Cigar and Cigarette

[LongPhi]

I'm having a newbie question. What are the differences between cigar and cigarette?

Not about the obvious one like sizes. So far I know a cigarette is shredded tobacco roll and wrap with paper; a cigar is tobacco wrapped in a whole leaf tobacco. But apart from it, what make it so different? Are the harmful chemical contain in cigarettes the same with cigars?

Thanks

[T_montana]

cigarettes are for the common folk. Cigars are for the wise "do no inhale"

[Stevieboy]

cigarettes are for the common folk. Cigars are for the wise "do no inhale"

Lol. Have to agree with you T

[NathanJD]

The biggest difference really is in how both are smoked. Cigarettes are inhaled into the lungs and give you a nasty head rush. They alter your chemical balance for a short time which is why people get addicted to them to the point whereby they have to smoke them continually. Most cigar smokers have a cigar occasionally, but not every day or even more than 1 a day. They will both increase your chances of health risks like the big C whether you smoke 1 or 100,000 of either, certainly more than not smoking. I think the most important difference is that cigar smoking is a choice, and cigarette smoking is an addiction. It's also worth noting that a good majority of cigar smokers don't smoke cigarettes certainly not on this forum, as a previous thread demonstrated.

[Wardjrz]

For some reason cigars don't seem to offend people as much as cigarettes (in my experience), maybe because cigarettes smell funky and cigars smell cooooool!

A cigar is to be enjoyed at the appropriate pace, in the appropriate place. Cigarettes smoke themselves whether you are there or not.

[LongPhi]

Correct me if i'm wrong but since both Cigar and cigarette are made from tobacco, therefore they both contain nicotine and tar hence can lead to addiction? Even thought cigar smoker don't inhale the smoke but nicotine can absorb through your skin and mouth if I remember correctly.

Also if they are both tobacco then instead if shredding the tobacco we just use the whole leave and wrap it with another tobacco leaf then we basically have a cigar? and why is that their smell are so different?

Something stuck in my head as cigars always give the impression of a luxury life and expensive habit. So if somehow all the price of cigarette suddenly go up to 10 times higher and with a proper advertising ( let forget about the law for a minute) with celebrity smoking it, nice car etc. Will it be come a symbol like cigar always does?

Just for the record I'm not defending cigarette and my question just purely out of curiosity.

[Jacobwaits]

Cigarettes have literally hundreds of chemicals and other nasty's added to them, a cigar is just tobacco.

[NathanJD]

This was the case 60 years ago long phi, watch some black and White Hollywood films - the actors and actresses chain smoke cigarettes all the way through them. Cigarette advertisement has outshone cigar advertisement for decades, although cigars have always been seen as the luxurious cousin of cigarettes, with the price the way it has been for at least the last 10 years, cigarette smoking has been the more expensive habit. Cigarette smokers pay ?6 for 20 and a 20 a day habit is not particularly heavy. Even if you smoke a behike 52 a week, you're still going to be richer than a 20 a day cigarette smoker.

[LongPhi]

I don't agree with Jacob, the harmful chemicals are contained in tobacco in general not just cigarette. I've read somewhere that the amount of tobacco in a cigar almost equal a pack of cigarette, and nicotine and other chemicals and be absorbed through the lining of the mouth, slowly but still.

Nathan, that's what I mean. Long ago cigars has been seen as a luxurious thing due to the effort of making one ( I think ) and the idea of smoking cigar represent status and success. Cigarette on the other hand has been affect buy the restriction of advertising. You hardly can see any celebrity star on a magazine cover with a cigarette on his/her hand. What if it is another way round, do you think cigarette would become a sophisticated,luxury that represent success? for example : Marlboro Anniversaries 1989 - Celebrate the life. . Back in my country, due to the nature of my business I've met a lot of people smoke cigar just for the reason that it is luxury and people look at you as a high class person. When buying cigar the recommendation they ask from me most probably "which is the most famous and expensive one".

[NathanJD]

It's all about cost and advertising I think long phi, cigars were the vice of the common man 100 years ago, have a look on the Internet about cigar bands in America at the beginning of the last century - you would collect them and trade them in for items like furniture etc... One of the reasons cigarettes took hold here in the uk is that they were handed out in the trenches during the first world war, and a lot of guys who never smoked took it up - anything for some kid of small comfort in those desperate days. Don't forget that there are many other ways to introduce nicotine to your system, you could say that in the last 100 years, the pipe has been the choice method for the intellectual, but 200 years ago, it was at that time the vice of the common man. Here in south Wales, because you can't take a burning substance underground due to the risk of explosion, snuff and chewing tobacco became The method of choice for the common miner. Dealing with the last 30 odd years, because of the embargo, the fact that Cuban cigars are hand made and the fact that cigars have the highest single unit price, if someone wants to spend the most money for the most exclusive tobacco product, that is always going to be a Cuban cigar.

[Jacobwaits]

I think you are being a tad naive if you really don't believe they are putting some rather unpleasant things into cigarettes that aren't found naturally in tobacco.

[LongPhi]

Jacob, I do believe that there are something funny in cigarettes . Just curious in which process that they are being added into cigarettes, was the fermentation progress make the different between the aroma of cigar and cigarettes?

[El Catador]

There's a list of around 600 additives (599 if we're being precise) currently in use by the cigarette manufacturing industry.
They include some quite bizarre ingredients (see below.. for a quick 'cut and paste):

High fructose corn syrup, sugar, natural and artificial licorice flavor, menthol, artificial milk chocolate and natural chocolate flavor, valerian root extract, molasses and vanilla extracts, and cedarwood oil. Less familiar additives include glycerol, propylene glycol, isovaleric acid, hexanoic acid and 3-methylpentanoic acid.

Bonkers huh?

[Kdot]

I'm having a newbie question. What are the differences between cigar and cigarette?

Really? Are you serious? I know we've had some great newbie questions but this takes the cake. Is there some type of award we can muster up?

[M1F2R3]

I'd like to add my experiences to this thread. Both of my parents are cigarette smokers, my dad has around ten a day where my mum will go through two or three. I've been around cigarette smoke, I don't like it nor have I ever smoked a cigarette. Cigar smoke is much more pleasing in my opinion, in terms of cancer risks... A new survey (carried out between 2010 and 2011) was performed by 18,000 men (over 1000 smokers) and the results showed that regular (one per day) smokers have a 27% higher risk of heart disease compared to non-smokers and 2x the risk of mouth and throat cancer. If you smoke one per week, like myself, then it's obvious that the risk of cancer is much lower than one per day.

Both cigar and cigarette smoke has carcinogenic (cancer causing) components, it is true that cigars have more concentrated smoke than cigarettes but cigarette smoke does expose the smoker to far more risks than an average cigar smoker.

Still, I'd rather smoke a hand made Cuban leaf than a machine made, disgusting cigarette.

Edit: In terms of addiction, I'm not addicted to cigars... If anybody wants to bet me that I can't go X period of time without having one, I'm willing to take them on