What would happen if the trade embargo was lifted and we could get our hands on cubans again? And since they are illegal to have,some of you have alot of balls posting pics of them on a message board with your name.

just some things that make you go hmmm.

If you have cuban cigars ,send them to me ,i know what to do with them. nobody has to know..

it is legal to bring back cigars from cuba, when you visit cuba. i am going to asume all the cuban cigars that people have, are from when they took a trip to cuba.

Cubans are not illegal to have just illegal to purchase. Unlike redar detecters in Virginia. You can buy a redar detector but its illegal to have one. Go Figure...

Needless to say, it is legeal to have Cubans you just can not spen american dollars on them.

I think if ISOMs were made legal tomorrow they would very quickly drastically improve their quality-control for construction and uniformity or they would not stand a chance of competing with the premium cigars currently available. One ISOM that I purchased still stands out in memory as maybe the best cigar that I have EVER smoked. But I've been disappointed more times than delighted because of quality-control issues, even within the same brand. My own feeling is that their "forbidden fruit" status has largely exempted them from having to compete with the quality of non-ISOMs.

Just my thoughts............

prevented them from competing? The ban on straight up purchasing them is what has prevented them from competing. When you get people ordering from all around the world to bypass the laws to get a type of cigar thats nothing to scoff at. See if the same would be done if it was backwards, if we could freely get cubans but we couldn't get CAOs and Toranos. I like the brands a lot but I dont think you would see the hundreds of people sneaking through other countries to get them. Then again I might be wrong, might be the whole fact that they are illegal that makes a lot of people like them.

If they were freely available now and there wasn't the embargo then i think quality control would actually go down not up. As they increased production to make up for the hundreds of thousands of cigars added to their production lines. As it is some people think that the out of city production factories aren't as good and there would be more of those springing up to keep up with demand.

Just to clear any misconceptions about the Cuban embargo, straight from the US Customs web page
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/alerts/cuban_cigars.xml 
(And I bet a "license" to visit is difficult to obtain.)


Cuban Cigar Update

The revival of interest in cigars and cigar smoking underscores the need to remind the public of the prohibitions that have been in place for many years with respect to cigars of Cuban origin. The number of attempted importations of Cuban cigars into the United States is rising and because dealing in such cigars may lead to Treasury enforcement actions, the public should be aware of - and make every effort to observe - the prohibitions which are in effect.

Only persons returning from Cuba after a licensed visit there are permitted to bring Cuban cigars into the United States, provided the value of such cigars does not exceed $100 US dollars and the cigars are for that individual's personal use and not for resale. All other importations of Cuban cigars are illegal. All offers to buy or sell such cigars in the United States involve cigars that were imported illegally. Contrary to what many people may believe, it is illegal for travelers to bring into the United States Cuban cigars acquired in third countries (such as Canada, England, or Mexico).

It is also illegal for U.S. persons to buy, sell, trade, or otherwise engage in transactions involving illegally-imported Cuban cigars. The penalties for doing so include, in addition to confiscation of the cigars, civil fines of up to $55,000 per violation and in appropriate cases, criminal prosecution which may result in higher fines and/or imprisonment.

These prohibitions are applicable to all goods of Cuban origin and are an important element of the comprehensive program of economic sanctions against the Cuban Government which have been in place since 1963. Those sanctions have had the support of the last seven Administrations.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), administers the embargo of Cuba. Suspected embargo violations may be reported telephonically to OFAC's Enforcement Division at (202) 622-2430 or via facsimile at (202) 622-1657.

I can only speak from personal experience and the conversations I've had with acquaintances that have smoked ISOMs. And based on the above, I have had many more problems with burn/plugged/inconsistently made,i.e., soft spots, hard spots, wrapper unraveling, etc., with ISOMs than I have with other premium cigars.

That said, out of the thousands of cigars I've smoked, that include hundreds of brands, the best cigar I've EVER smoked, IMO, is an ISOM. If construction problems/quality control issues are set aside, I think some of them are unbeatable in taste/flavor. That's why I keep investing in them (hypothetically, of course).

I still have to maintain that, IMO, if the restrictions were lifted, and quality-control remains no better, in my experience, than it is now, people would opt for the quality of the legal premiums versus the inconsistency of the ISOMs.

And yes, I think that if the CAOs, Toranos, or other premium cigars were restricted in the same manner, people would be making similar efforts to obtain them. I base this on the fact that a lot of people are willing to invest substantial money, take risks of being "ripped off," and go to extrodinary efforts to obtain ISOMs, not because of their taste/flavor or because they like them (many have never tried one or have any idea of their taste), but simply because they are ISOMs, the "forbidden fruit."


Of course if people were willing to go through the same convoluted efforts to obtain CAOs and Toranos, their quality-control might very well take a nose dive, since they would be "forbidden fruit" and not have to be concerned about competing with legal ISOMs.......... 🙂

Good point, donutboy2000! All pretty much been said before, again, and again, and again.............. 🙂

Quality dictates

Best quality = high demand = Skyrocketing prices until production matches

Lower quality = moderate demand = Initial prices rising then lowering with demand until quality increases.

Over time - Other countries will catch up. People will discover secrets to the Cuban flavor profile and find ways to approximate. Cuban blends may become popular to accomodate high demand.