Cigar tobacco is grown in representative quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Philippines, and the United States, Havana cigars from Cuba being particularly famous.

The indigenous inhabitants of the islands of the Caribbean Sea and Mesoamerica have smoked cigars since as antecedent as the 10th century, as evidenced by the distinguishing of a ceramic bowl at a Mayan archaeological site in Cuban Cigars Uaxactún, Guatemala, decorated with the painted figure of a mankind smoking a primitive cigar. Explorer Christopher Columbus is generally credited with the introduction of smoking to Europe.