Are Cigars Addictive?

Whenever you need to smoke, the very first thing that you would take out of your pocket is a pack of cigarettes. Whether you are at work or at home, you always find time to puff a cigarette or two just to satisfy your cravings for smokes. This is often the case with cigarettes as they can be addictive, especially when you consume them regularly. 

How about cigars? Can they be as addictive as cigarettes? Do you find yourself craving cigars every now and then?

Knowing the subtle differences between cigars and cigarettes could certainly give you an idea of whether the former can be addictive or not. Additionally, a number of psychological factors may come into play, which could help you better understand the sentiment regarding cigar smoking.

Are Cigars as Addictive as Cigarettes?

Before tackling whether cigars are addictive or not, we must first take a look at cigarettes.

Cigarette smoking has been rampant for decades, and one of the key reasons behind it is the low market prices of cigarettes. Ever since cigarette-rolling machines were invented and gradually improved over time, the cost of producing such tobacco products has gone down significantly. This then resulted in decreasing the prices of cigarettes, allowing them to become more accessible to many people.

Aside from the drastic improvements in cigarette production, cigarettes have also become cheaper due to the tobacco ingredients used in making them.

Unlike premium tobacco products like cigars, cigarettes can already be produced out of low-quality tobacco. While not all cigarette manufacturers would admit that they somehow maximize low-quality tobacco, it makes their products more affordable. The combination of mass production and lower-quality tobacco helps pull the prices of cigarettes down.

Aside from being cheap, cigarette smokers have also increased over the past few decades due to effective advertising. Cigarette makers are trying their best to outsmart each other by introducing campaigns that would make their offerings more enticing than the others.

When the call for gender equality was prevalent around the 1920s and 1930s, cigarette manufacturers released a series of marketing campaigns to promote smoking as a way to break gender stereotypes. This then leads to an increase in smokers among females. 

A similar thing was done by cigarette makers during the 1950s when various experts in the medical field gradually linked cigarette smoke as the key reason behind smokers developing a wide range of health risks like lung cancer, heart disease, and many more.

To make sure they still encourage people to continue smoking, cigarette brands have reformulated their cigarettes, adding filters to these products, and promoting the cigarettes once again to be free from the risks related to tobacco smoke. Of course, the claims made by the brands have already been debunked by many medical professionals in the field today due to a huge amount of data that links smoking cigarettes as one of the preventable causes of illnesses and death worldwide.

The cheap costs of cigarettes, alongside their heavy marketing campaigns, have led to a high number of people consuming them. However, smokers do have a choice to stop smoking them, if not for the nicotine cigarettes often have.

As you smoke a cigarette, the nicotine from its tobacco smoke enters your body and reaches your brain as fast as 10 seconds. The quick delivery of nicotine to your body makes a cigarette satisfying to smoke since this substance is responsible for releasing adrenaline, which increases your heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure. It also makes you feel good temporarily, calming down your senses as quickly as possible.

But as soon as the effects of nicotine wear off, you may find yourself craving for more. And since you think that you can only get the same satisfying feelings when you smoke, you end up reaching out to your pack of cigarettes once more to light up another stick.

So, apart from its nicotine content, cigarettes can be truly addictive since they are cheap and quite convenient to bring anytime, anywhere due to their small form factor. You can always smoke cigarettes whenever and wherever you want, as long as you consume them in areas where smoking is allowed.

How about cigars?

Contrary to cigarettes, cigars may not be as addictive as cigarettes, despite having almost the same tobacco content and ingredients.

One of the main differences between cigars and cigarettes is the way they are consumed. When smoking cigarettes, all you need to do is place one between your lips, directly light up the end of the cigarette with a lighter, and puff it to get your desired smoke. And since a cigarette comes in a small size, you can essentially finish smoking it after 5 to 10 minutes.

A cigar holds a different story. When smoking this more premium product, you have to first cut off a certain portion of the cap. You then have to slowly rotate the cigar while you light up the other end (or the foot) without getting it too close. Once the foot is lit evenly, you can start drawing in the smoke without letting it into your lungs.

Now, due to the fullness of tobacco in cigars, expect to finish smoking one for more than 30 minutes. Some cigars may even be smoked up for more than an hour.

The duration of smoking cigars can somehow hold off people from consuming them regularly. And if you further account for the premium prices of cigars, you just don’t want to smoke them mindlessly. 

How Addictive Are Cigars?

Cigars are typically classified as luxury products given how intricate their manufacturing processes are.

You see, most premium cigars sold in the market today are still made by hand, which means they are produced by professional cigar rollers in the field. Additionally, they are produced with high-quality tobacco leaves, which have been cultivated, sorted, and aged to give off wonderful flavours and aromas. These processes often don’t exist in cigarette production, making cigarettes cheaper.

Upon rolling cigars, they are further aged. The aging process gives cigars more nuance, softens rough edges, and significantly improves their quality. This phase often lasts as short as a month or more than a year. This additional step makes cigars truly delicate.

Now, looking closely at the composition of cigars, you will immediately notice how they are full of tobacco. From the wrapper down to the binder and fillers, everything is made from tobacco. And since tobacco naturally produces nicotine, you might already conclude that cigars can be indeed addictive.

Nicotine is a substance that is highly addictive, especially when you consume it regularly. Without regulating your nicotine consumption, it only leads to nicotine addiction. The only way to get rid of this addiction is by quitting smoking or taking nicotine replacement therapy.

Going back to cigars, the smoke they produce will truly be filled with nicotine as well as other substances that could be harmful to your body. As you smoke a cigar, you only let the cigar smoke linger in your mouth for around 5 seconds before releasing it into the air. Its nicotine can then be absorbed by your body through the tissues in your mouth.

Once the nicotine is absorbed by your mucous membranes in the mouth, it travels slowly through your blood until it reaches your brain. All of these things, however, are done slowly, usually around several minutes. This is in direct contrast to smoking cigarettes, as the nicotine from the cigarette smoke can quickly enter your bloodstream through the lungs and reach your brain as quickly as 10 seconds.

Given how slowly the nicotine from cigar smoke reaches your brain, the onset of its effects may also become slower. Even though it can still trigger the effects mentioned earlier, it would not be as strong as those you typically get from smoking cigarettes. 

This is probably one of the reasons why those who smoke cigars are likely less concerned about using these products since they don’t experience the effects of nicotine as quickly as one could get from cigarettes. Additionally, cigar smokers only savour the true tobacco flavours in these products, rather than the nicotine hits that cigarettes can quickly provide.

Regardless, cigar smoking should be done moderately to somehow lessen the chances of developing illnesses. Smoking cigars, after all, is still dangerous to one’s health due to tar, carcinogens, and other harmful substances found in cigar smoke. 

Without regulating your cigar smoking habit, you might only end up developing cancers of the mouth and throat, lung cancer, and heart disease. Smoking cigars regularly might also increase your risk of infertility, stillbirth, and low birth weight.

Don’t forget secondhand smoke, which can also be produced by cigars and affect those around you. So, even nonsmokers can get sick and develop the said illnesses when they are exposed for too long.

Are Cigars Addictive if You Don’t Inhale?

The addictive nature of tobacco products, whether they are taken orally or smoked, stems from their nicotine content. 

Tobacco is a plant that is grown from its leaves. Historically, this particular plant has been smoked, chewed, or sniffed and has served various purposes. Some would use tobacco plants for ritual purposes in the past, while others are meant for medicinal purposes. Today, however, most tobacco plants are processed to become cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, snus, and so on.

An interesting compound found in these tobacco products is nicotine, which is an addictive substance that many people crave, especially if they use the said products regularly. The addictive and relaxing nature of nicotine makes tobacco products appealing not only to adults but also to young people. This is one of the reasons why countries around the world implement measures to keep them out of the youth.

As mentioned, tobacco contains nicotine which makes the plant addictive. Hence, it’s natural to think that cigars can also be addictive. But, the nicotine from tobacco may only become addictive if it reacts quickly to your body. And in a cigar’s case, that would be somehow unlikely since it would take a few good minutes before the substance reaches the brain, particularly if you smoke a cigar properly.

Smoking a cigar properly entails closing the air pathways of your lungs to prohibit cigar smoke from reaching your lungs. Do remember that cigar smoke is not meant to be inhaled and reach your lungs. It’s there for you to savour its associated tobacco flavours and aromas, which you can already do by letting it simmer and linger in your mouth.

This is in direct contrast to cigarette smoke, which is meant to be inhaled into your lungs for full nicotine satisfaction. You won’t often get anything from a cigarette if you don’t inhale it fully. 

Some more differences between cigarette smoke and cigar smoke are as follows:

• Thickness: Cigar smoke is often thicker and denser than cigarette smoke. The reason behind this is the quality and the cut of tobacco leaves used. Cigars opt for whole tobacco leaves, which are known to burn slower and produce a more voluminous smoke. Cigarettes, alternatively, go for finely cut tobacco, which is known to burn more quickly and produce thinner smoke.
• Nicotine and Tar Content: Due to the larger size and slower burn rate of cigars, the smoke they produce may contain higher levels of nicotine, tar, and other harmful chemicals than cigarette smoke.
• Taste and Aroma: Cigar smoke boasts a richer, more robust flavour and aroma as opposed to the often milder smoke from the cigarette. 
• Aftertaste: The smoke from the cigar typically leaves a stronger, lingering aftertaste in the mouth. In fact, it can be more intense than the aftertaste of cigarette smoke.

Due to the high nicotine and tar content of cigar smoke, you should make sure not to inhale the cigar smoke. Inhaling cigar smoke may only put your lungs at risk of developing serious illnesses due to the compounds found in the said smoke. Additionally, you can only enjoy the taste, aroma, and aftertaste of the cigar smoke if you leave it in your mouth.

If you are a cigar smoker yourself, you probably know about these things already. You may, however, wonder if cigars can be addictive despite not inhaling their smoke.

The answer would highly depend on how regularly you smoke cigars. Despite the slow delivery of nicotine from the cigar smoke, smoking cigars regularly can still be addictive. You may even depend on cigars for your nicotine cravings if you are already used to smoking multiple cigars in a day.

When smoking cigars, it would be best to only consume based on your tolerance, budget, and time. 

If you have a decent tolerance for nicotine, then you can probably finish multiple cigars in a day without feeling woozy and nauseous. However, the most recommended number of cigars one can smoke in a day would be two. Smoking three or four cigars can be too much, especially since they boast high nicotine content, which only puts your body at risk of getting nicotine overdose.

Your overall budget can also determine how many cigars you can finish in a day. Cigars can be expensive. You don’t want to open a box of cigars and finish everything in just a couple of days. Those who have smoked cigars for a long time would often let the cigars simmer in their respective boxes and only smoke them on special occasions.

Lastly, time can help you know how many cigars you can consume daily. 

As previously mentioned, cigars typically take around 30 minutes or more to completely deplete their content. Since they are designed to be savoured for their flavours, the only suitable time to smoke them is during your extended free time. Treating cigars like cigarettes may not even be feasible, especially if you are constantly outdoors working or running errands.

Now, the only way cigars can be addictive, even without inhaling their smoke, is if you treat them as cigarettes and smoke multiple sticks of cigars regularly. 

Even though cigar smoke doesn’t deliver nicotine as quickly as cigarette smoke does, smoking multiple cigars in a day could still flood your body with nicotine.

One cigar boasts as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, which says a lot if you will be smoking multiple cigars in a day. Even without inhaling the cigar smoke, you might only end up developing nicotine dependence on cigars, which can later turn into serious health risks.

Learn whether cigars are bad for you or not here.

Are Cuban Cigars Addictive?

Plenty of cigars are being sold around the world today. Recently, however, the number of premium cigars has continuously depleted, which increases the demand for cigar enthusiasts and smokers out there. One of the premium cigars that many people want to purchase today is Cuban cigars.

Cuban cigars are cigars made primarily in Cuba. They take advantage of tobacco leaves cultivated and harvested locally, which feature flavours and aromas that are distinctive to the country. They are then processed by local professional cigar rollers, making these products more premium than other types of cigars out there as they are produced and inspected manually. Of course, some cigar brands have already added machines into the mix, making cigar production somehow faster than before.

Regardless of the improvements in Cuban cigar production, cigars from the said country are still low in stock, failing to meet the growing demand from cigar enthusiasts worldwide. This then compelled manufacturers to increase the prices of their offerings. This doesn’t take into account the additional taxes and duties often imposed by importing countries yet.

Despite the high costs of buying Cuban cigars, many people are still buying them, which somehow makes you think that they are already addicted to these tobacco products. 

As you already know, cigars, regardless of their type, contain tobacco ingredients that impart flavours and aromas that smokers desire. Unlike cigarettes, cigars are not solely designed to satisfy nicotine cravings, as that is the primary purpose of cigarettes. But if you are smoking multiple Cuban cigars in a day, you might truly end up getting addicted to these products due to their nicotine content.

In reality, cigar smokers only desire Cuban cigars intensely not because of their nicotine content, but rather because of the sophisticated feeling of owning and eventually smoking them. 

It’s not every day that you get to hold a Cuban cigar and smoke it. Once you purchase one, you might end up hiding it in your humidor until a special event comes up. In most cases, Cuban cigars are only smoked during special occasions like victory parties, promotions, and weddings.

Cuban cigars are truly renowned for their exceptional quality, boasting a centuries-old legacy of excellence. Their historical significance and stringent production standards elevate them to a symbol of luxury, making them an irresistible premium product that you’ll likely become addicted to purchasing, storing, and even showing off to others.

If you want to smoke high-quality cigars without resorting to Cuban cigars, you can opt for cigars offered by NativeSmokes4Less instead. We currently offer a vast range of cigars from notable brands like Backwoods Cigars, Prime Time Cigars, DuMont, and Captain Black Cigars. Head to our online store today and purchase quality cigars at very competitive prices.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are cigars addictive if you don’t inhale?

Cigars are still addictive even if you don’t inhale their smoke since you can absorb the nicotine, a highly addictive substance, through your mouth and gums. Using cigars regularly leads to nicotine dependence over time, which then turns into tobacco addiction.

Are cigars less addictive than cigarettes?

Cigars can be less addictive than cigarettes if you smoke them infrequently or without inhalation. When you smoke the cigars the right way, you get to absorb nicotine slower than inhaling the smoke. However, if you smoke numerous cigars regularly, they can become more addictive than cigarettes.

Why are cigars not addictive?

Cigars may appear less addictive than other tobacco products like cigarettes since they are typically smoked less frequently. Their smoke is also not inhaled deeply, slowing down your body’s absorption of nicotine. If you smoke them regularly and inhale the cigar smoke, you can become addicted to cigars.

Can you get addicted to cigars like cigarettes?

Yes, you can get addicted to cigars just like cigarettes since both contain highly addictive nicotine. While cigars are often smoked differently than cigarettes, using them regularly can lead to physical and psychological dependence.

How addictive are cigars?

Cigars are highly addictive due to their high amount of nicotine content. Even without inhalation, your body still absorbs nicotine through the oral tissues, which leads to dependence over time. The addiction risk further increases with frequent or heavy smoking of cigars.

Why don’t people get addicted to cigars?

People do get addicted to cigars. However, the perception of lower addiction to cigars may arise from infrequent use or cultural habits where these tobacco products are only smoked on special occasions. The irregular use of cigars minimizes consistent nicotine exposure, which delays nicotine dependence. However, smoking cigars regularly can still lead to addiction.

Summary

Are cigars addictive? Generally, yes. Cigars can be addictive since they contain tobacco, which naturally produces highly addictive nicotine as you smoke them.

The only reason why many people assume cigars are not as addictive as cigarettes is that not a lot of smokers would light up cigars on a daily basis. The truth about this is that cigars take a long time to be consumed. Additionally, they come with a high price tag. Hence, cigar smokers would only light up a cigar whenever a special occasion comes up and if they have enough free time.

Given how cigars are often compared to cigarettes, it would be best that you know which of them are the worst. Take a look at the distinct differences between the two and learn which of these tobacco products is more harmful to your health.