ISOM alert

"PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba (AP) - Whipping winds and walloping waves lashed western Cuba and the communist country's tobacco-growing region Monday, as Hurricane Ivan strengthened to a Category 5 storm - the most powerful - and barreled along on a new course toward the U.S. Gulf Coast."

I've been wodering the effects on the DR's and Honduras crops and production myself!

I really 'feel' for those poor souls who have almost nothing to begin with ... and then to have to go through something like this and lose what little they do have.

But as far as the cigars go ... personally, I could care less. Almost everything that has been coming out of Cuba lately hasn't been very good, and it seems to be gettin worse, not better.

They are sending out product too young, and the quality hasen't been anything near what it use to be ... just to keep up with the global demand.

I've said it many times before ... there are just too many really exceptional cigars out there that rival or even better Cuban cigars ...

... and they are easier to come by, and they are legal.

Thanks, Slim! 🙂 I got blasted today on a yahoo group for saying that "Cuban aren't all that!" LOL That was exactly the point

I was trying to make! at $12-14 a Monte #2 is a great cigar, but at $22, I just don't see it! I can make a habit out of La Aurora Preferidos for less than that! Gurkha Centurions!, Torano Tributes, Hell, I think a 1959 Exodus Gold with some age on it will give ANYTHING a run!

Slim:

You are one of the few people that has said quality is down. Altadis has done a very good job improving quality significantly in the last few years. Exports are now more or less in line with production. What have you smoked that was bad? I hope it didn't come in a clear top box.

CWFoster:

You can buy a box of Monte #2 for much less than $12 - $14 per stick, if you know where to look.

Logic tells me that the cigars cannot be as good as they were prior to the embargo.

Since when have you ever heard of an efficient communist state. Do you think that a regime which can barely grow ANY crop (or improve animal breeding) as well as as their capitalist predecessors, will methodically rotate the fields and apply the right amount/quality of fertilizer on a consistent basis? OR will they rush their product to market for the badly needed $$$?

BTW, this Tuesday morning (9/14/04), I was woken by radio news of Ivan--announcing winds of 162 mph & extensive flooding on the Cuban cigar farms.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. It's all moot anyway, since I will never buy a Cuban cigar while that monster is in power.

blood

bloody says it well....Fidel can kiss my ash.

My prayers go out for the people of Cuba & others who are in the path of this terrible storm.

donutboy2000 ---

The decline of Cuban cigars have been well documented by Cigar Aficionado's European editor and Cuba expert, James Suckling. He has visited Cuba repeatedly over the past few years, and spent time in the fields with tobacco growers and some of the most respected people in Cuba's cigar business.

Those in the Cuban cigar industry succumbed to the same pressures that affected cigarmakers everywhere during the peak of the cigar boom in the mid-1990s. They planted tobacco in areas that were not suited for it. They sped up the curing and fermentation processes. They used tobacco in cigars before it had been properly aged. They rapidly trained new rollers in the factory, and rushed them onto the production line before they could consistently create a great cigar.

In short, they tried to increase production before they had all the pieces to the puzzle worked out. Throw in just one bad crop, and suddenly they not only had mediocre tobacco being rolled by ill-trained people, but they lacked the full range of tobacco varieties necessary to create the full-bodied blends associated with Cuba. No wonder everyone has had some bad cigars from Cuba in recent years.

Yeah Slim, I gotta agree w/ you. I've got some BOTL that are impressed by anything w/ a Cuban Label.(even the ones I'm sure are fake). I am tempted to either remove some bands, or switch bands and see how they like some of the fine cigars from other than ISOM's. And as far as Ivan goes, I understand that Ivan would impact Pinar del Rio(famous for tobacco)...But that the crops had already been harvested, are "safe", and that the new crops have not yet been planted.