Trinidad

After reading about the Trinidad Cigar history and gathering information I tried to find a cigar to sample but found it extremely hard. A friend of mine was going to Mexico a month ago and I asked him if he could try to find a Cuban Trinidad Cigar of any model and knowing my taste my friend managed to purchase a Cuban Trinidad Robusto. I met my friend in Singapore last week and we both enjoyed the Robusto and here is our joint report on this historical cigar.

The construction and draw of these fine Cuban Cigars is perfection plus. The aroma, flavour and palate are so delicious that I wish my friend could have found a whole box and we can see why they are so difficult to get our hands on. The burn is even and it has a good visual plume and the ash holds firm and solid well into half way through the smoke and it is only to the brave whom do not want to risk getting ash down their Armani who continue onwards!. The Trinidad cigar is a medium to mild smoke; however the construction, aroma, flavour and long ash make up for any short fall in strength. A very good Robusto and I will definitely be looking to find more and will purchase anywhere I can find them!

The Cuban Trinidad brand was first produced in 1969 at the El Laguito factory in Havana. The Trinidad cigar received much attention in Cigar Aficionado after an interview with Avelino Lara whom managed the El Laguito factory. Lara claimed that Trinidad was an ultra exclusive brand that only Fidel Castro was authorized to hand out as diplomatic gifts. Lara also claimed Trinidad’s were of a higher quality than the famous Cohiba that had formerly been the diplomatic exclusive brand before their mass market release in 1982. Both the Cohiba and Trinidad brands started out as exclusive Cuban gifts for diplomats and high ranking officials or high profile guests!

Robusto Extra - 6 1/8" x 50 (156 x 19.84mm) a Super Robusto
Named after one of Cuba's most beautiful cities the Trinidad is produced only in the El Laguito factory and packaged in an "unusual"quantity of 24 cigars as well as in cabinets of 50.

Bolivar

One of the cigars I have found readily available in just about every country I have been is the Bolivar brand and I have been drawn to this brand because of the dark tobacco leaf wrapper. The first Cuban Bolivar I enjoyed was in London at the Victoria Sporting Club Casino in Edgware Road which we used to frequent about three times a week in those days. I remember this memory clearly because I was standing around a craps table during a heavy game with an edge three deep and the shooter was Tele Savalas the movie star who was more famous as Kojack of the TV show then. Bolivar make a great cigar and I have lit more than one over the years and have sampled all they have to offer.

The Spanish industrialist Jose F. Rocha registered a cigar trademark with the name of the liberator Simón Bolivar which was acquired at a later stage by Cifuentes the firm owning Partagás whom I have written about in previous posts. Bolivar have been a member of the group of trademarks produced in that factory ever since. Its tobacco comes from Vuelta Abajo most famous for Cigar tobacco leaf and also some wrappers from this Havana province. Bolivar cigars are known for their strength which is somewhere between mid to strong with a full flavour and pleasant aroma.

As I have said the dark wrappers with reddish tones attract me as I prefer the flavour, aroma and strength that normally come with these wrappers. There are over twenty styles in the market at the moment and the Coronas Gigantes or the Churchill which was my father’s favourite choice and the only one that he would smoke; this cigar model stands out among the best of this trademark. Most people know the Bolivar Cigars from the Gold Medal Lonsdale style which is immediately identified by the golden wrapper which only covers half of the cigar.

Cusano Brothers

You need to check this website out for yourself as the product looks very interesting indeed. These two entrepreneurs sound like a couple of Standup Guys from Chicago! The story of how Mr. Mike Chiusano walked in one day for a Cigar and walked out as a partner really suckered me in. I will be sending off for some of these Cigars and will give you a report in the near future. If I lived in Chicago I would definitely be a regular at Two Guys Smoke Shop.
"The original taste of Cuba has been rediscovered! Our Cusano Cubans are blended to taste and perform exactly the way the legendary Cuban brands did in their hay day. We are producing limited quantities of these legendary cigars in a state of the art Dominican facility. Perfect draw and sweet, smooth palate pleasing power will convince your belly that these are, in fact, the real deal! Taste one of our Cusano Cubans and see for yourself."

Macanudo

In the days when I was traveling to China on a monthly and weekly basis and before living there for a seven month period I found many sanctuaries or Oasis for relaxation. In the early days in Beijing going back many, many years ago there were not that many places to go outside of your hotel unlike now. I had several favourite places to frequent such as the Mexican Wave in Jianguomen not far from Tianmen Square. The owner Greg Elliott opened his bar in the centre of expat territory amongst all of the big Western companies and Embassy’s. Greg’s bar was one of the first if not the first Western bar restaurant and many influential people gathered there to do business and still do today. I met many great people there and accomplished more from my involvement and interaction in the Wave than I did elsewhere due to Greg’s now famous bar.

I was directed to the International Press Club Bar found at the back of the then Sheraton International Hotel in the next parallel Road across from the Mexican Wave to find the best Cigars available at that time. I found it amazing that China being a communist country did not have Cuban Cigars readily available and that the main selection of Cigars was from the Philippines, Dominican Republic and Jamaica. The most popular and easiest cigars to buy were from Holland and available at every bar, supermarket outlets. I found the Philippine Cigars interesting and will do a post about them in the near future. I found and enjoyed my first Macanudo Cigar is this great journalist western environment. I like the dark coloured tobacco and therefore was attracted to the Macanudo and the aroma and flavour were extremely satisfying.

The Macanudo Cigar range are a very popular brand and have gained established a big slice of the market over the years since I began smoking cigars. There are also many females that enjoy Macanudo Cigars due to the slim shape and the fact that you can buy flavoured cigars such as vanilla and many others. I enjoy the Macanudo Pyramid and Robusto but have enjoyed just about all of the Macanudo range over the years. Macanudo cigars have their own distinctive taste and flavour and have developed the cigar to a specific market. Macanudo grows, cures and ages its own Connecticut Shade the tobacco most in demand for premium cigar wrappers.

Macanudo ages the wrapper leaves a second time in the traditional Cuban way. Macanudo have built their name by supplying a consistent product premium cigar that delivers exactly what the customer is looking for. The best carefully hand selected premium filler tobaccos from Jamaica and the Dominican Republic make the Macanudo sought after for its mildness and flavor by knowledgeable cigar smokers everywhere. Macanudo was originally the name of a frontmark produced in Jamaica by the makers of the Cuban brand of Punch. In 1971, General Cigar Company introduced a new cigar named Macanudo as a brand unto itself. Developed in Jamaica under the creative leadership of Ramón Cifuentes, the legendary Cuban cigar master of Partagas, Macanudo soon became the leading premium cigar and remains so today.

Fonseca

The first Fonseca cigar that I tried was the Fonseca No.1 at the Oriental Hotel Cigar Club Bar in Bangkok and I must say the experience was enormously enjoyable. I do not know much about Fonseca Cigars as I have not found them readily available to purchase and therefore they have never been high on my list for selection. I must say that each and every time I have had a Fonseca Cigar that they have been high quality and tremendously satisfying. A delicate and exquisite cigar Fonseca are the only Cuban Cigar brand to offer cigars that are wrapped in fine delicate and virtually transparent paper. It is believed that the paper wrapping aids the cigar helping to maintain optimal humidity at a constant level.The paper wrapper also helps to protect the delicate cigar from splitting or other damage. Cigar lovers enjoy the unique look of the Fonseca Cigar. The Spaniard Don Francisco Fonseca first registered the Fonseca trademark in 1907 and early in the 20th century the Fonseca Cuban cigar was manufactured in several different Havana cigar factories. Fonseca Cuban cigars are now produced in Quivic?n a small town in the province of Havana.

Fonseca No. 1 HRSize Strength Rating6 3/8 x 44

Montecristo

Everyone including people who do not smoke cigars have always heard of the Montecristo No2 and is a cliché or throw away line. Like all the most famous Cuban Cigar brands I have tried every single Montecristo cigar from their range.

The Montecristo brand was created in 1935 by Menéndez, García y Cía then the owners of the popular H. Upmann brand of cigars which are another of my favourite cigars that were enjoyed by President J.F Kennedy and were in fact his favourite brand of Cubans. Having just purchased the H. Upmann brand from J. Frankau & Co. Menéndez and García decided to extend the range of the regular H. Upmann line called the H. Upmann Montecristo Selection. The story has it that the Montecristo brand acquired its name from the “Count De Montecristo” novel that was read to the rollers on the floor whilst producing the cigars. London England has been responsible for the success of many of the cigar brands and Alfred Dunhill can most certainly take the claim for the worldwide success of the Montecristo Cigar accounting for some 50% of the total cigar sales.
If Montecristo is not Cuba's best cigar it most certainly is its biggest ambassador exporting over 30 million cigars each year and shipped with the famous brown and white band. This huge volume makes it necessary for the brand to be produced in seven different factories. Most are in Havana including H. Upmann, La Corona, Partagas and Moncada. Most of these factories produce the ubiquitous Montecristo No. 4, called the Mareva by cigar rollers. About 20 million are made each year. H. Upmann has been making Montecristo the longest, since its original owners the Menendez family founded the brand in 1934. The current H. Upmann factory the Fabrica José Martí is located behind the Partagas factory only a few minutes walk from the Capitol. H. Upmann opened the factory in 1944 and Connoisseurs of the brand know that this factory makes the very best Montecristo cigars and scour cigar shops for boxes printed with the José Martí code on their underside"JM."

Cohiba

I remember reading the history books about Sir Walter Raleigh bringing tobacco back to England from the America’s and the first voyage of Columbus to the then new world. Columbus visited the island of Cuba and his sailors were introduced to tobacco called "Cohiba" by the natives whom literally took a bunch of dried leaves placing them in a pipe lighting and smoking them.

Cohiba Cuban cigars were introduced initially to non diplomats and a small range was provided being the Lanceros, the Coronas Especiales and the Panatelas. Three more Cigars were then added to the brand in 1989 being the Esplйndidos and the Robustos which are two of my favourite cigars and the Exquisitos. The Siglo range of Cohiba are extremely popular and the Siglo V Cohiba is still considered by many to be the number one cigar in the Cohiba range and of course only the finest tobacco leaves are used in the making of Cohiba cigars.

The Cohíba brand of Cigars was originally a private brand supplied exclusively to Fidel Castro and his high level Cuban government and communist party officials and also given as diplomatic gifts. The original cigars were initially smoked by one of Fidel Castro's bodyguards named "Chicho Perez” which Castro noticed as the aromatic flavour would fill the air. When Chicho was asked by Castro what brand he was smoking replied that it was hand rolled for him by a friend who gave him some of these special cigars as gifts.

The man who made these cigars was a cigar roller who worked at the La Corona factory in Havana named Eduardo Rivera. Castro approached Rivera about rolling cigars for him personally and set him up with five other rollers in a former diplomats mansion in Havana that later became the first cigar factory to be staffed entirely by female cigar rollers; Castro was extremely fond of the long thin cigars rolled for him and these cigars later became known as Lancero and Corona Especial. Like all of the famous Cuban Cigar makers there are limited or special editions produced that are outside of the regular production range, however my personal favourite Cohiba are the Piramid, Robusto and the Esplendido pictured below.

Dutch Cigars

I lived in Beijing for a period of time and a friend of mine was the distributor of Dutch Cigars selling them to all major outlets such as supermarkets, tobacconists, bars , clubs and other various outlets. My friend used to leave a collection of Dutch Cigars in a Spanish Cedar wood cabinet behind my two favourite bars and nightclub continually refilling the box so that it was never empty. He never used to charge me for them either which is truly amazing although for some reason I have always been blessed with such good friends due to my reciprocal generosity!

It was only on my first visit to Indonesia that I realised that the bulk of the Cigar tobacco leaf is supplied to Holland by Indonesia as there are many quality tobacco plantations. I do not sleep for long periods of time only needing a couple of hours sleep a day to satisfy my body rest requirements and I do my grocery shopping between 12pm and 6am and I have found a great 24 hour supermarket that has a group of restaurants, bars, cafes and a little tobacconist that sells a huge selection of Indonesian Cigars and cigarettes.

I was amazed to find some incredible Coronas and other smaller cigars on offer that were really good quality. I found a Cigar called Macho in the Lanceros, Panatella style made famous by Fidel Castro and later Clint Eastward in the Spaghetti Westerns and this Cigar was a really good quality Cigar and so unbelievably well priced. The Macho has a typical clove essence used in many of the famous Indonesian cigarettes as there is a dried clove placed within the box; the Macho also has a mild sweet flavour that I found very pleasant and similar to the Macanudo range of Cigars. although the Dutch cigars are not in the same range as Cuban cigars they are a very nice alternative sometimes and particularly when Cubans are not readily available for purchase!

Holland have a great cigar history and brand names that I grew up with in England; every Christmas watching the men and relatives of the family smoking, Henry Wintermans, Willem and Manakin cigars....

Partagas

Don Jaime Partagás Ravelo like all of the big names in the Cuban tobacco business had spent many years working in the industry before establishing his own factory, The “Real Fábricas de Tabaco Partagás” which became one of the
biggest at that time and roughly translated means “Royal Tobacco Factory”.

Purchasing the Cigar factory was a sound business move as Don Jaime owned many of the best plantations in the Vuelta Abajo tobacco area in Cuba giving him an unlimited source of the best quality leaves making his brand extremely popular. When Don Jaime died the factory was totally controlled by the Cifuentes family whom acquired many brands such as Bolivar and H. Upmann which have many of my favourite style cigars in their range. Partagas Cigars are
always my first choice if the retail establishment has the items I am looking for, however there are always limited editions to be purchased. My favourite Partagas Cigars are the Lusitania Robusto and the Pyramid Series P No. 2

Cabinet Selection

This is my favourite way to purchase cigars in a cabinet selection. The cigars come packaged without cellophane, and when purchased are bunched in 50's and often come in the wooden box tied together with a silk ribbon with the brand name and style on the ribbon. Sometimes the cigars come without cigar bands altogether called “naked”.

My Favourite Cigars

Not being a smoker the first cigars that I tried were like most men at celebrations such as weddings or the birth of children. I always remember the manikin television advertisements in England as there where many popular Dutch cigars enjoyed in Europe and still are today. Later in life after being educated in the art of a fine Cuban cigar and having tried so many of the most popular brands of Cubans; I started to experiment and diversify as by now I had reached the stage preferring different aromas and tastes. Also I purchased different size leather cigar travel holders allowing me to carry to various occasions. Although I have my preferred Cuban cigars I still like to try as many kinds as are available. I have prepared a short list of my favourite Cuban Cigars that I will post here over the next few weeks and even though these cigars are popular brands they are not always readily available for purchase and you may have to shop around.

Don José Gener y Batet arrived in Cuba from Spain in 1831 as a teenager working with his uncle at his plantation in Vuelta Abajo. Many years later he opened his own cigar factory in Havana producing a cigar range of his own La Escepción. Around 1865 he used money from his factory to purchase one of the best tobacco farms in Vuelta Abajo registering the cigar brand Hoyo de Monterrey which became extremely popular with the British making Hoyo de Monterrey one of the bigest Cigar factories in Cuba. His Daughter took over the factory when he died keeping it in the family for a further thirty years. The Fernández, Palicio y Cía factory bought Hoyo de Monterrey and La Escepción brands adding them to their own brand Punch which I will also be talking about later as Punch is also one of the cigars I smoke frequently.

The embargo against Cuba by the United States made Fernando Palicio flee Cuba to Florida, selling the popular brands to the Villazon family that have continued to produce Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey cigars from Honduran tobacco for the lucrative American market. Cuba nationalized the tobacco industry and Hoyo de Monterrey continued producing for the global Cuban Cigar market. My two personal favourite cigars from the Hoyo de Monterrey range are the Lusitania and Epicure No 2 Robusto.

Cigar Cutters

Cigar cutters remove or penetrate the top of the cigar before the cigar can be lit. The most popular types of cuts are the straight cut, the wedge or V shaped cut and the hole punch. The type of cut to make is based on personal preference and the size and or shape of the cigar. Regular Cigar smokers do not always make the same type of cut or use the same kind of cutter. The straight cut is probably used the most as these are the most common and easy to purchase and generally preferred on cigars with a small ring gauge or thinner cigars.

The most basic type of cutter used to make straight cuts is the single blade guillotine. The double blade guillotine is preferred by many aficionados because it usually makes a cleaner cut. Cigar scissors are also used to make straight cuts, and may be the best choice for cutting the cigar at the exact spot you intend. However, the guillotines are usually the most practical, the least expensive, and can be easily and safely carried in the pocket of your shirt or trousers.

The wedge or V shape cutter resembles the guillotine cutter, however the shape of the blade slices a wedge into the cap of the cigar instead of cutting it completely off. The cutter is designed to slice from one side and at the same depth so there is no danger of cutting too deep.
I have never had much luck with hole punch cutters and tend to split the cigar causing it to unravel.

As for the single and double blade guillotine cigar cutters It took many years to perfect the cut as you can take of too much or too little affecting the draw of the cigar and sometimes leaving fraid edges. However these two cutters are the most accessible and the ones I have used the most like most other cigar smokers.

My favourite is the wedge cutter as it gives a good clean cut every time and has a nice smooth action. The wedge cutter is not as easy to acquire and extremely popular as every time I buy one it immediately goes missing!!!

Cigar Labels

This label will appear on the cigar box of Machine made Cuban cigars that are made in Cuba.Cubatabaco and Habanos SA handle all of the Cuban cigar business and the quality control that promote the export distribution. Cuban cigars hand or machine made all bear a label on the box and or the cigar itself and Hecho en Cuba will appear on the box regardless of method of production. Cigars that have been hand finished and bunched together by machine have Hecho a mano added; whilst a cigar that has been completely hand produced have Totalmente a mano displayed.This label will appear on the cigar box of Hand made Cuban cigars that have been completely hand made and rolled in Cuba.