📜 The Origins of the Cigar

Today, in almost any major city, one can walk into a humidor and find an abundance of beautiful cigars - wrappers of every shade, shapes refined over centuries, craftsmanship easily taken for granted.

It was not always so.

Long before cigars became objects of pleasure or status, tobacco was something altogether different: ritualistic, medicinal, and spiritual. Archaeological evidence places tobacco use in Mesoamerica as early as 1000–500 BCE, supported by nicotine residue found in ceramic smoking vessels associated with early Maya culture. This material evidence is reinforced by Classic Maya iconography (circa 600–900 CE), which depicts figures smoking in ceremonial contexts.

By the early second millennium (the years between 1000-2000), tobacco use was firmly established across several Indigenous cultures of the Americas - most notably among the Taíno of the Caribbean, the Maya of Mesoamerica, and later the Aztec civilisation of central Mexico.

These cultures formed the foundation of what would later become modern cigar culture.

The Taíno inhabited the Caribbean - modern-day Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Bahamas.
The Maya occupied much of Mesoamerica - present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador.
The Aztec Empire was centred on Tenochtitlan - today’s Mexico City.

Tobacco use among these societies was not recreational in the modern sense. It was used for spiritual rituals, healing practices, meditation, and communion. Tobacco leaves were air-cured and naturally fermented, then rolled - often not in tobacco leaf, but in palm or maize or smoked through tubes.

Among the Taíno, the rolled tobacco bundle was referred to as sikar or sigar. Sound familiar?

Below is a map for the visual learners amongst us, highlighting the regions that took part in these practises.