Smoking in Europe

There was a time, not too long ago, when one entered any workingman's bar in Bayern that you would see a tall glass jar behind the bar counter filled with strange looking long skinny cigars that cost only a few pfennig . But due to Europe becoming day for day more anti-smoking and the younger men and women switching to machine rolled cigars this is no longer the case.

I'd thought I'd share with you a bit of cigar history today and review one of these now rare( r ) cigars.

The cigars I have here are produced in Austria but are very typical of the "Steckala Zigarren" (Stick Cigars)

Why you might ask are they called Stick Cigars, well it all goes back a few hundred years and involves simple tobacco farmers trying to figure out how to make a cheap cigar that would have a good draw regardless of how quickly they were rolled.

Tobacco is grown in many parts of Germany, but mainly in Bayern (Bavaria), back when they were experimenting with different strains of tobacco plants to see which would grow best in the colder, wetter climate of Germany they chose Virginia tobacco due to the fact that Virginia's climate most closely resembles that of Germany.

Once they knew which tobacco they wanted to plant to make pipe tobacco, snuff and cigarettes they also had to figure out a way to cheaply produce cigars that everyone could afford to smoke and that when fire cured would still be easy to smoke.

And here my story begins...

Here is a picture of a unopened box of "Steckala Zigarren" produced by Austrian Tabak



And here is the back side, what is interesting, is a quote from Zino Davidoff in the 1967 issue of a cigar magazine regarding this type of cigar, here is my best attempt to translate...

Virginier, these cigars are in many way a special cigar, last but not least due to them being that cigars produced in this method can only be found in the Austria, Bavaria and Switzerland and that in these areas, but especially in Austria are reminders of a more laid-back way of life and of a people that regardless of being scoffed at or derided for their way of life, showed that they were in regards to smoking, a hell-raising, fearless group of people.

Click to expand...

You are still probably wondering why they are called "stick cigars" Is it the shape? Or is it the length? No. It is due to the ingenious way that the rollers invented to make sure that they could produce as many cigars as possible, using the least amount of tobacco and still insure that the cigar would have a good draw.

They took one or two tobacco leaves, and wrapped it around a small stick that has a around two inch in length reed (now days they use a plastic straw) placed over the one end. At one end of the finished cigar the reed sticks out and at the other end the stick. The cigars are then fire cured to produce a hard long cigar.

Anywhere between 10 to 20 inches in length (12 inches give or take is normal) the cigars are dark brown in color and very skinny.



Here is the reed (plastic in this case)



And here is the end of the stick



There is no preamble to these cigars, no clipping or punching the head, no toasting of the foot or carefully lighting. You simply pull out the stick...



and light the end opposite the reed on fire. I however don't like the feel of plastic against my lips while smoking one of these cigars, so I always clip the reed off at the start of the tobacco.



So how do they taste? Well if you know better to remove the stick, not bad, however most Americans (myself included :blush: ) when encountering these cigars for the first time light them up stick and all. Doing so will make you go WTF and lead you to swearing off trying weird cigars ever again lol

But with the stick removed and the tip clipped...



they are a cheap way to get a cigar fix while enjoying a good German beer. The taste is slightly bitter and one dimensional, but since they only last around 30 mins, it isn't a bad way to experience a cigar that has one hell of a long history and to reflect on the much simpler times of our ancestors.

Now in closing I have something VERY IMPORTANT to relate regarding smoking a "Steckala Zigarre"

DO NOT TRY TO NUB ONE!!! (unless you like inhaling burnt plastic ) I always stop around the three inch mark



and here is why...



The long plastic tip (tea candle and pen to provide scale)

I hope you enjoyed my review and hope to find more interesting historical cigars to review for you in the future.

Shawn

*edit* To fix long broken photo links

All I can say is, wow....weird. Necessity seems to be the mother of invention.

Wurm,

Excellent educational piece. I was curious about those plastic tips in those Villiger Culebras you sent Zeeb and I... now I know.

:0 That is pretty darn interesting! Very cool review. :thumbs:

Reading it was like watching some kind of documentary film
Nice one!

Very education Wurm, neat. Never saw those before when I was over there.

Ich habe ein Paar bitte

Thanks for a really interesting post.

I find lately that I'm intrigued by learning about what and how people in different areas of the world smoke.

Very interesting... Thanks for sharing! :thumbs:

That was neat!! Thanks for the review!

Bump for Sonuvabum who I sent a pack of these... so he doesn't end up smoking the stick :sign:

That's pretty wild. Thanks for sharing.