Aging advice

[TJCoro]

Plant Your Seed!

It does explain their lack of nicotine, actually.

Really? So can you explain the presence of lithium?

Ray Jay

[TJCoro]

Easy to be Hard!

Ah come now! I thought Elpie was the moderate one! But for the sake of thought, how old do you really THINK I am?

Fifteen!


Names Perro, el Perro, and you make it too easy, chico buterednutz


Haha! You're on FIRE, dawg face....I LIKE IT!


Hey el P! Take it easy on the lad. Remember what happened to Ray Gay when HE was 15?


(Hurumph!) Indeed. Perhaps you're right juggler boy....perhaps you're right.

[TJCoro]

Recycle Plactic here, threads over there.

Personally, I think if the American market ever came on-stream, the standard production situation would get worse with a repeat of 1999/2002, but this time with a less reliable agricultural product, and with even more special releases 'blinged' especially for the US.

First off - the award for "Best Recycling of a Thread" goes to our old (literally) pal, Se?or TrippleXXX!

There has been a lot of good use of old threads lately... and I'm Lovin' It!

Now, regarding the Americano Puro Market (APM), I think we may be about to repeat history - which is both good and bad (but never ugly).

If memory serves me, back in the late nineties when the so-called cigar boom was in full swing, the quality of the Puro* went downhill because Cuba was rusing it's leaf to maket to "catch the wave," so to speak. At the same time, however, there were a lot of "boutique" NCs popping up and producing a lot of cigars ...some quite good, but most not so much. And the prices were ridiculous. But during the proceeding decades, the Cuban expats who left Cuba in the 50's and 60's and relocated their farms in other countries were refining their growing techniques to a point where they were producing some very nice sticks. So by the time the boom was coming to a close and the decline in the Cuban puro quality continued, the interest in NCs grew and many folks, like me, found there were some decent NC sticks available. So when compared to the declining puro, many of the NC brands/sticks could hold their own quite nicely against the finest puros produced at the time.

Fortunatly (unless you produce NCs), Cuba began focusing on quality over quanity during 2002 and eventually regained its status (preceived or real) as the the King of Cigars.

There are several theories as to what the effect will be on the Puro industy if the americano market ever lifts the embargo. The one I tend to lean towards suggests that the folks who will ultimately buy puros in an open market are already getting them, so no real increase in demand will take place. Of course, there will be an initial spike in sales to the USA as the "Courious Georges" will want to try these puros that have gown to Mythical Status in the 50+ years the USA has been puro dry. But when these unrealistic expectations are crushed and plummet to earth, possibly accelerated by the alleged decline in quality of the puro, these "Curious Georges" will vacate the market, because of the high puro price and the availability of reasonably priced NCs, and leave it to those yankees who are already there. USA! USA! USA!

Well, that's what the teacher told us in History Class.

Perro, el Perro

*For thoses who haven't figured it out...or just don't care, the term "puro(s)" as used by the familia Coro refers to Cuban Cigars

DISCLAIMER: Although the above are the ramblings of se?or el Perro, NONE of the information presented in the post is original and was obviously lifted from books, articles, posts, and tweets authored by other so-called aficionados. The Familia Coro disclaims any responsibility for the affect the above information may have on your views and/or shopping habits.

[butternutsquashpie]

Very nice nuggets or info, Andy. Good reads all around . I've always known of the stress of plants to leave to automated nitrate production. But I've never placed 3 and 3 together to ever wonder if that happened in Cuba.
It does explain their lack of nicotine, actually.

Sent from my BlackBerry Q10 using Tapatalk for Android.

[butternutsquashpie]

However you take it chico, most will agree it's wasted on the young.

Perro, el Perro

I'm seeing some promising young talent around these parts lately Perhaps an internship is in order

Ah come now! I thought Elpie was the moderate one!

But for the sake of thought, how old do you really THINK I am?

Sent from my BlackBerry Q10 using Tapatalk for Android.

[Ryan]

Sounds about typical of everywhere Ryan. Hector Luis Prieto, Production Department does not agree with Jose Antonio Candia, PR Department. (Ex).

You're right that in many examples of information from different sides of Cuban cigar production, there can be lots of different answers and, at one point or another, all of them might be right! It's one of the things I like about Cuban cigars.
Jose doesn't work for Habanos anymore, he left in early 2011. In his case, I've never known him to take a position on something about which he was not willing to change his mind.
He simply had not heard the notion that stress would make for a better tobacco plant.
While surprised to hear Hector say it, he accepted what he said as true right away. He had no reason not to and Hector had no reason to lie about it.
Hector has worked on that farm all his life as have his family, all the way back to the 1890s.
What Hector says make sense. What I had been trying to get out of him was what makes Cuban tobacco different to tobacco from other countries.
Experience and seeds can and have been exported, climate can be very closely approximated, that leaves soil.
Habanos, being Habanos, will of course say that the soil their cigars comes from is some of the best in the world. And, in a way, they're right. It's a lot less clumsy to say "the best soil" than "precisely the right kind of 'bad' soil".
Soil can be improved and conditioned. But it's hard to make soil "bad", or at least just the right type of "bad", if that makes sense.
Pinar del Rio has very sandy soil, not volcanic, and that goes down for metres, allowing for very good drainage, so it's easy to induce water stress in the plants by starving them of water for just the right amount of time.
Look at the plants in the second video. They are mature plants, the harvest had already started on the second (Libre de Pie) leaves but the plants are barely more than 3-4 feet tall.
Look at a mature Dominican tobacco field, the plants are over 6 feet tall, using the same seed variety.

[TJCoro]

Commit to the God of Fire!

I have a God of Fire from 2005, is it likely to be any good? I must admit that I hadn't paid it much attention.

Meant to be amazing smokes them arent they

Hope so mate, but not a clue.

Only one way to find out, commit it to the god

Gentleman...Gentlement! Less talkin' and more tokin'.

There's only one way to find out if you like them and we all know what that is....well, all of us except for maybe young chico butterednutz.

The one's I enjoyed a few years back were 2005/06 by Carlito (the other GoF is by Don Carlos). Now that they have some decent age on 'em, maybe it's time to give 'em another go.

Mayby not.


Perro, el Perro


Haha! Too late, dawg face.... Blu-balls and Bag Boy just finished off the last of 'em.

[tippexx]

Sounds about typical of everywhere Ryan. Hector Luis Prieto, Production Department does not agree with Jose Antonio Candia, PR Department. (Ex).

[TJCoro]

Can You Hear The Children Playing?

some would call that inexperience! i on the other hand, call it something else and take it as a compliment!

However you take it chico, most will agree it's wasted on the young.

Perro, el Perro

Haha! Puuleeeze! You need a new writer, ya' stupid looking dawg-faced smiley. I'm seeing some promising young talent around these parts lately. Perhaps an internship is in order.

[monkey66]

Great information Andy!

[Ryan]

Montage video of time on the farm.

[Ryan]

Exactly VTG, and unlike vines which don't move, tobacco has to be replanted every year. A strange fact (I don't know if it's true), the thing that makes Cuban tobacco different isn't the plant, the climate or the growing methods but the soil .... the soil is poor, which has the effect of stressing the plant into releasing the sugars and enzymes which traditionally gave Cuban tobacco it's unique taste. If that is correct, using chemicals to make the land more productive would have a reverse effect on the plant. More or bigger plants per acre, but not as good.

It seems to me that Cuban tobacco leaf was at it's best when growers only enhancement to their land was with Filtered Beer

I thought I posted this here before.
Last year, I interviewed (in admittedly a very amateurish way) Hector Luis Prieto, tobacco farmer from San Juan y Martinez.
He has won Habanos Man of the Year, twice, for production.
At about 10 minutes in, he talks abut stress in the plant caused by the poor soil and how that improves tobacco. I had never seen that reason given anywhere else before that. Fertiliser is certainly used too but the soil is not as good as other tobacco growing regions.
Seeds, climate and the experience of the farmer are also very important. There is an enormous amount of work that goes into getting a healthy plant.
The stress caused in the plant encourages them to produce phytonutrients for survival, I had a lunch with some college friends, 2 organic chemists, a nutritionist and a pharmacist to discuss this.
It's also one of the reasons that tomatoes (same family, Solanaceae, as tobacco and a similar growing cycle), taste better from your back garden than the hydroponically grown stuff where they're given lots of every nutrient they need. Home grown tomatoes experience stress, water stress or nutrient stress, and though evolution, produce a wider range of chemicals to increase their chances of survival.
Wine growers also talk about poor soil producing the best wine-grapes. Coincidentally we were talking about this the day before with Jose Candia (ex-Habanos) who knows more about tobacco and cigars than anyone I've ever met, and he said tobacco was different to vines, stress is not good, they need good soil. He was as surprised as we were when Hector talked about stress being good for the plant.

Rob Fox and I spent 2 days working on the farm. Hard work but a great time. Quick video in the next post, apparently only one allowed per post.

I did another interview this year, with the blender from El Laguito. Interesting stuff, he talked about the blends, the third fermentation in the barrels, the differences between the Lineas, the differences between regular production and the diplomatic stuff etc. Coming soon.

[Moon Dancer]

Yep, donkey crap must have inadvertently been rolled up into many a good cigar, lol

[PeeJay]

.... and donkeys were preferred to tractors.

They probably are, you can have so much more fun with a donkey......shit, wrong forum!

[tippexx]

.... and donkeys were preferred to tractors.