What Makes Cubans So Special?

Source from:  Times Leader 01/05/2015

Why have Cuban cigars captured the attention of cigar smokers?

Plains Township cigar shop owner Jonathan Walsh said part of the mystique of the the Cuban cigar is because "Cubans have been doing it the best the longest."

"It is the forbidden fruit," Walsh, co-owner of El Humidor in Plains Township, added.

Growing tobacco for about 200 years or longer, Cuba's cigar industry is renowned throughout the world. But popularity and draw of the prestigious Cuban cigar reaches deeper than the roots of any tobacco plant.

Cuban cigars have been illegal in the United States since the trade embargo was signed in 1962, but that could end soon, depending on what happens in Washington. It would take an act of Congress to end the embargo.
 
The trade freeze with the tropical country was spurred by Fidel Castro's regime creating a security threat. Cuba is only 100 miles from Key West, Florida.
 
The reputation of a premium cigar taste which hovers around the palate of coffee and coco with a woodsy scent still attracted a long list of followers from writers, politicians and others.
 
A cigar's taste is pre-determined by what type of soil and climate it is grown in. Some areas in Cuba provide the perfect combination of the two factors for premium cigar tobacco, according to Cigar World.

But a change happened in the 1960s as many of the tobacco growers fled Cuba, taking their tobacco seeds and knowledge with them, Walsh said.

Escaping to nearby countries such as the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua, these farmers found soil comparable to their home country and the ability to grow quality tobacco.

One such cigar manufacturer, Oliva Cigar Company of Nicaragua, began growing cigar tobacco in Cuba in the 1800s. Pulling out of Cuba in the early 1960s, the family fled to Honduras and then later established a factory in Nicaragua.

Cigar Aficionado, a national magazine on the cigar industry, released their Top 25 Cigars for 2014 and Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado by the Oliva Cigar Company was ranked No. 1 as the Cigar of the Year in a blind taste test. Enditem