Cuban Cigars

Let’s talk about Cuban tobacco.

At the time of this post, I have been smoking cigars for 20 years. Cuban cigars have been a very small part of that. I have smoked many cuban cigars and most of them have been quite good but price and access in the United States has always limited me. Thankfully, in recent years, cuban cigars have become less and less of an item of contraband and much easier to obtain. This goes back to a policy change made several years ago at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They began allowing cuban products to be imported by individuals for personal use only. There is still a strict embargo on commercial trade with Cuba but small amounts intended for personal consumption are allowed. When I think about the price I paid for cuban cigars over the internet nearly 20 years ago and compare them to internet prices now, it’s very different. Despite inflation, they are actually obtainable at a lower cost. I attribute this to less risk involved with shipment. I imagine that fewer parcels are being seized by customs today meaning that internet businesses that ship to the U.S. can do so more affordably.

Given these changes along with reduction in prices and wider availability, I’ve become more interested in Cuban tobacco. I’ve recently started a small collection and plan to perform some reviews soon.

I’ve had several friends ask me about Cuban cigars because there is so much mystery and intrigue shrouding them in the United States. A lot of people ask if cuban tobacco is really the best in the world. They wonder if it is really special or if it’s just the taboo that elevates their status. They also wonder what makes them different. I’d like to address these issues.

Cuban tobacco has a long, rich heritage of making the best tobacco in the world but this dominance on this industry has been diminished and muddled by politics. I will not pretend to be an expert on world politics but I’ll explain it the way I understand it. If anything I say is inaccurate, feel free to comment and correct me. Prior to the communist takeover of the country, the cigar industry in Cuba was mainly operated by independent farmers and manufacturers. Most of these were family-run operations. When the communist government seized the cigar industry in Cuba, many of these cigar families fled Cuba for their freedom. This gave rise to many of the well known cigar companies operating in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Honduras. At the time of the government seizure, Cuba quickly did away with all the different cigar brands and labels and consolidated. This had a terrible impact on cigar sales and, thusly, money coming into the country. They eventually learned that the cigar brands and labels had loyal followers and began reintroducing a lot of the old names and labels to recapture customers. They also introduced many new brands. Then came the trade embargo against Cuba by the United States. This really complicated things. Cuban tobacco suddenly was no longer available in the U.S. and over the years it became shrouded in mystery and intrigue.

Most people want to know the difference between Cuban cigars and cigars from all other countries. This is actually a very good way to split the industry because Cuban cigars are so different from those made in every other country. To begin with, the entire cigar industry in Cuba is all controlled by one parent company; Habanos S.A. So that means that instead of having a bunch of different companies all competing for market share, Habanos, S.A. controls everything. In my mind, this simple difference makes cuban cigars different from all the other cigars in the world. The following few paragraphs contain my personal opinion on the effect this has created.

Let’s talk about craftsmanship of cigars. When I talk about craftsmanship, I am not speaking about quality control. These are very different things and quality control will be discussed later. I continue to believe that because of the rich heritage and the importance of tobacco in the Cuban economy, Cuba has some of the finest craftsmanship in the industry. I’m speaking in generalities, of course, because there are plenty of fine examples where non-cuban cigars have superior craftsmanship. There are also plenty examples of poor cuban craftsmanship but these are outliers. When you look at a typical hand-rolled cuban cigar, an experienced eye can easily spot the superior craftsmanship. Look at the cap. The typical cuban cigar has a beautiful, well-placed, triple seam cap on the end. With other typical cigars you’ll see more sloppy renditions of this. Look at the foot. If you look closely, the tobacco filler at the foot is an endless array of hundreds of individual whirls of tobacco, tightly packed together and homogenous. The typical non-cuban cigar often has tobacco that has clearly been stacked together and then bunched creating areas dense with tobacco and areas loose with tobacco and often very heterogenous. This is due to Cuba preferring the entubado method of rolling cigars but that’s a whole different discussion.

The appearance of the cigars from different countries is interesting. It’s my opinion that Cuba cares very little about the appearance relative to the other manufacturers of non-cuban premium cigars. Yes, Cuba make some effort such as matching similar colors in each box and generally keeping the seams of the wrapper tightly adhered to the cigar and other little things like that but the end result can often be relatively rustic and ugly. Just like the other differences, I attribute this to the common ownership of all cigar brands coming out of Cuba. They are not competing for market share and trying to appeal to the buyer with appearance. You’ll notice that cigars from other countries are often in very ornate packaging and often have completely flawless wrapper leaf. These companies are all trying to catch your eye at the cigar store and compete for market share. Cuban cigars often look very rustic on the outside and, most often, come in a plain wooden box.

Cuban cigars really do best with age. They are rushed to the market as soon as they are rolled. They are actually not intended to be smoked right away. The communist-run cigar industry churns out the cigars as soon and as fast as they can. It’s up to you to decide what happens to them after they are produced. Fresh cuban cigars are often terrible smokes, reeking of ammonia. Cigars from other countries are ready to smoke. While non-cuban cigars often do very well with age too, it’s usually not necessary. Most of the non-cuban premium brands are aged for months or years before going to market. They want their cigars to be great when they hit the shelves so that the cigar magazines will give them that coveted 90+ rating. If you look at cigar magazines, you’ll see that most of the highly rated cigars are not actually cuban in origin. That’s because fresh cuban cigars really aren’t all that great. There are exceptions, of course.

Cuban cigars are a lot like fine wine. Cuban cigars have a “vintage” kind of like wine. Granted, there are many differences between wine vintage and cigar vintage. Wine vintage is the year that the agricultural product, the grape, was harvested. Cuban cigar “vintage” is actually the date the cigar was made, not when the agricultural product, the tobacco, was harvested so it’s actually not a true “vintage.” The age of the tobacco going into the cigar is entirely unknown and is usually a mixture. The month and year the cigar was made is stamped right on the box. It would be more analogous to an alternate reality of winemakers printing the date the wine was bottled rather than the vintage of the grape going into the wine. Other cigar manufacturers don’t usually print the month and year of manufacture on the box. Cuban cigars are the connoisseur’s cigar. They are collected, aged, and sampled as they evolve and the exact age of the cigar is always known because it’s printed right on the box.

The quality control of cuban cigars is notoriously atrocious. While they have excellent craftsmen, the production is rushed and many ugly and subpar cigars come to market. With non-cuban cigar producers, especially the boutique brands, the company’s reputation or maybe even the reputation of a family name is at sake. They typically do a better job of removing any poorly made cigars from the batch. Smoking cuban cigars means you have to come to grips with the realities of inconsistency even among a single brand and be okay with a discarded cigar every once in a while that isn’t smokeable due to poor construction.

Cuban cigars are different from all other cigars in many ways. Their approach, philosophy, marketing, etc. exists in its own sphere and is not shared by other cigar companies. This makes them an almost entirely different product. Cuban cigar enjoyment is complicated. It’s much more for hobbyists and collectors that have a passion for fine cigars than it is for someone who just wants an occasional hour or two of enjoyment now and again from a great cigar without all the fuss.

Cigar tastes are a matter of personal opinion and my personal opinion is that you can do no better than a high-quality cuban cigar after proper aging. I still love my premium non-cuban brands but I have already begun adding cuban cigars to my collection and expect it to grow over time (with proper aging, of course).