Rx for relaxation, pleasure and satisfaction.  Teddy Lam eminent board certified specialist in premium cigars checks the condition of a vintage Havana cigar. This examination is performed prior to dispensing to one of his many trusting patients, esteemed colleagues or for his personal consumption. Photo: Taken at The Nurse in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in HK. |
Tobacco: Then & Now
Tobacco has been used for a variety of medicinal purposes. Topical, it has been employed to treat wounds. Internally, it has been used to treat gastric disorders. As a combustible it was often employed as an anti-depressant. Today cigar smokers use it to embrace feelings of relaxation, clarity, stimulation, and creativity.
In WWII cigarettes with high levels of nicotine were put into the kits of US service men. It was believed that the nicotine in strong cigarettes would keep military men alert. This spawned a new generation of cigarette smokers that were nicotine dependent. In the 1940’s-50’s-60’s-70’s cigarettes were in vogue. They were shown in movies, in print and promoted on television.
The concern of selling items that prayed on peoples vulnerability via addiction became a super business. As cigarettes became more popular, an increase in health problems surfaced. Cigarette smokers are simply ‘hooked’ on addictive nicotine and/or compounds that have nothing to do with relaxation that are sometimes added to cigarettes. This can be evidenced by observing a hard-core cigarette smoker attempting to enjoy a premium cigar. Before the cigar is finished, they smoke a cigarette. This strongly suggests that the cigar has considerably lower levels of the nicotine effect on the nicotine addicted cigarette dependent junkie.
| Inhaling Cigarettes | Vs. | Puffing On Cigars |
| It is a fact that some tobaccos utilized for the production of offensive odor producing cigarettes are cultivated with special properties. Some of these properties include growing strains of tobacco with significantly higher amounts of addictive nicotine than found in naturally occurring tobacco.
Cigarette producers have admitted to introducing trace amounts of ammonia into the processing of tobacco for finished cigarettes. Ammonia triggers the human brain into receiving a ‘kick’ from nicotine or a ‘jolt’ from artificially high levels of nicotine. This gives the user a short lived rush. It is suspected that induced nicotine and/or other non-natural properties found in cigarettes are directly responsible for addiction as well as a variety of serious health related illness. High profile cigarette smokers like: John Wayne, Joe DiMaggio, Edward R. Morrow, Humphrey Bogart, Yul Brenner, Nat King Cole, Robert Ryan, and countless tens of thousands of non celebrates have died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or lung cancer associated with cigarettes. |
It is a fact that tobacco utilized for the production of premium, cigars is cultivated in a totally natural way. Tobacco used for these cigars is also fermented several times prior to being hand rolled into finished combustibles.
Fermentation is accomplished by placing slightly moistened leaves one on top another in a stack that is usually 3 to 4 feet high. This bale is then covered with a burlap or plastic cover. Temperature is carefully monitored during this process. If the leaves get over 140T, the leaves are remoistened and restacked. This process is repeated two to three times until ammonia and other odors are released, along with chlorophyll and nitrogenous gasses. It is believed that this laborious process dramatically reduces nicotine. This also gives the cigar a pleasant bouquet, marvelous taste and rewarding effect as it is being enjoyed. High profile cigar smokers like: Winston Churchill, Milton Berle, Groucho Marx, Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, George Burns lived into their late 80’s or 90’s without getting cancer. |