Cigarillo

A cigarillo (Spanish for "cigarette", pronounced "see-gah-ree-yoh" in Spanish and "see-gah-ree-loh" in English) is a short, narrow cigar. Unlike cigarettes, cigarillos are wrapped not in paper but in whole-leaf tobacco. Cigarillos also usually contain fewer additives (though often more than real cigars). Cigarillos can be found for purchase alone or in packs, and are sometimes made without filters. The filtered cigarillos are sometimes called "little cigars". Unlike a cigarette, they are not meant to be inhaled but rather smoked like a cigar. Generally, a cigarillo usually contains about 3 grams of tobacco, the length varies from between 7 to 10 cm (70 to 100 mm) and the diameter is between 0.5 to 0.8 cm (or 5 to 8 mm). Comparatively, a cigarette contains less than 1 gram of tobacco and is less than 12 cm in length and 1cm in diameter.

Cigarillos are often machine made. This allows the price to be lower than if they were hand made. They are not produced in as large a quantity as cigarettes but cigarillos are often seen by passionate cigar smokers as a lower quality product. As cigarillos are often smoked in quantities similar to cigarettes (between 5 and 10 per day), storage of them in humidors is not usually necessary.

Cigarillos are also known in Europe as a 'Seven Minute Cigar'. This due to the fact that they can be smoked in seven minutes and are often seen as an alternative not only to cigarettes but also where someone does not have enough time to smoke a full cigar.

To improve their image, cigarillos can often be found in ornamentally designed tins. Manufacturers explain this offers more protection for the product against crushing but it also gives a better image and allows better targeted advertising to people who are conscious of other people seeing what they are smoking.

In the United States popular consumer brands include Swisher Sweets, Black and Mild, White Owl, Optimo, and Winchester, while in the United Kingdom they include Hamlets and Café Crème. Inexpensive cigarillos are often identified using a brand name rather than the term cigarillo.

In Europe, cigarillos and thin panatelas (a long slender cigar) are relatively more popular with female smokers. One reason may be that it is still socially unacceptable, or at least surprising, to see women smoke larger cigars.

Health concerns
As is the case with other tobacco products, cigarillos are a health risk to those who smoke them. In Europe, they are subject to the same laws which require manufacturers to place a health warning on a percentage of the packaging.

As cigarillos are not meant to be inhaled, they are seen as a healthier alternative to cigarettes. Health authorities around the world still warn smokers of the risk they pose due to smoke being in the mouth.

Taxation
In the United States, cigarillos (and cigars) are taxed at a lower rate than cigarettes. The federal tax on cigarettes is 39 cents a pack where as cigarillos are 4 cents per pack of 20. Large cigars have a federal tax of 5 cents maximum per cigar. . Some states have no tax on cigarillos.