A History of America in Cigar Consumption

M1903A1 · 02-26-2010, 08:02 PM

An additional thought about the 250+ cigars a year figure...they speak of "large cigars" in reference to the graph. But, I think they're applying modern standards/prejudices to period data.

From what I've seen (both in period photos and surviving examples), your average-market cigar back around 1915-20 wasn't big by anyone's standards...it wasn't a robusto, let alone a Churchill or DC. It was something more like a petit corona or minutos size...think Parti Shorts or Sig IIs. Average people back then didn't smoke cigars as a hobby, it was just something you did...and Joe Average on the farm or the production line at Ford wasn't gonna drop twenty-five or fifty cents every day for a big perfecto or double corona to smoke after dinner. (By modern standards, that would be like smoking a big Opus X every night!) He'd have bought a box or two of Harvesters, El Productos or some regional brand in a corona, PC or smaller size. And as many of us know, even at a rate of only one a day it's not hard to burn through a lot of those in a year.

02-26-2010, 08:02 PM	#9
M1903A1 Have My Own Room Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 1060 W. Addison Posts: 1,573 Trading: (4)	Re: A History of America in Cigar Consumption An additional thought about the 250+ cigars a year figure...they speak of "large cigars" in reference to the graph. But, I think they're applying modern standards/prejudices to period data. From what I've seen (both in period photos and surviving examples), your average-market cigar back around 1915-20 wasn't big by anyone's standards...it wasn't a robusto, let alone a Churchill or DC. It was something more like a petit corona or minutos size...think Parti Shorts or Sig IIs. Average people back then didn't smoke cigars as a hobby, it was just something you did...and Joe Average on the farm or the production line at Ford wasn't gonna drop twenty-five or fifty cents every day for a big perfecto or double corona to smoke after dinner. (By modern standards, that would be like smoking a big Opus X every night!) He'd have bought a box or two of Harvesters, El Productos or some regional brand in a corona, PC or smaller size. And as many of us know, even at a rate of only one a day it's not hard to burn through a lot of those in a year. __________________ "It's the cigars that bring us together, but it's the people that cause us to stay."