Cuba exported a lot of talented rollers and farmers to the DR and other spots, which in turn made those places much better. At least I think that is how it went. The Fuente guys were Cubans I believe.
I know the rep was well deserved at one time, but at the time I was in the business (about 10 years ago) , Cubans were a gimmick. They were good cigars that were more status symbol than they deserved. Cohiba is a perfect example. I had people routinely offer me thousands for boxes of real Cuban Cohibas, and they were no better than Romeo y Julietas, and not as good as the Fuente. They were great, no question. Just not as great as people seemed to think. Ever see the 100 year old, box pressed cigars found in a New York basement? People went nuts for those. They sold for about 75 bucks a stick. Talk about a gimmick. When the cigar craze was at its peak, people basically lost their minds. I had to get out of the business for ethical reasons. It was a very dirty business. Very predatory, with an unbelievable amount of shenanigans. On Nov 2, 2011 6:49 PM, "Raymond E. Feist" <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Nov 2, 2011, at 6:13 PM, Jason Green wrote: > > > I haven't tried the brick house yet. I'll give those a shot. There's a > > great cigar bar in Lake Forest (OC), I'll have to see if he stocks > > them. > > > > I used to have a great connection for Cubans (I worked in the cigar > > business at the time) but I was never blown away by them. It seemed > > more like a gimmick than anything. > > > > Fuentes makes a great cigar. > > > > > It's not a gimmick. I've talked to enough people older than I to believe > it was a perfect storm of soil, tobacco, the art of rolling cigars, etc. > The problem was the Communists almost completely depleted the soil. Like > a lot of the Russian and Chinese idiots of the same political stripe, > Castro believed that if they just decreed it, it would happen (whatever > "it" was). In the case of cigars, while he immediately alienated the US, > the rest of Europe and the Eastern Block happily bought Cuban cigars. So > they overgrew the crops. > > Now, Cuba is coming back, and in a few more years will be fully integrated > into the community of nations. Mostly we're just waiting for Raoul to > follow his brother into retirement. Even the Albanians don't believe the > Communist cant coming out of Cuba. We'll have Cubans legally in US stores > within ten years. Maybe five. > > But one unintended consequence of the Cuban Revolution was that cigar > makers got better, tobacco crops got better, and some serious money went to > the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Cameroon, and other places that would > have stayed in Cuba otherwise. > > Best,R.E.F. > ---- > www.crydee.com > > Never attribute to malice what can satisfactorily be explained away by > stupidity. > > > > > > > >
