cigar label

I have been a cigar label junkie since 1972 and show no signs of being able to kick the habit. My first cigar label was purchased at a swap meet held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. I have been hooked ever since. As part of my self-imposed therapy, I felt compelled to share the beauty of these wonderful works of art in miniature.

Please roam thru my family safe site and see for yourself how you too can get hooked on these sometimes beautiful, sometimes funny, sometimes historical, sometimes politically incorrect and sometimes provocative little pieces of paper (ephemera) that went on of all things - cigar boxes.

So that you can better understand the 'why and what for' of cigar labels, there are links to the History of cigar labels, Articles that I have written about cigar labels, the various Label Themes, the Label Parts that reside on a box of cigars, the Featured Label, News about paper shows across the country and cigar label Puzzles.

The history of self adhesive labels

Colorful paper labels have been used to identify products since the early 1880s. Introduced to America by European artists, this profession became known as lithography, the first commercial art. The goal was easy: catch the customer's eye. They used a gum to stick the label to the surface. As the fruit market grew larger each season, immense competition at the local markets erupted. Orchard owners used this new concept of lithography to bring attention to their fruit. Labels were used on cedar crates full of fruit, cans of vegetables, and boxes of cigars.

Today some of these labels are collectible and can be bought at antique stores.

In the early 1930s, an entrepreneur R. Stanton Avery manufactures the world's first self-adhesive labels and made it into a successful business. This label came with a paper surface with a coat of adhesive and then stick a liner onto the adhesive. This liner had a special silicone coating. The term pressure sensitive became the industry name for this type of technique. Pressure sensitive labels are and integral part of out lifestyle today.

How to read wine labels from Spain

1. Bodega: The name of the vineyard. In this case, the vineyard is Martinez Bujanda.
2. Region: The location where the grapes have been grown. This label shows that the grapes where grown in the Rioja region, the largest and best known area for grape growing in Spain.
3. Varietal: The type of grape used to make the wine. Here, Garnacha grapes where used. Other popular varietals in Spain include, Tempranillo, Graciano, Mazuelo, Viura, Malavasia, Xarello, and Parellada. See the section below for more information about varietals.
4. Vintage: The year the wine was made. The wine in this bottle dates back to 1990.

Kraft Laser Labels

Sustainable Group's Brown Kraft and Textured Kraft labels have a total thickness of 8 mils and have the coloring and consistency of a brown paper grocery bag (with the Textured Kraft just a little lighter) and come with permanent adhesive. Both products are designed to work through both your laser or inkjet printers. Labels are a great way to customize your Reminder or Repacked! For as little as $2.00 per sheet, you can personalize your presentation or storage binder with natural brown Kraft labels. (Check out the images on the bottom of this page to see how our labels look on both the both Repacked and Reminder.

How We Started

Best Label Company was formed in 1976 in Cerritos, CA as a privately held corporation. Flexography as a method of printing was still in its infancy as compared with today and pressure sensitive labels were coming of age. Increasingly seen in food and beverage applications, pressure sensitive (PS) labels were taking manufacturing by storm. PS labels and their respective high-speed applicators allowed for multiple different labels to be applied using one machine without multiple lengthy setups. Commercial manufacturers did not want to be left behind their competitors and quickly invested in this technology.

In the early 1980’s Best Label Company needed more capacity to meet the demands of its ever growing Cerritos, CA customer base and also felt the need for a presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. By the middle of the decade the company acquired two Northern California label converters, Imperial Marking Systems and Beeline Label. The acquisition and combination of these two companies created the Northern California branch of Best Label Company, located in Union City, CA.

Gold Foil Inkjet Labels

Our selection of Gold Foil Inkjet labels includes address labels, shipping labels, round labels and Inkjet gold foil oval labels. We had these gold foil inkjet labels custom made for us by a major manufacturer. These labels were tested on several inkjet printer models and found that on some models a high quality setting gives the best results. You can print in color allowing for some striking designs, bear in mind that your inkjet printers assumes a white background and therefore the colors you print will be affected by the gold background. Although the color dries immediately, we found that pure black takes a few hours to dry on some printers.

How do labels work?

Labels are descriptive terms for the content on websites. Users configure their browsers to recognise these terms and either block or allow access to the website accordingly. This is a system of self-regulation where it is reliant on the owner of the website to label their content, and the user of the website to configure their browser. Users create rules to work with labels. A rule may be configured, for example, which restricts access to any website that has a label 'nudity'.

A rule will only work with a labelled website. Websites that have not been labelled do not apply and will not be blocked. An Internet filter can be installed to restrict access to unlabelled websites. In this way labels and filters work together.