for a long time, and you don't know which one to start with, because each of them is exquisitely rolled up.
Finally, finally make up your mind to pull one out of the center, the seductive color and aroma that will make you can't help but put it down your nose and smell it — it's a common move of almost everyone who has a cigar for the first time, and there are few people who aren't.
The next step is to cut the cigar correctly. Cut off the cigar hat decisively with beautiful and sharp cigar cutters.
An antique cigar cutter and dagger/one-horned deer selection from Milan's silversmith workshop MIRACOLI, a popular European royal and political sought-after
One end of the cigar is sealed with tobacco leaves, and the opening can only be smoked by cutting the seal. / The gentleman who smokes a cigar in The Age of Innocence.
Finally, light it. Keep the cigar at an angle of 45° and use the outer flame of the fire source to lick the bottom of the rolled cigar evenly. Rotate the cigar at a constant speed to heat it evenly. Until a circle of sparkling fire centers surrounds the bottom of the cigar and smokes. Ideal sources of ignition are: lighters using butane gas, torch guns for cigars, cedar wood fires.
Try to avoid the use of fire sources that will change the taste of the cigar itself / 19th century eagle koi theme 18K multi-color gold set diamond onyx lighter / one-horned deer selection
Leonardo DiCaprio's cigar hours
The uniformity of the burning surface and the burning degree of the tobacco leaves after ignition must be very stable in order to obtain a good taste. The burning and suction sensation of a good cigar is very smooth, and you can get an extraordinary experience without any effort.
Now you can take a lighted cigar in your mouth and take a deep sip. Let the smoke flow between the mouth and tongue, feel its pungency, its intensity, its mellowness, its richness. Then slowly spit them into the air and watch them scatter like jellyfish coiled overhead. The whole process is like a ritual.
The reason why art and cigars have always been inseparable is precisely because enjoying cigars themselves is an art. Smoking cigars, more often than not, is enjoying that mood. For a person who knows how to enjoy a cigar, that kind of enjoyment is almost a difference between cloud mud and cigarettes.
Picasso's lacquered wood cigar sculpture, shot/produced in 1949 in 2013 for 1,073,000
Matador Cigar
The pleasure of smoking a cigar is actually reflected in these tedious rules, long-winded exquisiteness, and true gentlemanly demeanor is often reflected in this unhurried process. In fact, it is in this series of complex cigar etiquette that it may unconsciously relieve your stress, improve your mood, and extend your thinking.
04 A man can't forget his first love? or a woman's weapon for freedom?
"If you can't smoke cigars in heaven, don't go."
—Mark Twain says.
In the Victorian era of Britain, pipes and cigars became the best companions for men before marriage.
In the middle class and high society, faced with the ex of "tobacco", many wives will force men to quit after marriage.
So many Victorian men saw tobacco and women as fish and bear paws. The English poet Kipling, who won the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature, poured out this annoyance in a famous poem:
My lover Maggie sent a letter
I have to make a choice
It is faithful to the lingering love
Or continue to let yourself be intoxicated in the clouds of green smoke
Twelve months ago, I fell at the feet of Eros
Becoming her slave can be recalled
My beloved tobacco stayed with me for seven years
In this history of fashion, Ian Gattlee wrote in the book Nicotine Girl:
There was a custom in the 19th century that after dinner, men should leave women and smoke a good cigarette. There, they reminisce about their overseas adventures in their lives, or decide on big things there... It's like the rituals of some primitive tribe, like the mighty warriors dancing around the fire to deliver holy relics.
However, cigars are not a man's secret patent. Among the great men of Hugo and Balzac's contemporaries, both Musé and Chopin, they were deeply attracted to a woman, george sand.
George Sand was one of the most popular writers in Europe at the time, overshadowing many male writers of the same period.
Georges San often disguised himself as a man to go in and out of public, especially at gatherings where women were forbidden, which was a shocking act in nineteenth-century France.
Georges/Delacroix holding a cigar to enjoy Chopin playing the piano painted in 1838 (unfinished)
It was George Sang who told people that women could smoke cigars too, and they could smoke so much. It was the image of George Sang that made the cigar a weapon for women to fight for freedom. Reminiscing about the watery years, through 200 years of time, stirring up george sang's cigar smoke, we have already smelled her warm fragrance.
Balzac recorded in his diary: "I arrived at the château de Noon on Saturday. It was nearly 7:30 p.m. I met George Sand. She was dressed in a nightgown and always smoked a cigar after dinner... As she thought about it, the look was still fascinating. ”
In honor of George San, the cigar clubs established in Manhattan and Santa Monica were named the George Sang Cigar Club, and most of them were women.
Marlene-Dietrich
Today, cigar smoking has become a popular fashion for modern women. Women can play with cigars better than men.
French supermodel Inès smoking a cigar on the catwalk performs "Smoke And See" with a cigar
How can a person find himself? Some say in adversity, some say in loneliness, and some say in pain. But when the cigar appears, we can fully say that we can find ourselves in enjoyment.
Cigars always have a mysterious traction on people. Master a fine cigar, a set of luxurious cigar utensils, a space of your own, and cultivate a person's taste.
In the 1880s, France produced a classical bronze gilded relief oak cigar box/one-horned deer selection
The slowly ebbing smoke is enough to make you feel your presence, because its unique aroma can calm your mind and clear your mind. And those who discover themselves will not let tobacco become a shackle that binds the brain, but transform it into a key to open the door of wisdom.
Truly seasoned cigars all share some common traits: maturity, calmness, love of life, enjoyment of solitude, and cherish of friendship. Therefore, only by cultivating to a certain realm of life can he grasp the strong and powerful cigar in his hand.
Editor | Autumn Bugs, JW
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