Cheroot

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title: "Cheroot" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cigars", "tobacco-in-india", "smoking-in-india"] description: "Cylindrical cigar without a filter" topic_path: "geography/india" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheroot" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Cylindrical cigar without a filter ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Cheroot_making_leaves_or_cheroot_leaves_2013-07-03_11-19.jpg" caption="Cheroot-making leaves or cheroot leaves"] ::

The cheroot is a filterless cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture. Since cheroots do not taper, they are inexpensive to roll mechanically, and their low cost makes them popular.

The word 'cheroot' probably comes via Portuguese charuto, originally from Tamil curuttu/churuttu/shuruttu (சுருட்டு), "roll of tobacco". This word could have been absorbed into the French language from Tamil during the 18th century, when the French were trying to stamp their presence in South India. The word could have then been absorbed into English from French. Cheroots are originated from the city of Tiruchirappalli in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Cheroot are longer than another filter-less Indian-origin product, the beedi.

Asia

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/InleCheroot.jpg" caption="Preparation of cheroots, [[Inle Lake]], Myanmar"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/NyaungshweCheroot.jpg" caption="Cheroots sold in the market at [[Nyaungshwe]], Myanmar"] ::

Cheroots are traditional in Myanmar and India, and consequently were popular among the British during the days of the British Empire. They are often associated with Myanmar in literature:

::quote 'Er petticoat was yaller an' 'er little cap was green, ::

An' 'er name was Supi-yaw-lat – jes' the same as Theebaw's Queen, An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot, An' a-wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot:|Rudyard Kipling| (1892) "Mandalay", from Barrack-room Ballads}}

::quote[attribution="Sahib]]. He was fond of the ''[[Wine"] My brother was unlike us in some things, [[Sahib#Colonial and modern use ::

Apparently, cheroot smoking was also associated with resistance against tropical disease in India. Verrier Elwin wrote in a foreword (1957) to Leaves from the Jungle: Life in a Gond Village:

::quote[attribution="''Leaves from the Jungle: Life in a Gond Village'', [[Oxford University Press]], 1992, p.xxix"] A final thing strikes me as I re-read the pages of the Diary that follows is that I seem to have spent much of my time falling ill. I attribute this to the fact that in those days I was a non-smoker. Since I took to the cheroot, I have not had a single attack of malaria, and my health improved enormously in later years." ::

Although a cheroot is defined as cylindrical, home-rolled cheroots in Myanmar are sometimes conical.

References

References

1. "Terms Every Cigar Smoker Should Know".
2. "cheroot (n.)".
3. "Etymology of Selected Words of Indian Language Origin". Wmich.edu.
4. Kipling, Rudyard. "Barrack-Room Ballads".
5. (4 March 2011). "Cigars and Cheroots".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::