Some time ago a ceramic pot dated as far back as the 10th century was discovered in Guatemala. The pot depicts a Mayan puffing on tobacco leaves bound up with string.1 Was that the first time someone smoked a cigar? Probably not.
What we know is, when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas he also discovered indigenous people who were smoking sikars, cylindrical bundles of twisted tobacco leaves wrapped in dried palm or corn husks. His crew referred to them as, "Cigarro."
Columbus's crew quickly discovered the enjoyment of smoking cigars and when they returned to Spain they not only brought back material treasures they discovered in the new world, the brought their tobacco and cigars and showed people how to smoke them. Europeans quickly embraced tobacco and cigar smoking and the practice spread throughout Europe and the rest of the civilized world.
Still a global phenomenon, cigar smoking continues to be enjoyed throughout most parts of the world. Today, cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities, primarily in Central America, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, and Puerto Rico, as well as the eastern United States, Italy, Spain (the Canary, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia.
1Altman, Alex (2 January 2009). "A Brief History of the Cigar". TIME. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
