Cuban Cigar Culture

Cuban Cigars are perhaps the best known and most appreciated of all Cuban export products. They are known Worldwide as the best.
The quality can be attributed to many factors like the quality of Cubas rich red soil or the gentle breezes that blow through the Tobacco growing regions or perhaps it is the heartiness of the plant and the Expertise of the Cuban Farmer.

More than likely it is a combination of these and many other unquantifiable factors.

 It's not important to the appreciation and enjoyment of a fine Cuban Cigar.  Of course an insight into the History of Cuban Cigars is helpful to a better understanding and perhaps a more enjoyable experience.

Christopher Columbus first saw the usage of Tobacco shortly after arriving in Cuba, at the time the Native Indians used the burning plant mostly as a way of perfuming their skin. It is also noted that it may have originated as ancient bug repellent but later became custom and fashion.

It is unclear when exactly Tobacco was first rolled and smoked in the Old World but we do know that at about the time of Columbus arriving in the New World the Aztecs were already rolling and smoking Tobacco.

Around 1623 Cuba became the Tobacco hub for the diffusion of the plant to the four corners of The Spanish Kingdom.  

From that point forward Cubas Global importance in the Tobacco trade was secured.  For Cuba a Country that now relies heavily on Agriculture and Tourism for their Foreign exchange Tobacco has a status rarely seen amongst Agricultural cash crops.

The Cuban Cigar has taken on legendary and even mythic proportions in the minds of Cigar Aficionado's. The time of year the Cigars are rolled and the factory they are from are all very important. There are even disciples of the Cuban Cigar who will fly anywhere in the world for the chance to purchase Cuban Cigars rolled by well known Master Rollers.

And perhaps most interesting to myself is the process by which Cuban Cigars get their names.  When you take our  Cigar Tour in one of  Havanas Cigar manufacturers at:
www.havanadiscoverytours.com
 you notice that at the head of the cavernous room where most rollers sit is a raised platform with a simple table a chair and a microphone.
Our Guide will tell you what this platform is for. To this day Cuban Cigar rollers are entertained by a designated reader who reads aloud to the captive audience.

In times past the rollers did not want to listen to the news of the day or the state of the Union they wanted adventure, and adventure is what they got. Day after day they heard the adventures of the Count of Montecristo and the tragic Love story of Romeo and Juliet.
 And at these times that coincided with the creation of new types of Cuban Cigars the name of the new Cigar was chosen from the title of the book being read to the rollers.
And so today we have fantastic brands of Cuban Cigars that are known to the World as Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta.

An absolutely fascinating History and Culture that can better be explored and understood through one of our Cuban Cigar Tours at:
www.havanadiscoverytours.com