The ''Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars'' is an annually published and updated reference of

cigar brands This is an alphabetical list of cigar brands. Included is information about the company owning the brand name as well as a column allowing easy viewing of the source of that information. If a brand name begins with the English word "The" or its S ...

available in the United States, including specifications and information regarding each

cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and Fermentation, fermented tobacco leaves made to be Tobacco smoking, smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct comp ...

, as well as basic cigar knowledge in general, such as wrapper colours and

shapes and sizes Shapes and Sizes are a Canadian indie rock band from Victoria, British Columbia. There are four members—Nathan Gage, singers Caila Thompson-Hannant and Rory Seydel, and John Crellin. History Shapes and Sizes came together in Victoria and se ...

. There is also an'' 'Almanac' ''section which includes a list of new brands and those that have been discontinued since the last edition, details about 'ancient' brands that are still in production, a list of unusual cigars (with multicolored wrappers, for example), a list of the smallest and largest cigars available (by length and

ring gauge A ring gauge, or ring gage, is a cylindrical ring of a thermally stable material, often steel, whose inside diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the centre of the circle and whose endp ...

), and more.

Editions

It was first published in 1995 and contained 370 brands. The number of brands covered jumped to 659 in the 1997 edition, then to 1,144 in 1998, and then to an all-time high of 1,448 in 1999. The 15th edition (2009) has the second highest brand total ever and includes information on 1,360 brands (1,209 handmade, 75 machine made and 76 small cigars/cigarillos).

''Cyclopedia of Havana Cigars''

There is a companion edition, the ''Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Havana Cigars'' which is similar, but includes information solely on the

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

brands. It is currently in its third edition (published 2005), but is not published every year (the 2nd edition was in 1998), and also includes information about how cigars are made in Cuba, a history of

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and Cuban brands, and details on vitolas. Both editions are written by Richard B. Perelman.

References/External Links

*Richard B. Perelman, ''Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars'' (2007), *Richard B. Perelman, ''Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Havana Cigars'', Third edition (2005),
Official Site
American encyclopedias Cigars Book series Popular culture books Specialized encyclopedias {{popular-culture-book-stub