Favorite cigar?

[conrad gaunt]

Shawan,

Never smoked a cigar or anything else in my life, BUT I was born in Cuba and worked in the Partagas cigar factory for over a year when I was a young boy of 16, because part of our payment was in cigars, which I would exchange for Fuji film for my photography Anyway, one thing I can tell you is that, regardless of what any of the experts know, or think they know, the quality of Cuban raw materials has been in a steep decline, because when the Soviet empire disappeared and Russia stopped subsidizing Cuban sugar, cigars became the number 1 export. Thus, the growing and curing time of 90% of all cigars were decreased by as much as 60%, the most notable example being the whole Monte Cristo line, which used to enjoy curing/drying times of around 6-7 months and now started to be rolled after only 3-4 months. This extended to most other brands, except Romeo y Julieta and some Partagas examples because those were cigars that were rolled with very raw material anyway. This trend has never stopped, it has only gotten worse, to the point where on years of heavy rains in the Caribbean, Nicaraguan and Dominican tobacco produces better cigars than Cuba without exception, since they still follow the old formula that Castro eschewed.
If you can find any of the Dominican made "Arturo Fuentes" cigars, they are actually made with the old Cuban formula, in terrain that mimmicks the topography of Cuba's golden zone, Pinar del Rio, and by Fuentes himself, who was a star cigar roller and maker in pre-Castro Cuba and who managed to take a lot of graftings and seeds out of Cuba and planted them in Santo Domingo. That should be, for your money, the best example of Cuban style cigars, not coming from Cuba.

Haiti also produces "cuban" cigars too, I believe. Apparently Cuba s other big export, apart from international medical training, cigar plants and revolutions, is in the area of canver research. About five years ago I heard they had 21 of the most advanced cancer research centers in the world, despite the poverty in other areas of the cuban economy, and unavailability of simple things like aspirin. Cuba has supplied south America with vaccines for decades (created by, and in, Cuba), for things such as Meningitus (spelt?), years before the UK public got a vaccine (not that every parent wants one..).. Castro has always invested in drugs and medicine, he`ll be pleased he did given his current state of health..

 

[Rudi Herbert]

Haskell,

Yeah, the best experience surely is to smoke something rolled right then and there by a farmer that keeps properly aged portions for his own cigars, those are still the best. If memory serves me well, Monte Cristos used to be sourced exclusively from 4 plantations around the Vinales valley inside Pinar del Rio, so if you were in that area, then yes, you were smoking Monte Cristos.

Haiti also produces "cuban" cigars too, I believe. Apparently Cuba s other big export, apart from international medical training, cigar plants and revolutions, is in the area of canver research. About five years ago I heard they had 21 of the most advanced cancer research centers in the world, despite the poverty in other areas of the cuban economy, and unavailability of simple things like aspirin. Cuba has supplied south America with vaccines for decades (created by, and in, Cuba), for things such as Meningitus (spelt?), years before the UK public got a vaccine (not that every parent wants one..).. Castro has always invested in drugs and medicine, he`ll be pleased he did given his current state of health..

I've always promised myself to remain dettached from all political issues, it isn't worth my time and frustration, but a quick reply. All the news about the "advancements" in Cuban medicine and science are fed to the world by the Cuban themselves, so it's easy to say whatever you want and for the world to believe it since there's no way to prove the contrary. The idea that Cuba is a medical superpower is a falace, a myth of gigantic and unwarranted proportions. MEdicine, like any science, requires a constant exchange of information, for ideas, theories and new concepts to flow between practitioners, none of which is available to Cuban doctors. They have solid BASIC skills but lack tremendous knowledge in every other area, given the fact they cannot access the internet, attend conferences, read research materials and the like. Castro invested in drugs and medicine because it was an easy way to impress the world, but the true extent of this investments does not go beyond a large mass of mostly uneducated doctors and a few flagship centers that cater only to foreigners, offering last decade technologies at cheap prices, nothing else. Anyway, back to cigars...

 

[Shawn Nelson]

Holy crap! I just smoked the Ashton Cabinet...best...cigar...ever!! It's been sitting in my new cedar humidor for a few months and picked up a bit of the cedar flavor. I sat and enjoyed it outside with my brandy while talking to my wife.

I'm still saving the 49 yr old Cuban that Larry got me, but up until now, this Ashton is easily my favorite cigar.

 

[paul dudeck]

I did not see any fans for Davidoffs???? One of my favorites, but the price is steep. Like everyone else, Cubans are usually the best, but Dominican grown cigars with Cuban seed are excellent and less expensive!

 

[Tico Llaurador]

There used to be a bunch of cigar rollers in a hole-in-the-wall kind of shop around mid-town in NYC, near MSG. Rolled some mighty fine cigars. Went looking for them not long ago and the place had vanished.

The point is this... big label cigars are clearly not the only jewels around. Some of the best cigars ever made may have never made it into a box proper. Let alone for export.

BTW... the Davidoff AVOs are mighty fine cigars!

 

[Ivan G]

I enjoy smoking ACID Kuba's and Cartel. Great cigars!

 

[Rob Gardner]

I used to smoke hand made cigars until one day I noticed that everything tasted like cigars. That and they are expensive (not to mention the tongue cancer...)

 

[Shawn Nelson]

GFIRob, dude, seriously? You posted that exact thing a few months ago. This is clearly a thread for people who want to smoke cigars.

 

[Rob Gardner]

That's why I posted the same thing. Wisdom through experience does not die. It is my gift to you. Smoke on...

 

[Shawn Nelson]

As to the taste, and the prolonged effects, I simply disagree.

As to cancer, this is something I am serious about, and have researched. I feel the data is flawed on cigars. First, it is almost all funded by organizations with wrong motives. The studies I've read on cigar and pipe use do not make three HUGE differentiations: they don't exclude cigarette smokers, they don't differentiate styles (such as not inhaling cigars or chewing on them all day) and they don't take into effect the casual smoker (1-3 times per week) vs the intense smoker (>1 per day). Anecdotally, let's consider a few cases.

Winston Churchill: a guy so famous for his INSANE love of cigars that he has sizes and brands named after him. By one account, he smoked over 250,000 cigars in his lifetime. Think about that! That blows the mind. That's an average of MANY per day, for many decades. He was also overweight and an intense drinker. Did he die young of cancer? He should have by "overwhelming" conventional wisdom...he lived to be 91 years old.

Mark Twain: another famous cigar smoker, loved them dearly. Died at 75 years of age, of heart problems.

Zino Davidoff, one of the most famous men in the history of cigars, died at age 87.

George Burns. I found this on cigaraffecionado.com 'Burns, who lived to 100, credited his 10- to 15-cigar-a-day habit over a 70-year span with not only keeping him spry on stage but also with helping him outlive his physician. "If I had taken my doctor's advice and quit smoking when he advised me to," Burns quipped at age 98, "I wouldn't have lived to go to his funeral."'

Sigmund Freud, it's said that he started smoking at age 24 and smoked an average of 20 a day. He lived to be 83.

Now those are a few guys that are famous and smoke VASTLY more than I intend to. I doubt you could compile much of a list of avid cigarette smokers who live such long lives, so clearly a distinction must be made.

Everything in moderation, enjoy life, something has to kill you eventually because we don't live in these bodies forever.

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

Well, undoubtedly smoking cigars does harm ones health.

Surely there are a few cigar smoking famous men in history who reached a fairly old age but in the 19th and early 20th century almost everybody smoked - so no wonder really. Nevertheless there are many who's life could have been longer if they would have been non-smokers.

BUT, I heartly agree with Shawn when he says that moderately smoking cirgars - say one in a week - does not harm ones health in a way that one can talk about a significant damage. A real connoisseur would never inhale and that is a huge difference to arbitrary cigarette-smoking which is a pest.

Drinking red wine is not good for your health either, so is any alkohol - but most of us love these things because they make life more enjoyable. And isn't any kind of art something unnecessary, apparently senseless? All these things, paintings, films, music, sport, etc.. and fine cigars are vital for our culture.

Hans

 

[Shawn Nelson]

And actually the moderate, daily drinking of alcohol, and especially red wine, is being shown repeatedly to be rather good for your health and longevity .

But the bigger point is that I'd rather like a happy 75-80 years, then a stale 90.

 

[Rob Gardner]

I don't disagree with you, Shawn, but we don't always get to make that choice. We don't set the dates. And anyway, when I was doing it, I just smoked too many of them. I really enjoyed it, but if you really like it and you smoke them all the time, well, you get my point. It was my own excess. Smoke on, brother...