E-cigar and the future?

New e-cigars and 5 answers from specialists

E-cigars? Wait, what's this nonsense? E-cigarsReally now? I noticed that people have been searching for e-cigars on Google since around the end of December 2020 until this post was written. Is this perhaps just a typo by people and they were searching for e-cigarrettes? As I also like to tackle controversial topics and don't close my mind to the future, I have come up with a scenario from the future. Immediately after this vision of the future, specialists from the world of cigars have their say. They say what they think of the idea of "e-cigars". I hope you enjoy 🙂

In this article about e-cigars you can read

  • My vision of the future in 1000 years E-cigars enjoy.
  • 5 Specialists from the tobacco industry say what they think of E-cigars hold:
    • Rodrigo Medina (Plasencia Cigars)
    • Thomas Portmann (Urs Portmann Tabakwaren AG)
    • Marcel Knobel (ADVentura Cigars)
    • Sam Reuter (Oettinger Davidoff)
    • Michael Blumendeller (Villiger Söhne GmbH Germany) 

How e-cigars will be tasted in 1000 years' time

The year is 3021 and a device is humming away in the Living Lounge. For exactly 10 seconds and then there is silence again. A slim woman with a shaved head opens the lid and takes out a perfectly shaped Figurado cigar. Unfortunately, it slips out of her fingers and falls to the floor. The cigar does not break. It is made of an ultra-light trilithium wrapper and a silky matt coating of Tabacinuum. The thing is simply unbreakable.

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The woman sits down in the self-flying lounge chair and snuggles up. She taps a small button on the cigar and thick smoke escapes from her mouth. The e-cigar is already lit. The gas was filled automatically earlier in the whirring device. The slim woman has previously selected the flavors she wants to enjoy with her e-cigar in her lifestyle brain chip. This configuration was transmitted to the device. The gas was produced and filled into the cigar wrapper in just 10 seconds.

"Strawberry with sweet and sour blackberries," says the woman happily and with a broad smile on her face. "And incredible roasted flavors retronasal to roasted Easy Steaky Sticks and roasted Soylent Green! Stunning, these e-cigars!"

I wake up drenched in sweat. What a nightmare! My whole body is shaking.

Back to the present without e-cigars

Answer 1: This is what Rodrigo Medina, Regional Director EMEA at Plasencia Europe:

Plasencia Cigars has no plans to develop e-cigars. Remember, we are a family with very strong roots with the tobacco plant and its unique characteristics. The love affair began in 1865 and 5 generations later this passion is stronger than ever.

Our commitment is to work with nature in a sustainable way through the tobacco plant and the unique terroir where we grow it (Nicaragua and Honduras). Thanks to this harmonious relationship, we achieve the purest essence of tobacco, which is highly appreciated by our customers around the world.

There are no e-cigars at Plasencia
Rodrigo Medina: An e-cigar is supposed to be a cigar? THE is a cigar!

An artificial flavor can never imitate one created by nature. Nature is the most perfect and complex system that has taken millions of years to evolve, so it is impossible to replicate this experience. Add to this the complexity of tobacco growing, curing, fermentation, aging and blending, as well as the art of cigar rolling, and you have such an impossible formula that can only be solved by the harmonious cooperation between nature and wise humans.

Plasencia in the social media


Answer 2: This is what Thomas Portmann, co-owner of the Urs Portmann Tobacco Products AG and Managing Director of the branch in St. Gallen: 

A cigar is a craft that is made 100% by hand. From the raw tobacco seed to the sale of the cigar in specialist shops, the cigar passes through around 1000 hands and is handled and stored with the utmost care. The different blends of raw tobacco turn the individual brands into unique moments of pleasure.

Behind the creation of cigars are countless blending steps and tastings until the final creation is made. A lot of passion and love goes into the cultivation and production of the cigars.

Thomas Portmann Cuba 2018 La Corona Factory
Thomas Portmann: Is this what an e-cigar might look like? Not a chance.

Enjoying a cigar is a moment to pause, relax and is usually associated with good conversation. All of these points can never be incorporated into an e-cigar. Therefore, for me personally, the idea of an e-cigar is absolute nonsense and, in my opinion, will never become established on the market. The same also applies to the e-tobacco pipe.

Urs Portmann Tabakwaren AG in the social media


Answer 3: This is what Marcel Knobel, co-owner and creator of the ADVventura Cigars

Marcel Knobel was in the Dom. Republic and was at the ADVentura Cigars factory. He has given us a audio message that contains a very interesting thought. Here it is:

Marcel Knobel
Marcel Knobel enjoys a real tobacco cigar, an ADVentura Cigar.

ADVentura Cigars in the social media


Answer 4: What Sam Reuter, Global Brand Ambassador, says Oettinger Davidoff

Personally, I can't imagine enjoying an e-cigar to the same extent as a handmade cigar. Enjoying a cigar is a ritual, a pleasure, a philosophy and, above all, a cigar is a natural product, which a plastic e-cigar obviously is not. Oettinger Davidoff has no plans in this direction.

How to rate cigars professionally with Sam Reuter
Sam Reuter: This is what a satisfied face looks like - with a real cigar.

Davidoff Cigars in the social media


Answer 5: This is what Michael Blumendeller, Manager Special Tasks and Projects, says, Villiger Sons GmbH Germany

Cigars, regardless of the country of origin of the processed tobacco, have been natural products for many hundreds of years and we want to keep it that way.

Smoking a good cigar is certainly a pleasure for connoisseurs and aficionados. There is the aroma and taste, woody, savory flavors, leather, coffee. Each cigar pampers your palate with a fascinating range of flavors that are experienced in a completely new way. 

There is the ritual. Between the cutting, the toasting, the lighting and the puffing, enjoying a cigar can take on a symbolic, individual meaning. Whether your cigar represents quiet reflection, celebration or quality time with your friends, the process of smoking becomes a ritual that is as individual as you are.

Hand-rolled premium cigars contain no additives, no artificial flavors, they unfold what the aficionado, as well as the beginner, is looking for, relaxation, pure tobacco enjoyment, as well as pure joie de vivre, after the carefully carried out maturing process of the tobacco, the appropriate and timely necessary storage, the proper rolling.

Michael Blumendeller VILLIGER
Michael Blumendeller has been working for Villiger Söhne GmbH Germany in the handmade cigars division for 24 years.

If you read the description of an e-cigar, it could also be a mobile phone with a smell. The technology, the artificiality prevails, the real pleasure is created by artificial flavors, the smoke is technically simulated to the user and in the end this technical construct has to be recharged.

As a cigar manufacturer for 131 years now, we don't think much of this "innovation" and will never bring e-cigars onto the market.

On the contrary, we think that even if there are no more cigarettes in 30 years' time, tobacco has been around since 1492 and cigars are natural products, they will survive all crises, even all the efforts of the WHO, and will continue to accompany lovers of this pleasure worldwide just like a good rum, a cognac or a single malt whisky.

Villiger Söhne GmbH Germany in the social media


Conclusion: E-cigar > Rejected

My vision of the future (see above) is both fascinating and terrifying. However, I am more fascinated than repulsed by the thought of how we might enjoy cigars in 1000 years' time. Even as a teenager, I wrote sci-fi short stories about alien worlds and ways of life that seem strange to us. I admit: in my current life, I am very happy when I can enjoy a cigar. Pure tobacco, pure nature, pure craftsmanship. What a great product to enjoy!

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Responses

  1. You can why not, for me it's a question of principle. I couldn't replace a cigar with something electronic, even if only sometimes. For what? Control, more, better, all performance and result-oriented and adapted to Western living conditions, but a cigar is much more than that! It is an active rebellion against the ever-increasing lack of time and the stressed lifestyle, if you would not only smoke a cigar in your cellar or parlor, but would also light it proudly and with dignity outside. Let them just look and see that everyone decides for themselves how and why they take the time that they always pretend they don't have. The optimized sucking on such an e-cig or vape is all well and good, that has to be said, but the cigar doesn't always taste perfect or good and that's exactly what makes it interesting! People are interesting because of their diversity and their not always perfect appearance or behavior, just like the cigar. That's what makes the groove.

    1. Everything will be digitized. Even our food will come in the form of essence, which we will briefly spice up in a kind of microwave. Not a good prospect. I'm going to light some butter first ?

  2. I don't think it's such a bad idea. However, not with liquids but with a vaporizer. Real tobacco is vaporized, like in a cigar or a pipe. The aroma of a cigar is created before the embers. The embers are "only" the motor to set the process in motion. The most aromatic "smoking temperature" is achieved before the embers by drawing slowly. I can imagine that real tobacco, brought to the right temperature in the vaporizer, can taste very delicious, possibly with even purer aromas than with a real cone of embers. You can also control your smoking time and are not tied to a cigar/time format. That was simply meant to be on topic? 

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