5 Things You Need to Know About Cigar Bands
Unwrapping the History and Significance of Cigar Bands
Some are simple. Some are ornate. Some cigars don’t even have one. It’s the cigar band. And I hesitate to use the word “humble,” given that some of these things are an absolute billboard (looking at you, Camacho).
It’s no surprise, really: as bands came into popular use during cigars’ golden age, it was a cheap and easy way to add a ton of visual appeal to the cigars you were being sold and were smoking.
It was also a way for brands to show off their awards and accolades, with some boasting the World’s Fair medals the Tabacaleras earned for their “Best in Show” award-winning tobaccos.
Since then, cigar bands have become a canvas for expression, from prestigious to amusing. And here are 5 Things you’ll find interesting about them.
One says Russian royal Catherine the Great had her cigars wrapped in silk bands, so as not to stain her hands with nicotine. (Believability: 1/10.)
Another claims the gentlemanly class of English cigar smokers held their cigars by the band to keep their gloves white. (Also unlikely. And kind of weird, actually. No one holds a cigar like that.)
Then there’s the one that said bands were applied to hold poorly made cigars together. (Nope.)
So who really invented the cigar band? And why?
Gustav Bock – aka, “Don Gustavo” – is credited with inventing the cigar band in 1830’s Cuba. Don Gustavo had two problems: first was standing out in a crowded cigar market. (The other was rampant fraud, which we’ll get to in the next section.) Bock ordered paper rings with his signature printed on them, and had his factory place a band on every one of his cigars exported to Europe. His move worked, adding an air of heightened quality to his cigars. Almost everyone in the business would quickly follow Don Gustavo’s lead, banding their cigars and telling customers to only buy these “real-deal” smokes.
Don Gustavo’s invention left more than a marketing legacy. Yes, they were standout sellers, but his cigars with bands were also less likely to be counterfeited.
Back in Bock’s day, Germany was the world’s largest provider of cigars - but Cubans were higher quality. And even though they were way more expensive, Havanas were in such high demand that everything that was rolled was sold. So, what is an “enterprising” (or “shady”) German cigarmaker to do in the face of such competition? Maybe he’d try to sell his subpar 1¢ smokes under legit Cuban name brands that regularly went for 15¢ a piece…But by adding bands to their cigars, the Cuban manufacturers were essentially “authenticating” them - making it harder for German cigar makers to fraudulently pass their lesser-quality sticks off as genuine Cubans.
That practice continues with higher end cigars today: Padron has a second band that has a serial number on their Serie 1926 and 1964 Anniversary lines.
Plasencia Cigars has placed a “smart chip” on the band of every Alma Fuerte Sixto l Hexagon Colorado Claro cigar; tap your phone to it, and the embedded chip will authenticate the cigar. It’ll also open your browser to display blend info, tasting notes and photos.
And if the glass top box hasn’t convinced you it’s a fake, Cuban Cohibas – probably the most counterfeited cigar on earth – have deployed various countermeasures. Besides the box’s distinct barcode, microdots and heat stamp, the band features multiple holographic illustrations and wordmarks, gold embossing, and very exact placement of the squares on the Cohiba logo’s “checkerboard.”
One of the coolest things I learned doing background for these 5 Things is how cigar companies used bands as currency.
Raise your hand if you’re old enough to remember S&H Green stamps (anyone?). The deal was, you collected stamps at participating retailers in exchange for the amount you spent. (We got ours at the grocery store and the dry cleaner.) These stamps were worth points - then you’d paste the stamps in a book and redeem the books you saved at an S&H store for a toaster or something.
In Aficionado’s telling of the story, the concept was much the same: around the turn of the 20th Century, the American Cigar Company – a ginormous cigar maker back in the day - distributed a catalog. And in this catalog were all sorts of premiums you could “earn” in exchange for redeeming a quantity of their over two dozen cigar brands’ bands.
And this was no plain old toaster: apparently, 50 bands bought you some fancy buttons; 600 bought a magazine subscription. Trade in 1200 for a football, or 180,000 bands for a baby grand piano, delivered.
When cigar makers say, “made by hand” they mean it. Even applying the band is a manual process, and it hasn’t changed much in about 150 years. The bands must be placed on each cigar at the same location; to guarantee it’s done with both precision and speed, factories have developed jigs to mark the position where the band goes on each vitola.
Here’s where an added element of skill comes in…the worker banding the cigars dabs plant-based glue - the same stuff used to apply the triple cap – onto the band with the tip of her finger. If the worker uses too little glue, the band won’t stay attached. Too much glue and it will ooze out - causing the band to stick to the cigar’s wrapper, risking damage to the leaf when the band is removed.
The process is the same for cigars with two bands: same tools, same glue. Which, why do some cigars have two bands?
Gary explained that it’s mostly for show. There’s only so much printable space on one cigar band – so when you need more real estate? Add another band to tell more of a story about the cigars, such as a country of origin, what year it was released, a special or limited edition, wrapper leaf, etc. When it’s done right, a second band makes the cigar look more attractive.
One notable side benefit of the bonus band: when placed at the bottom, it helps prevent the foot from becoming damaged or frayed when handled.
Some people make a really big deal about removing your cigar band before you smoke it.
Cigar Aficionado quoted a book titled “Holy Smoke”: “The band, though placed around a cigar last, must always come off first, no matter what bogus connoisseurs might tell you.” I’ve read others who have written, “it is classless to leave it on.”
I’ll be honest; a lot of this uptight etiquette stuff is kind of lost on me. I respect the process and “honor the traditions” and all that, but there’s a very good reason to keep the band on the cigar while you smoke it. While the purists clutch their pearls and hyperventilate, I’ll explain…
You’re more likely to ruin your cigar by removing the band first. Taking the band off can take part of the wrapper with it, and cigars with extra holes don’t smoke so well. Instead, “let the cigar do the work for you. As the burn line gets closer and closer to the band, the core tobaccos between the burn and you have already warmed and/or ignited. Because of the nature of roller’s glue (and most organic adhesives, for that matter), the warm tobacco heats the glue making it soft; the adhesion is lowered and you can peel the band’s end up and away from the cigar and remove it. Crack-free.”
Of course, remove the foot band before smoking.
And for those of you wondering, “Can I smoke it past the band?” Of course you can! I don’t know which of these heavy breathers declared this to be a smoking red line that couldn’t be crossed, but if your smoking buddy tells you that’s a “rule” – find a new smoking buddy.
If a cigar is that good, don’t be afraid to burn your fingers on it.