Expert: M J Robbins - 7/22/2010

Question
QUESTION: To be an expert I really question your knowledge on Cuban cigars, based on this statement: "All Cuban cigars are overpriced, most are not smokeable, many are bug ridden"
What you mean with overprized? They trade in Europe as the same price as most Non Cubans. 120 USD for a 25 box with Montecristo #4 from Switzerland P%26P included Worldwide. Not too bad?

My friend owns the biggest cigar store in Oslo, Norway. He has both Cubans and non Cubans. For 15 years he has never had bugs in any Cuban cigars. Only two times in cigars from Dom Rep and Nicaragua. I know one of them was a box with La Flor Domincana from Litto Gomez.
From my last 200 Cubans I have had one single with a bad draw, so what kind of Cuban replica cigars you have smoked is hard to understand?

As an American you should believe in the marked, right? Why do you think the Cubans have 85-90 of the premium Cigar marked in Europe and 95% in Asia? Bad products? A communist country with a better marketing strategy than most American brands? Stupid consumers?

I agree with you that Cuba is a fucked up country, but that does not mean their cigars are as bad as their politics or lack of democracy. I mean some of the best diamonds in the world comes from the Ivory Coast:-)

In my opinion the soil and environment in Cuba is unique. That means the cigars has some qualities that makes them unique. I smoke premium cigars from Dom-rep, Nicaragua, Miami, and Cuba.
All have different qualities, and there are maybe some reason why DPG states that he dreams about the day to come when he can blend Cuban tobaccos into his cigars.
I hope you would consider your bombastic anti Cuban cigar message :)

Kind regards

Øyvind

Oslo, Norway.

ANSWER: Cuban cigars
As a cigar vendor for 30 years having sold millions of cigars and smoked almost all kinds and shapes
This is my opinion and expert observation.
Also my customers smoke on sight and I can see and hear responses on the quality of cigars 30 times a day.
So when we lit up 5 Cohiba cigars, 3 of the 5 bought in Spain were to tight to smoke (just an example).

But lets go back to quality of cigars.
Picture France nationalizes the wine industry,fires all the wine makers and growers - puts bureaucrats in charge pays all the workers minimum wage and doubled the price of the wine.
No one would buy it period.
There is great wine in many countries the soil is different and imparts a unique taste.
Cuban soil is different like the French soil. But in a place like Nicaragua Padron pays workers top dollars plants the seed grows the tobacco ages the cigars and makes the cigars under the family watch for instance. The Cubans only wish they could do this.

Pricing
Bolivar PETIT Belicoso $300
Any similar Dominican Nicaraguan or Honduran cigar is 1/2 the price or less on line.

Cohiba Corona $300 - Padron Anniversary corona, one of the top rated cigars in the world, $200 and you will never NEVER see a tight Padon Anniversary they are made by experts under family control.

How about Cohiba Esplinditos $500 - I have never finished one because they are not good in my opinion. I compare them to a Macanudo - $100 a box.
Highest rated cigar Padron 1926 #9 $350 best cigar I have ever smoked and my customers all agree,so do the magazines around the world.
A customer traded a $150 box of Padrons for a box of Cohiba Esplinditos in Spain. I wouldn't pay $150 for a Cohiba or trade.

It has been my job to smoke the cigars and observe the market place for 30 years.
I do believe the Cuban cigars reduced production and increased quality years ago. But until they let the growers back in they can never equal free people and family made cigars period.

But if you only drink the same French wine you will not experience the pleasure of Australian wine or Californian wine or New Zealand wine.

Free Cuba
Mike














---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi again!

And thank you for your answer!

Pricing?
I question why you compare an Edition Limitada cigar with the limited EL wrapper with any Nic or Hon cigar? The actual price for the Bolivar Petit Belicoso EL 2009 is 227 and not 300usd, even with postage to the States included.

In Europe I guess most non Cuban and Cuban cigars are equal when it comes to pricing. Most often the real cigar smoker here prefer the taste of a Cuban before a non Cuban.

For example can I buy 50 H Upman Magnum 46 for 311 USD postage included.

Quality
I still not buy your thoughts regarding quality concerns. Remember Spain is the biggest marked for counterfeit Cuban cigars(50% is estimated to be fake), and I would never buy a Cohiba in Spain if not direct from the official importer or LCDH.
And as a Min Ron Nee also write in encyclopedia about Cuban cigars, to smoke a Cohiba Esplendios before 8-10 years or storage is a waste of time and you would in many circumstances experience that the draw is all too tight due young age. This is as with a good French wine as La Petrus.

This is fair enough, and most Cuban cigar smokers accept as do French Wine lovers.

Padrons are  good cigars indeed, but most people here prefer Cubans. Even if Padron is easy available here, they are no big success. Neither in Scandinavia, France, Germany or in the UK. I often visit JJ Fox in London, and they can confirm this. The high Padron rating is mostly found in American magazines, and even there they have never received the score of the best Cubans with some aging. I guess HdM Double Corona has the highest rating in CA.
The cigar brand with biggest success here which is not Cuban is Tatuaje.
I guess this talk about free people and payment is not relevant when you see that the marked prefer Cuban cigars where people have the right to choose. You are in a marked which don't give the customers the choice to smoke Cubans. I think that if the products is better, it shows it is possible to produce cigars of high quality with the best tobacco in the world, even if the country is fucked up.

When it comes to reduced production and increased quality, that is in fact true. In general Cuban cigars from 99-02 is strongly avoided by Cuban aficionados and collectors as me.

When it comes to the ethical side of buying products from Cuba. UN support trading with Cuba the Cuban embargo is a path the US walk alone. And it has not benefited the people of Cuba for the last decades. Most fair trade organizations outside the US support trading with Cuba as it benefits the normal Cuban and not only the government.

When it comes to wine, I mostly drink Californian wine:) Ridge is my fav producer. When it comes to sparkling wine I prefer mostly Champagnes and when it comes to White wine I prefer German Riesling:-)

Again thank you for your answer, but you statement that all Cubans are overprized, most unsmokeable, and they have bugs problems is way out of the real.

There are good cigars from NC and there are good cigars from Cuba. Too bad you Americans don't have a real choice.

Kind regards

Øyvind

Answer
I noticed you ask for my answer as an expert.
First I am giving you my opinion just like a movie critic.
But I have been in the business for 30 years and traveled extensively in Europe in the 1980s. I imported Meerschaum pipes from Turkey and went there every year in the 1980s. During my travels I had occasion to try most Cuban cigars.
Almost every week for the last few decades customers bring in cigars for my authentication.
Customers bring in Cuban cigars for me to smoke in every size, shape and brand from there travels around the world.
I have smoked almost every size shape and style Cuban cigars, including pre Castro, from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
Some of the best where the Davidoff Cuban cigars in the early 1980s, Dom Perignon and Chateau.

And from that knowledge I give you my opinion and expert observation---

I find the Sancho Panza Belicoso to be nice and if I receive a 2006 date they are better.
The Fonseca Cosaco is nice and strong although the draw is tighter than I like.
But the cigars like Montecristo #2 are a lot of tight ones in my experience.
Ramon Allones Specially selected is always a winner and gets my top rating for a Cuban cigar in the last decade.
1958-59 was a good year for Cuba and I smoked many from this era thanks to a collectors dozens of boxes I sold for him in 2000.

I've seen a lot of bug ridden cigars in 30 years, as customers bring in bug infested humidors and ask what went wrong? - only Cuban cigars I have seen do this, although again, not as much in the past few years.

I can only tell you from the thousands of customers I deal with and the millions of cigars I have sold the average problems and successes.

Tatuaje and Padilla sold me some of the worst cigars I carried and when the customers brought them back and demanded I exchange them for anything else, I returned boxes to the manufacturer - they never paid me back! One customer bought the last several boxes for cost - they burnt uneven and some did not draw but he liked the taste and for the cost deal it was worth it to him.
Personally when rating a cigar taste is not the final decision maker.
If the cigar is not consistent then it gets a bad rating from me. If you go to your favorite restaurant and 1/3 of the time the food is inedible then I will not return.
If the cigars are not perfect and consistent 99% of the time they get a lower rating from me no matter what the taste.
Not many cigars meet this perfection and I use Padron as an example of consistent perfection although there are others that come and go.
I will many times light up 3 or more cigars in a row to test for consistency.
Now go out and light up 3 Cohiba cigars and see if all 3 are perfect and consistent - I do not believe it to be possible...

Padron and aging -
Cubans have to be aged for years the Padrons are not released till they are perfectly aged.
Padron has no pressure from a cash strapped government, to release immature cigars.

Mike