Cigars: The power of marketing

[Duxnutz]

I'm going to pre-face my comments with the theory I totally believe in; "smoke what you like, like what you smoke".

So I'm sitting in a cigar lounge in the great state of California and I'm amazed at the amount of people pushing mass marketed cigars such as Rocky Patel, Ghurka etc.

I've had probably 5 conversations with people who openly exclaim these are the best cigars being produced today and of course all the anti-cuban cigar propaganda that goes with it!

As an openly majority cuban cigar smoker I find it slightly amusing. Seems the advertising $$$ in mags like CA actually work.

Hopefully run into some folks that like the good stuff!

[helix]

Ghurka

[Fosgate]

I would just ask "If non-cc's are so freakin great then why do they still insist on using ques from CC's in their packaging and marketing?"

[dangolf18]

Interesting. I talked to one of the owners of a cigar bar in San Francisco and he wouldn't stop telling me how cubans were overrated. I think money talks in this case. I'm sure he would've loved me to be chump and shell out $45 for his overpriced Padron.

[JHands]

The general consensus around the cigar bars here is that cuban tobacco has fallen off due to soul depletion blah blah blah blah blah. Enjoy your 15 dollar domestic stick while I enjoy a far better tasting 8 dollar stick. I would never pay it forward to someone like that. Close minded people make me sick. Just because they don't have a reliable source and probably got ripped, all cubans suck.

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[Carpenter69]

The more I dig into cuban cigars the more I see the attraction. I recently got a box of RA paises bajos. Upon opening it the smell of an active horse barn punched me in the face. Now, I also like NC's. After all, they're cigars and I love cigars, but I've never opened a box of NC's and smelled anything that tasty. Also, I love guys that tell me that RP's and Gurkha are the best cigars out there. It leaves the good cigars for people who know what the hell they're talking about. LOL

[shlomo]

Cubans market very well too. Lets not pretend that HSA is the underdog here.

[AbuAmelia]

Retailers in the USA will never admit that CC's are better. They probably have their own stash at home. But can you blame them? They are in business to make money. Even if it's brain washing their customers. They gotta do it. Lol

[El Presidente]

Cubans market very well too. Lets not pretend that HSA is the underdog here.

They learn't from Altadis

[AbuAmelia]

And another thing. Let that embargo get lifted one day and watch the retailers change their tune and throw Gurkha and Mr. Rocky out on the curb like a wife throwing her husbands clothes out on the front lawn after hearing she's just been cheated on.

[Armaniac]

I have a close friend who loves Nicaraguan cigars. He loves the peppery punch that they deliver. He used to smoke only Cubans and now he smokes mainly NC's. I find non cubans to be very unidimensional with a particular taste that I do not enjoy at all. To each his own I guess.

[PaulP]

I would just ask "If non-cc's are so freakin great then why do they still insist on using ques from CC's in their packaging and marketing?"

In most cases, it happened because a cigarmaker left Cuba after his company was confiscated and felt he still had the right to his cigar's name.

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/webfeatures/show/id/16374

[cigcars]

Armaniac, your friend apparently got ahold of a lot of fakes if he's finding he loves the Nicaraguans instead of Cubans...not that Nicaraguans aren't desirable. They make some VERY good smokes (Padron 45th Family Reserve, Tatuajes, Pepin Garcias, etc.)

These NC hawkers should heed one of history's old sayings that a good thing sells itself. There are a few pretty good Rocky's out there, and maybe three good Gurkhas; the Centurian, their first Ninja release, and their Cellar Reserve. But yes, unless we're talking about those God-awful tasteless Fonseca KDT's or such, I'll take a lousy Cuban over a well-rated NC ANY DAY!

[AndrewNR]

Can't say I was aware there was so much bad press for Cubans in the states? I'd always just thought it was simply they were prohibited and harder to come by. Havent had many of the nc, am curious to try but I find the bad press I hear for those on the other hand finds me clutching my pennies. Also I've very very scarcely ever seen anything not Cuban and unflavoured here

[HarveyBoulevard]

And another thing. Let that embargo get lifted one day and watch the retailers change their tune and throw Gurkha and Mr. Rocky out on the curb like a wife throwing her husbands clothes out on the front lawn after hearing she's just been cheated on.

So very true. Every B&M I've been in has nothing nice to say about CCs (in public anyway) but just wait...when the embargo ends, they will devote more than half of their walk in humidors to CCs. The 'lure' of the once forbidden will drive up demand and prices will skyrocket here in the U.S.

I very much enjoy a number of NC's but since I started smoking CC's about 2 years ago, my cigar money somehow finds it way to the Czar instead of my local B&M. Once the general populace can sample CC's, the Gurkha, Patel, and Drew Estate marketing machines will implode. (Mind you I do love a good DE No. 9 or T52).

Outside the U.S., since CC's are readily available, most people probably don't realize what how poorly the U.S. cigar industry speaks of CCs and how their 'time has passed'.

[earthson]

I remember talking to an altadis cigar rep a few years ago and she said "Everybody knows we make the best cigars in the world." I asked her if she smoked and she said "Uh... no." She then proceeded to tell me that NCs that have cuban namesakes use "the same blends and the same tobacco as Cubans, but they're grown in different countries." After explaining to her that Dominican Partagas, Montecristo, etc taste NOTHING like their cuban counterparts she told me that I wouldn't know because "no one who lives in America has ever smoked a real cuban. Most Cubans available even in Europe are fakes."

Boy, oh, boy... I hope she stays pretty because otherwise she's playing a losing hand.

[mgravito]

I remember talking to an altadis cigar rep a few years ago and she said "Everybody knows we make the best cigars in the world." I asked her if she smoked and she said "Uh... no." She then proceeded to tell me that NCs that have cuban namesakes use "the same blends and the same tobacco as Cubans, but they're grown in different countries." After explaining to her that Dominican Partagas, Montecristo, etc taste NOTHING like their cuban counterparts she told me that I wouldn't know because "no one who lives in America has ever smoked a real cuban. Most Cubans available even in Europe are fakes."

Boy, oh, boy... I hope she stays pretty because otherwise she's playing a losing hand.

I genuinely haven't laughed this hard at a post in a while.

[earthson]

I genuinely haven't laughed this hard at a post in a while.

Glad I could be of cervix

[BonVivant]

oh the power of advertisement - I am a sucker - Dunhill lighters are not advertised, at least where it should be