James Suckling Most Recent Comments: See Also: Day 6: A Room Full of FriendsPosted: 11:05 AM ET, March 03, 2008 The massive room at the Pabexpo in the chic Havana neighborhood of Siboney was already thick with smoke within the first 30 minutes of the gala dinner on Friday during the 10th annual Festival del Habano. The thousand or so participants were either smoking the Trinidad Reyes handed out at the door by a line of gorgeous Cuban women, or their own stash. I fired up the Reyes and it was delicate and satisfying, as usual.
The room was filled with everyone who loves cigars, from merchants to collectors. And they came from just about everywhere in the world where cigars are sold. I noticed a few Americans also. Plus, a number of key ministers were there, including Ricardo Alarcon, the president of the National Assembly. There was no sign of the Castro brothers. In fact, a Castro hasn’t been seen at the event for a number of years now. The humidors sold for charity at an auction at the event are no long signed by Fidel Castro.
Nonetheless, there was plenty of entertainment and lots of fun at the event. Check out my video. It was almost worth the ticket price of $550 for the cigars alone. There was a nice sampler pack of 10 cigars in a laminated box at each seat. And then there were four other cigars to smoke during the meal including the Trinidad Reyes, San Cristobal Mercaderes, Hoyo de Monterey Epicure No. 2, and Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios. I smoked everything but the Epi. The San Cristobal was very light, almost tasteless, but the rest were excellent. In fact, I love the Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios.
The best cigar of the night, however, was the 150th Anniversary Partagas Robusto. What a cigar!! It showed amazing aromas and flavors of dried roses, cedar and light spices. The palate was full, fresh and super long. Read more
Day 5: Behind The ScenesPosted: 03:43 PM ET, February 29, 2008 I had planned to hit up some of the key cigar shops this morning, like Partagas and Club Havana. This is where a lot of action happens during the festival. People just hang out, talk and smoke. It’s a good way to get information. Many people simply come to Havana for the festival to do that, they never attend the official events.
Anyway, I didn’t go to the cigar shops because I woke up dizzy and sick to my stomach. I called the hotel doctor and they came up and checked me out. I thought I had flu, or something. It turned out that my blood pressure was high. Not sure why. Maybe too much coffee and Cuban cigars? Maybe I'm too stressed?
The doctors – there were two of them, a pretty woman and a guy – said that I should not drink beer, which I hadn’t, or eat stuff like pasta. (In Cuba? Pasta?) Stay away from coffee too, he said.
"What about cigars?” I asked.
“You are here for the festival,” said the guy. “Of course, you can smoke cigars.”
I gave him a couple of Montecristo Edmundo Tubos, since he said that he liked cigars. I wish I had a doctor like that at home!
I imagine a lot of the cigar merchants at the event have high blood pressure at the moment. It seems everyone is stressing about all the anti-smoking laws being passed. And I don’t blame them. It sucks.
I was talking last night at a party to the head of Pacific Cigars, who markets and distributes cigars in the Far East. And he said that it’s a disaster, particularly in Hong Kong. There is no public smoking allowed in HK and it’s going to be the same very soon in Macau. “I am not sure where people are going to smoke,” he said. “We have very few outdoor areas to smoke.”
He said that he was through trying to fight the anti-smoking laws. Instead, he was looking for ways to work within the rules – in other words, beat the system. Read more
Day 4: The Taste of an HabanoPosted: 04:28 PM ET, February 28, 2008 It was all about taste yesterday in Havana. I attended two tastings. One was a smoker in the El Laguito factory, the home of Cohiba cigars, and another was a tasting in the evening at the Nacional Hotel that I led promoting the idea of drinking Champagne while smoking cigars.
Both of the events were extremely informative and fun.
The Cohiba tasting showed how lanceros, the long, thin and elegant vitola, age very, very well. We smoked a Cohiba Lancero from the 2007 production as well as one from 1997. The younger smoke came from the stock rooms of the factory and the 1997 came from the Davidoff shop in London. Alex Iapichino, a London-based lawyer, brought the old Lanceros, and also organized the tasting.
The factory’s conference room was full of cigar aficionados, tobacco technicians as well as merchants. Check out the video. My conclusions, as you can see, were fairly strong—maybe I overstated my thoughts in the video! But great Cuban cigars age wonderfully. I have been saying this for years. And I feel strongly about it!
I don’t think anyone in the room needed convincing. The 1997 showed lovely creamy cedar and tea with milk character. It was medium bodied, with a wonderful freshness and a long and flavorful finish. It was very refined. 91 points (unblind). I thought it could use another five or six years of box age to really meet it’s perfect smoking point. Read more
Day 3: From Table to AshPosted: 02:04 PM ET, February 27, 2008 Sometimes I find it almost hard to believe that the cigars we buy in shops come from the rollers’ tables of cigar factories in Havana. When we buy the cigar, it’s almost as if we are standing right next to the roller and he or she is handing us the cigar. Look at the video below with Eric Aboulia, whose family owns Raffi Cigars in Geneva, Switzerland. We were together in the H. Upmann factory in Havana yesterday and he saw a friend of his rolling, walked over, and received a fresh smoke. How cool is that?
I, too, have friends in the cigar world in Havana, and one was nice enough to give me a sneak preview of the Cuba's new Edición Limitadas that are coming out later this year: the Cuaba Piramides, Partagas Serie D No. 5 and Montecristo Sublimes. I smoked them together yesterday.
Here are my impressions of each of the cigars, with my non-blind scores:
SPECIAL PREVIEW TASTING: CUBA'S 2008 EDICION LIMITADAS
Cuaba Piramides
6 1/8 by 52 ring
This is the same size as the popular Montecristo No. 2. It is super refined and long with light coffee and nutty character. Full flavored with a long finish. Gorgeous and fresh. All is in balance. Perfect draw.
93 points (non blind)
Montecristo Sublimes
6 1/2 by 54 ring
The strongest of the three, it shows lots of espresso bean, roasted meat and earth under the tobacco. Read more
Day 2: Hola H. UpmannPosted: 03:00 PM ET, February 26, 2008 I just got back from visiting the H. Upmann factory in Nuevo Vedado with some friends from Geneva, Switzerland. The main hermano was Arek Aboulian, whose family owns Raffi Cigars. The twenty-something spent three months working in Upmann a short while ago, and he knows just about everyone in the factory. I will blog about him later.
Anyway, the new H. Upmann Magnum 50 certainly smoked well in the factory. It was such a cool idea to be smoking the cigar where it was originally made. Look at the video.
As I have already written, the Magnum 50 is one of two cigars that is being pushed this year at the festival. The other is the Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial. Both were featured last night during the Welcome Cocktail Party at the Club Havana. A multi-media show and dance production – sort of Broadway meets Havana and cigars – preceded the party at the Karl Marx Theater. Habanos S.A., the global distribution and marketing company, gave out the two cigars to the participants. I thought it made better sense to smoke them the next day.
And the Magnum 50 smokes wonderfully. It is a big smoke in size but delivers very refined and balanced flavors that verge on floral and cedar. It is very typical for Upmann, not powerful but smooth and fresh. 92 points. I will smoke the new Epicure Especial later today.
I visited all the departments at the Upmann factory this morning and I was impressed with what I saw – the one exception was the wrapper. It looked a little marked and unclean. This must be because they didn’t have a very good harvest last year due to extremely dry weather. But one of the quality control people at the factory said that they were selecting good wrapper, nonetheless. Read more
Day 1: Morning View from La HabanaPosted: 04:04 PM ET, February 25, 2008 I woke up this morning in Havana in my hotel, the Melia Cohiba, and after a quick café con leche in the bar, I walked out onto the Malecon boulevard that skirts the sea in front of the city, and breathed the fresh sea air with a mixture of diesel and other smells of a bustling city.
There’s a special feeling when you are standing on the Malecon and first looking at the sea towards the United States and then back at the old buildings on the boulevard. It is like a lifeline to the city with most of the major traffic of Havana taking it to cross from one end to the other. There’s an energy, a vitality that is hard to describe.
It’s these indescribable sensations that bring so many people to Havana. This year is shaping up to be one of the best in ten years in tourism. I spoke to the manager of my hotel and he said that they had 96 percent occupancy at the moment and they expected it to continue for the next few months. Cuba and Havana seem to be back on the radar screen for visitors from Europe, Canada and Mexico – the main areas that tourists come from.
A large number of tourists at the moment are here for the Festival del Habano, the 10th annual cigar event for the city. I have already seen cigar smokers and merchants from Europe, North America, the Middle and Far East. In other words, they are here from all over the world and they are smoking up a storm.
After my video making on the Malecon, I went back to the bar on the 20th floor of the Melia Cohiba and it was full of cigar smokers. They had the window of the bar open and it was only about 9 am. There were too many people smoking cigars!
I ran into a friend from Lebanon who had a couple examples of the new regional cigar for the area – a Ramon Allones Sublimes. Read more
Peace and Love for CubaPosted: 10:53 AM ET, February 19, 2008 The news last night about Fidel Castro retiring from political duties in Cuba does not come as a surprise. The word on the streets of Havana has been nothing else but that for months. In fact, his brother Raúl has been in real power since Fidel passed the baton to him in July 2006. Everyone knows that.
I am excited for everyone -- Cubans as well as Americans. I can only pray that there will finally be some sort of discourse between our two nations. At the end of the day, we are the same. We are part of the world. And we are close neighbors. I have seldom met a Cuban that doesn’t love America. Honestly, I wish it were the same in the United States. It’s time to reach out.
There is talk in Cuba about Raúl’s ideas on changing economic policies as well as social and political programs. Everyone will have to wait and see. Raúl is going to say some important things at the end of the week during the Congress of the National Assembly.
Just about anything is possible, but it will be on Cuba’s own terms. That I know.
I keep thinking today about my five-hour meeting with Fidel Castro in February 1994. I was with editor and publisher Marvin Shanken and we interviewed the icon. I also took some amazing photos of the man smelling a Cohiba Esplendido. He didn’t smoke at the time but he was in heaven smelling the cigar. Every news organization in the world wanted a copy of the photo.
Anyway, Fidel said something that comes to mind at the moment. In fact, it was the end of the interview, and it still haunts me.
Marvin Shanken: "The American press repeatedly refers to the very poor conditions here in Cuba. Read more
Day 10: Goodbye CubaPosted: 12:40 PM ET, February 15, 2008 It was a cool trip to Cuba. I am back at home in Italy at the moment and posting my last video blog from the island. And I am sorry I left. There is so much to see and learn there, especially for a cigar smoker.
I hope you have enjoyed the blogging and got as much out of it as I did. As I mentioned in my first blog, the go-to cigar for many in the world is now the Partagas Serie D No. 4. The red-banded robusto is now the cigar many smoke on a daily basis. It even outnumbers the Montecristo Petit Corona in such large markets as France as the No. 1 smoke. Don’t be surprised if you see it being sold in tubes in a very short while!
In my second blog, a trip to the La Casa del Habano cigar shop at Conde Villanueva hotel in Old Havana near the Plaza San Francisco showed how prices on the island have finally come down slightly after years of being too high. It now makes financial sense to buy cigars on the island. For example, the wonderful Bolivar Gold Medals are selling for just over $54 for a box of 10 cigars and the same box may cost three times as much in other markets. Moreover, the Upmann Magnum and Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure lines were expanded with two new additions -- Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial and H. Upmann Magnum 50, respectively.
It never hurts, as my third blog noted, to stop into the El Floridita bar for a quick daiquiri and smoke. I only wish Ernest Hemingway still haunted the joint. How cool would it be hang with the late great writer? Shame he didn’t smoke cigars.
What a welcome from the tobacco grower/guru Alejandro Robaina. Read more
Day 9: Everyone's Lunch In HavanaPosted: 01:59 PM ET, February 13, 2008 Like I didn’t have enough heavy food already after lunch with tobacco maestro Alejandro Robania. But the day after my visit to his plantation, I went to lunch with some friends at a big outdoor restaurant called El Palenque in the Siboney neighborhood of Havana. This is the closest thing to a popular restaurant, considering lots of locals hang here. It’s super cheap where a Cuban sandwich can cost a couple bucks and an ice-cold beer about half that. I have been coming here for 10 years.
The cuisine is rustic and homey with lots of pork. Check out the split suckling pigs on the open grill in the video. They were not cooking this in my honor. It’s grilling away everyday for lunch and dinner. I have the crunchy skin on the plate in the video, which we ate as an appetizer with a couple of frosty Buccanero brews. Yummy.
I have eaten my weight in lechon with the Padrón family in Esteli, Nicaragua. Dave Savona is an aficionado of the stuff as well. But José Orlando Padrón, the partriarch of the great cigar company, is all too right when he says that “no place makes better lechon than Cuba.” Look at the video again my friends.
The main course was perfectly cooked juicy pork with black beans, rice and a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and cabbage. My mouth is watering now as I write this. Forget the three-star Michelin restaurants. This is the real deal.
We lit up some Cohiba Lanceros half way through the meal. I don’t normally like to smoke and eat, but I thought why not be decadent with my buddies. And it’s nice to be able to smoke just about wherever you wish in Cuba! I am so tired of the anti-smoking laws!! But I don’t have to tell you that.
I didn’t have a lighter, so the waiter offered to lend me his. Read more
Day 8: Barns of DreamsPosted: 11:39 AM ET, February 13, 2008 Just to give you an idea of what the tobacco looks like going in the barns, check out this latest video. It’s awesome. Hiroshi Robaina, the grandson of tobacco guru Alejandro Robaina, took me for a walk through their three tobacco curing barns and I was speechless. Unbelievable quality.
Hiroshi said that this year they weren’t using any artificial curing barns because the weather was so perfect for naturally drying the leaves. Last year, they had to use almost all artificial curing because it was too hot and too dry. I am not a great fan of artificially cured tobacco. I think it cooks some of the quality out of the leaf.
But last week there was perfect warmth and the humidity was just right to cure the tobacco naturally. The only adjustments made in the barns were a little bit of chopped up moist tobacco on the floor of the barns to assure good humidity and opening and closing the barn windows and doors to regulate the temperature and freshness in the building.
The 32-year-old Hiroshi said that it takes about 10 days to have the leaves turn from green to yellow brown. Then it takes another 50 to 60 days for the tobacco to completely dry. They do a short fermentation in their barns afterwards before shipping the tobacco to close-by warehouses in San Luis, where the tobacco is sorted according to texture, size and strength and fermented another time.
Fingers crossed. Can’t wait to see the end results later this year! I still remember lots of optimistic harvests that ended with the tobacco being improperly processed. Hope it doesn’t happen this year! We need some fabulous wrappers on Cuban cigars!!
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