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Discussion Contest: What Have You Learned Recently?

Discussion Contest: What Have You Learned Recently?

Happy Wednesday, folks! 

It’s always amazing to me that we never stop learning.  Regardless of the topic or our knowledge of the subject, there’s always room to grow. 

This week, I’m curious to know about something that you’ve learned about the wonderful world of cigars.  

What Have You Learned About Cigars Recently?

Maybe it was from one of our weekend Virtual Meet & Greets, maybe it was from a book / the internet, or maybe an event at a Cigar Lounge before COVID-19 started closing things down. 

Myself, I’ve been reading a good book recommended from our friend and Blind Reviewer, Rich K.!  I’ve often seen noted people that I admire reading cigar literature (One is Rich, the other is Nicholas Melillo), and my 2020 goal is to be more like them. 

In this book, Cigar Family: A 100 Year Journey in the Cigar Industry, I’ve been learning about J.C. Newman and the humble beginnings of his cigar empire.  

The part that struck me was, in 1895 J.C. Newman rolled his first independent cigar.  At that time, he was one of “42,000 federally registered cigar manufacturers in the United States, and in direct competition with 300 registered cigar factories in Cleveland,” Ohio.  

Talk about a cigar boom! We even had unionized cigarmakers at the time, and it took Newman three years to complete his apprenticeship and learn his craft.  With all that competition, it’s remarkable that he survived the tests of time so much to be such a staple in the cigar community today.

He would then go on to be the first to use cellophane on cigars in the 1920s after an industry-wide decline of using foil to cover cigars, a relatively short-lived concept.  Until reading this, I never even knew that I wanted to know when cellophane was introduced.

Anyway, that’s what stuck out for me this week!  Looking forward to learning more from the rest of you wonderful folks. 

DISCUSSION CONTEST DETAILS

One of the comments below will win a $25 gift card.  The gift card will automatically be sent to the email address that you login to comment with, so please use your regular sign-in.   

I’ll be randomly selecting a comment below this Sunday after sending out the Weekly Newsletter. The winner can expect a comment with his or her name in it, a congratulations email, and an email with the $25 gift card information.  The actual gift card email takes some time to generate from the system and may lag behind by up to 48 hours. 

Only available to U.S. customers. (Sorry!)

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Comments

4/8/2020 10:02 AM
What I have I learned recently? I've learned that one virus can almost shut down the whole industry! But I've also learned about smaller cigar factories that I had no clue existed.
4/8/2020 10:11 AM
from Nic.....I was surprised how long the fermentation process takes.
4/8/2020 10:11 AM
I learned that Puro’s means cigar. And not meaning tobacco all from one country.
Tylet
4/8/2020 10:12 AM
I'm learning how the same cigar can change with ageing, humidity levels and with what you pair it with. In that regard it is very similar with wines, in that you learn more as you experiment with trying different techniques.
4/8/2020 11:36 AM
I smoked myself out the other day and couldn’t taste, but that got me curious. I looked up the etymology of palate (sense of taste), pallet (wood platform), and palette (thin board for an artist’s paint) to discover that each word has a different origin with completely different roots.
4/8/2020 12:32 PM
I just learned a lot of Cigar companies are NOT happy with Kyle Gelis' new Drop club thingy.....  because it hurts the B&M's.
4/8/2020 12:40 PM
Due to quarantine I have learned that I can smoke 3 cigars per day and not feel bad about myself! Ha!
4/8/2020 2:23 PM
I learned that not even a global pandemic will stop me from spending a ton of money on cigars.
4/8/2020 6:45 PM
On Wednesday July 11th, 1988, Swiss customs officials lit fire to 131,000 Cuban Davidoffs with the full consent of Zino Davidoff. They were not up to his standards and the final straw that would lead him to change the country of production for the Davidoff brand. The cigars went up in flames to avoid paying the taxes on the one million Swiss francs worth of cigars.
4/8/2020 7:00 PM
In trying to set up a new humidifier I did some research and learned that the old 70/70 rule is not necessarily the best for all conditions. So I'm actually storing my cigars in the basement now, and a coll 65 degrees and with lower humidity.  I'm looking forward to experimenting with aging some ciagrs now, and have started with some Warped Sky Flowers and Don Pepin's from Small Batch.
4/9/2020 7:18 AM
I have learned Andrew can run a marathon and look like he just rolled out of bed, Nick Melillo is a genius of our time and most important that even though we are experiencing weird and tough times in the world; cigars continue to bring us together.
4/9/2020 8:05 AM
I’ve learned through all this sheltering in place that the world can stop. My wife is a nurse and I see through her the chaos going on. But you know you can still find the right time to pick that one cigar that day That will let you enjoy just a little time to really think and stay calm. That cigar was right for that day
4/9/2020 8:47 AM
I have learned (through observation) that online shopping (especially for cigars) will be more popular after this is all over than ever before.
4/9/2020 11:40 AM
I enjoy reading some of the legends about cigars, and how so many of them are made up or wrong. One interesting example: I’ve read in several books that Fidel Castro, upon taking over the cigar industry in Cuba, got rid of all of the brands as capitalist and replaced them with a single brand, Siboney. When this failed, he brought in Zino Davidoff to tell him how to fix the problem. Zino said to bring back the brands, and Castro was so happy with how this worked he let Zino make the only Cuban cigars not sold by the Cuban government.

I read in another book that Castro was going to do this, but didn’t on the advice of Che Guavera.

I read in an interview that Castro did with Cigar Aficionado that this never happened, and would have been a stupid thing to do - to give up so much income that Cuba needed.

Zino Davidoff’s book about cigars makes no mention of the event.

I feel like some of these stories are not fact-checked, and there are some bizarre legends in the cigar world. And that’s fascinating.
4/9/2020 5:10 PM
Rich,
Great post. The friendship and closed door conversations between Fidel and Zino spanned decades, many were taken to the grave by both men. Cuban Davidoffs were produced in the El Laguito factory starting 1967, the same factory where Cohibas began and continue on. This is most likely where the business relationship soured as Castro liked the Cohiba more and saw it as the legendary brand we all hold it up to be now. Zino was Russian, the brand and ambassador Swiss, and the product itself was all Cuban which created a problem. This all came to a head in the late 80s. Another private conversation between Fidel and Zino had him walking away with his company, moving production to the Dominican Republic. Zino never discussed the terms of that deal.
4/10/2020 7:10 AM
I've learned that due to quarantine I have a lot more time to sit down and enjoy my cigars.
4/10/2020 7:44 PM
Ive been learning more about the tobacco within the cigars. Until recently, i didnt know there were 3 types of tobacco leafs. Ive seen some of them referred to in some cigar names, but I never really looked into it. The "three types are called Ligero, Seco, and Volado. Each and every cigar needs a combination of these three types, and the combination and how it is created will have a direct impact on the taste and smokability of your cigar."

Additionally, each leaf grows on varying heights of the plant which effects the flavor, aroma, and burn of the cigar!
4/11/2020 5:18 AM
I have recently what people mean when they that Cuba can produce the best cigars there are, they just tend not to.
4/11/2020 6:55 AM
For everything I find out or learn I realize how much I don’t know and have to learn yet.  Types of tobacco, humidity, regions, history, etc...  always fun to keep learning
4/11/2020 9:17 AM
I’ve recently learned that my palate is not as good when I smoke twice a day. I’ve never been able to spent this much time smoking, but now that I’m working from home, I’m smoking too much.

Also, I don’t enjoy the cigar as much when I’m working. I tend to puff too often and too hard, and wind up with a hot cigar and a burnt palate.
4/11/2020 1:34 PM
I learned how selfish mankind can become when a threat presents itself. The cigar community is such a welcome change of pace during times like these. It’s good to be part of the cigar community.
4/11/2020 7:33 PM
Ron from Baltimore turned me on to your website looking forward to doing more business with you. Thanks you for the new Avenue
4/12/2020 8:43 AM
I have learned to pick out different flavors and nuances of a cigar and the different blends and how they are rolled to produce these. I have also learned that the different vitolas of the same cigar can produce a different smoking profile.
4/12/2020 10:42 AM
I have learned that there is a significant difference in flavor profile between aged and non-aged tobacco.  This is one of those things that you learn through experience.  Specifically, opus x, padrons, davidoffs. It's very eye opening how much age on tobacco can improve a cigar smoking experience. But, with age comes more price usually so I have to limit myself to rare occasions to enjoy smokes like that!
4/12/2020 2:05 PM
Congrats Tyler!  And many thanks to everyone else that participated this week.  Hope you're having a very Happy Easter!