Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-09-11
NICOTINE LANGUAGE
MOST SMOKERS UNDERSTAND
NOT THE TERMS USED.
FEW KNOW THEM APART
Names Refer to Size, Shape or Color
Fashions Change as in Hats
or cIothes-Dark Cigars Not Neces-
sarily Strong Ones-Better Grade
of Different Shapes and Sizes.

Whenever the average untutored
tobacco lover wishes to indicate to
his envious friends that he is in pos
session of cigar of the first quality
he usually says that he has perfecto
By perfecto he means the best cigar
the name to all products of the Havana
factories. But, in truth, good many
cigars that never saw Havana are
genuine perfectos, and a good many
made in the most famous factories of
the Cuban capital are not The word,
as a matter of fact, does not refer to
the quality of a cigar at all. 1t is
simply a term used to describe the
shape. A perfecto may cost 81 and
it may cost 21a cents.
There are half a dozen cigar terms
thus misused by the average smoker.
And there are several times as many
words of the same sort whose mean
ing he is utterly unable to fathom.
What native, corn-fed smoker, for in
stance, knows the difference between
panetela and Reina Victoria? And
how many know whether there is a
real difference between maduro and
an oscuro? Yet all of these terms
are the common property of cigarmak-
ers all over the world. Like many
cigar-brand names, they are of Spanish
origin, but the wanderings of Havana
tobacco and Cuban cigars have taken
them into all countries and all lam
guages.
The great majority of cigars are
packed so in a box, with Is on the
top row, IL in the row next to the top
13 on the next and IL on the bottom
row. When londres cigar is packed
100 in box in two bundles, tied with
ribbon, it becomes a Reina Vic
toria, which is Spanish for Queen Vic
toria. Early in the late queens reign
Cuban manufacturer invented this
method of packing, and called the re-
sultant brand after Great Britain S
sovereign. The name has remained
ever since.
The word perfecto is a term indicat-
ing certain shape in cigars. A per-
fecto is smoke having what is gen.
orally called the "cigar shape"-that
is to say, it is welled near the end
which is lighted, and tapers gradual
ly down to the point, or head. The end
of cigar which a smoker puts in his
mouth is known among cigarmakers
"a the head The other end THAT which
is lighted) is called the tuck When,
as often happens in perfecto, the
tuck is very small, it is called a
needle tuck or feather tuck All
others follow these lines more or less
closely.
A thin, straight cigar, with little
more thickness in the middle than at
the tuck, is called a panetela. The
average panetela is slightly longer than
perfecto, though the matter of size
has nothing to do with the shape.
Panetelas are esteemed because they
burn more regularly and are usually
better, because more easily, made
The virtue of the perfecto is that its
smaller tuck lights more readily and
its more artistic curves give it great
er beauty.
A londres is sort of cross between
the perfecto and the panetela. 1t is
perfecto from the head to The thick
est part, and from there on to the
tuck it is betwixt and between. Usual
ly the slope from the thickest part tc
the tuck has a gradual curve. The
tuck. as rule, is as large as that Of
panetela.
| A partega is cigar shaped much
| like londres, except that the slope
| from the thickest part to the head is
usually not so rounded. 1t is shape
not now so fashionable as it used t.
be. and even when cigars are genuine
partegas the box is seldom stamped
with the name.
A concha is a small. blunt cigar. A:
a rule. it is a very satisfactory smoke
and usually it lasts as long as a per
! fecto. This is because the thin tucl
OF the latter burns down rapidly. Thu
opera is very small cigar of an,
! standard shape. 1t derives its nam,
| from the fact that it is designed TO
short smoke between the acts, ant
very often it is called an EXTRACT TIL,