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Tuscan Cigars
Source: Delicious Italy

A recent newspaper article highlighted one of Italy's more unusual typical products - the Toscano cigar.

The state tobacco company ETI was recently sold to British American Tobacco (BAT) for 2.3 million euros and it will interesting to see what will happen in the next few years.www.entetabacchi.it

At least in Italy, even such celebrity users as Sharon Stone seem to be having no effect against an inevitable decline in the popularity of cigar smoking.

Purists fear the worst and that a little bit of Tuscany has been lost for ever.

www.maledettotoscano.it

Fans of the cigars would also like to see a DOP mark applied to the production which would at least protect the authenticity of the manufacturing process which ranges from the hand-made 'Toscano Originale' and the fire cured half 'Garibaldis'.

Interestingly, the European Union actively promotes tobacco cultivation and 80,000 hectares of land in Tuscany, Umbria and Campania are dedicated to the crop.

The hub of the Italian cigar industry is Lucca in northern Tuscany with the growing areas stretching to San Miniato in the province of Pisa.

Once upon a time the industry stretched from Veneto all the way to Puglia.

The Kentucky variety of tobacco has been imported for two centuries from North America and from it the "Sigaro Toscano" or Tuscan Cigar is produced.

The quasi Romanesque shape of the tobacco drying structures, similar to those found in Cuba where the tobacco is dried, dot the landscape and maintain the hand-made traditions.

Cigar Clubs

Cigar Club Association

Premier cigar forum in Italy, this site includes a vast amount of information on cigars and cigar events through the association of virtually all Italian Cigar Clubs. Great forum and photo gallery from premier cigar events worldwide. Site is in Italian.

Maledetto Toscano

Around the end of the 80聮s a group of friends started to appreciate cigars. United by many other interests they decided to properly develop their passion. Their dream was to use the cigar in a cultural and territorial contest anchored to its root so that smoking a good product would not be a useless way to spend some time but a productive way to enjoy the company of friends with good food as the cigar聮s tradition wants accompanied with the right wines and alcohol. Not less important was the need to make this group of people official and able to interact with others all around the world聟.

Internet Cigar Group

The world's largest cigar organization!

The Italian Cigar Market

The consumption of cigars (we always refer to legal sales, because of the availability of data and also because contraband, which significantly affects the sale of cigarettes, does not alter what we are interested in) in recent years seems to have, notwithstanding ups and downs, become stable.

During the last century, the use of cigars (and also snuff and pipe tobaccos) have witnessed a massive drop. Their consumption, in relation to all the other smoking products available, has fallen from 40% before the first world war to 15% during the two world wars and has continued plummeting, reaching 1% in the 1970s.

During the last ten years, the consumption of these products has oscillated between 0.5% and 0.7% The most significant anomaly of cigar consumption- which makes it look like there is a counter tendency with respect to the growing preference of Italians, for all other forms of tobacco and for foreign products- is the constant and net preference for the national product. Its market share is about 90 percent.

Cigar Manufacturers

Alec Bradley Cigar Company

Altadis U.S.A.

Arturo Fuente/J.C. Newman Cigar Company

Felipe Gregorio Tobacco World

Finck Cigar Company

Cigar Company

Graycliff Cigar Company

Habanos, S.A

Heaven Cigar Company

Indian Tabac Cigar Co.

Nueva Matacapan Tabacos

Swisher International

Reference Sites

CigarCyclopedia.com

This site is produced by Perelman, Pioneer & Company, publishers of the authoritative "Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars," along with "Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Havana Cigars" and the "Perelman's Pocket Cigar Finder."

The ICG Cigar Database

URL:

The Internet Cigar Group's new, searchable version of Bob Curtis' famous cigar database.