Cigar Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers
What is a cigar?
A: A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented leaf tobacco which
is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth.
The origins of cigar smoking are what?
A: Unknown.
In Guatemala, a ceramic pot dating back to what century
features a Mayan smoking tobacco leaves tied together with a string?
A: The tenth century.
The word cigar originated from what Spanish word?
A: Cigarro.
The word cigarro in turn probably derives from what Mayan
word?
A: Sicar ("to smoke rolled tobacco leaves").
Who is generally credited with the introduction of tobacco
to Europe?
A: Explorer Christopher Columbus.
Spanish and other European sailors adopted the hobby of
smoking what?
A: Rolls of leaves, as did the Conquistadors.
Smoking primitive cigars spread to Spain and Portugal and
eventually France, most probably through whom?
A: Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal, who gave his name to nicotine.
The hobby spread to Italy and, after Sir Walter Raleigh's
voyages to the Americas, to where?
A: Great Britain.
Smoking became familiar throughout what?
A: Europe.
Smoking tobacco was denounced by whom?
A: Philip II of Spain and James I of England.
Around 1592, the Spanish galleon San Clemente brought
"what" to the Philippines?
A: 50 kilograms (110 lb) of tobacco seed.
The seed was then distributed among whom?
A: The Roman Catholic missionaries, where the clerics could grow high-quality
tobacco on Philippine soil.
In the 19th century, cigar smoking was common, while what
was rare?
A: Cigarette smoking.
In the early 20th century, Rudyard Kipling wrote his what?
A: His famous smoking poem, "The Betrothed."
The cigar business was an important industry, and factories
employed many people before what?
A: Mechanized manufacturing of cigars.
In 1869, Spanish cigar manufacturer Vicente Martinez Ybor
moved his operations from Havana, Cuba to Key West,
Florida to escape what?
A: The turmoil of the Ten Years' War.
Other manufacturers followed, and Key West became what?
A: Another important cigar manufacturing center.
In 1885, Ybor moved again, to near the then-small city of
Tampa, Florida and what did he build?
A: The largest cigar factory in the world at the time in the new company town of
Ybor City.
In New York, cigars were made by rollers working where?
A: In their own homes.
It was reported that as of 1883, cigars were being
manufactured in how many apartment houses in New York?
A: 127, employing 1,962 families and 7,924 individuals.
As of 1905, there were how many cigar-making operations in
the United States, most of them small?
A: 80,000.
While most cigars are now made by machine, some, as a
matter of prestige and quality, are what?
A: Still rolled by hand.
Tobacco leaves are harvested and aged using a process that
combines use of "what" to reduce sugar and water content without causing the
large leaves to rot?
A: heat and shade.
This first part of the process, called curing, takes how
long?
A: Between 25 and 45 days.
The curing process is manipulated based upon what?
A: The type of tobacco, and the desired
color of the leaf.
The second part of the process, called fermentation, is
carried out under conditions designed to what?
A: Help the leaf dry slowly.
Temperature and humidity are controlled to ensure that the
leaf continues to ferment, without what?
A: Rotting or disintegrating.
This is where what are primarily brought out in the leaf?
A: The flavor, burning, and aroma characteristics.
Once the leaves have aged properly, they are sorted for use
as filler or wrapper based upon what?
A: Their appearance and overall quality.
Quality cigars are still what?
A: Handmade.
Some cigars, especially premium brands, use different
varieties of tobacco for what?
A: The filler and the wrapper.
Long filler cigars are a far higher quality of cigar, using
what?
A: Long leaves throughout.
These cigars also use a third variety of tobacco leaf,
called a "what", between the filler and the outer wrapper?
A: binder.
This permits the makers to use what as a wrapper?
A: more delicate and attractive leaves.
These high-quality cigars almost always do what?
A: Blend varieties of tobacco.
Even Cuban long-filler cigars will combine tobaccos from
different what?
A: Parts of the island to incorporate several different flavors.
In 1992, Cigar Aficionado magazine created the what?
A: "Cigar Hall of Fame".