Views from a Smoke-Filled Room

Cuba has been the center of the cigar industry since at least 1614 when the Spanish Crown chartered a company to begin organized production of tobacco products on the island. It stayed that way all the way until 1962.

Los Angeles – That’s when the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba took effect and, as the late Stanford Newman remembered in his autobiography, "Cigar Family: A 100 Year Journey in the Cigar Industry":

"I was still stuck with the problem of how to keep our business going without Cuban tobacco. Our reputation rested almost entirely on the fact that our cigars were made from 100 percent Cuban tobacco. What’s a manufacturer to do when his sole supply of raw material is suddenly cut off?"

Newman’s salvation came when he found Cameroon tobacco and became the first major American cigar maker to use it, on his Cuesta-Rey line in 1962. It was the first of many innovations in leaf that continue to this day.

As cigar production eventually moved to the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua, naturally leaf from those countries was used. Dominican-grown leaf is extremely popular for binder and filler and more and more Dominican wrapper – popularized by the Fuente Fuente Opus X line – is being grown. Leaf for wrapper, binder and filler has been grown for decades in Honduras and Nicaragua.

And the long-standing use of tobacco grown in Connecticut, made very famous by General Cigar’s Macanudo line, continues and is highly prized – and expensive. But there are many more new sources of supply that are providing leaves for your favorite cigars.

>> Ecuador has become an important center for wrapper leaf, as Connecticut-style tobacco is grown there and the almost continuous cloud cover in the growing areas offers a leaf that has many of the same characteristics as found with "shade grown" tobacco. And Ecuadorian tobacco is become more popular for binder and filler; Puros de Armando Ramos makes interesting blends from all-Ecuadorian tobacco today.

>> Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica grow richly-flavored tobaccos that are increasingly popular for both filler leaf, but also for maduro wrappers. Mexican leaf has been a part of the blends for General Cigar’s Macanudo and Partagas blends for decades and now all-Brazilian cigars like Dona Flor are beginning to have an impact.

>> As smokers demanded stronger-flavored cigars, manufacturers discovered the deep flavors of Peruvian tobaccos and many brands are adding Peruvian leaf. J-R Cigars has significant success with its Montecristo Peruvian Square Pressed line, introduced in 2000, that introduced many smokers to the flavor and power of Peruvian leaf.

What’s the newest? General Cigar is winning notices for its unique tobacco that comes from the Nicaraguan island of Ometepe, whose volcanic-ash soil creates rich, new flavors for cigars. American farmers aren’t our of the picture either, as Pennsylvania Broadleaf is being used a little more for maduro wrappers and even Wisconsin Broadleaf is used for binder in some machine-made, but all-tobacco brands produced in the U.S.

Maybe the strangest new leaf comes from India. It’s the brainchild of the innovative Kaizad Hansotia, who owns the Gurkha brand. His new blend, the Gurkha Signature 1887, uses a bit of East Indian leaf, not just for flavor or novelty, but also as a salute to his family history. "My father founded a watch-manufacturing company in India in 1950," he recalled.

The search for new and better tobaccos is continuing and the happy winner in all of this is the American cigar enthusiast. Because the best cigar you’ll ever smoke . . . may be the next one you try!

(Rich Perelman is editor-in-chief of CigarCyclopedia.com, offering comprehensive daily coverage of cigars, accessories, issues, people and prices at www.CigarCyclopedia.com.)

Rich Perelman

4/14/08

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