The rise of Cigar Aficionado itself, as a new publication of celebrity cigar endorsements and "expert" critiques, at the start of the "cigar boom" of the 1990s, is one of the direct reasons cigars have gone from everyman's affordable smokes to a special treat for the elite. [It also seemed to be around the time that many cigar smokers began to choose to light up a cigar without removing the band first.] Prior to that, a typical cigar smoker would purchase an entire box (usually 50 cigars, back then) of naked cigars (i.e. no cello wrapping), to enjoy at leisure. Cigar Aficionado's selected "winners" then jumped dramatically in price, started showing up in individual cello wraps at tobacconists, and the typical box count dropped to 25. It was considerably after that when substantial taxes jumped in on the fun. As the prices climbed into the stratosphere, sellable box count dropped to 20, 18, 15, and all the way down to boxes of 3. All this was a response to how many cigars the diminishing number of purchasers were willing to pay for at a single transaction. Regular folks were left in the dust.
Bob
