"Do you smoke?" 
"Well, yes, I must admit I smoke."
"I am glad to hear it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle men in London as it is." -The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde.

Smoking is a fantastic hobby and "occupation" that has been around for centuries. Whether you prefer the common cigarette, the classic cigar, or the proper pipe, there are many many different brands and styles. One favorite is the more than a century old Dutch Masters Cigar.

The Dutch Masters Cigar is a brand of that has been around since 1911. The marketing and selling of these originated in the United States, and the cigars in this particular brand are natural wrapped. Dutch Masters is remembered for the picture of Rembrandt's painting "The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild (De Staalmeesters)" that he did in 1662 on the label. The Dutch Masters brand of cigars are created and sold by Altadis U.S.A, Inc. That company is the American branch of the French/Spanish based Altadis S.A. in Fort Lauderdale, FL. These cigars are rolled by machine, and the two varieties they come in are full size cigars and smaller cigars knows as "mini-dutches".

The producer of the Dutch Masters cigar was G.H. Johnson Cigar Company. Dutch Masters became the anchor of the Consolidated Cigar Corporation. Later in 1921, through the CCC, G.H. Johnson Cigar Company and six other companies were merged together to be a part of the bigger corporation. Altadis was formed in 1999 through the merging of the Spanish and French tobacco monopolies, and soon Consolidated Cigar Corporation joined with Altadis. You can see through the history that Dutch Masters quickly became one of the most popular cigar brands in the United States.

It wasn't until the 1950's and 1960's that Dutch Masters became really well known and popular. This was due to its sponsorship on the television projects of Ernie Kovacs, a well known comedian and avid smoker. Though he always smoked Havana off screen, his publicity of using Dutch Masters radically umped its popularity. Because Dutch Masters let Kovacs have almost complete freedom in the shows and commercials he did with them, he proclaimed his appreciation and the commercials became classics in their field. It wasn't until the 1990's that the Dutch Masters gained a bit of a notoriety. The repetitive usage of "Dutches" being used in hip-hop songs to describe making marijuana helped to give it that reputation. Nonetheless, the cigars remain classic and quality to this day.