from cigar journal - simon chase on LEs

[Ken Gargett]

i'd be surprised if this has not been published here before but i was c=going through stuff on the computer and came across this really interesting article by simon chase on LEs. 

Ediciónes Limitadas – Innovation Born of Necessity

December 15, 2014

Simon Chase

The line Ediciónes Limitadas represented one of the very first ideas for special, limited-production cigars that Habanos S.A. introduced at the start of the 21st century. It all began in 2000, which was a difficult year for the Cuban cigar industry.

Following the drive to make more and more cigars to meet the demands of the 1990s boom, stocks of tobacco were low. Wrapper leaves for making large sizes were in particularly short supply, so much so that the industry was struggling to meet its targets. But there was one place in Cuba where large wrappers were plentiful, and that was in the warehouses that stored the leaves for domestic-production cigars.

Photo: Habanos S.A.

These wrappers were different from those used on cigars classified as Habanos because they had been picked from the upper levels of shade-grown tobacco plants.

They were darker in colour and thicker too, which made them harder for the torcedores to work with. Over the years, it had been established that only wrappers from the middle section of tobacco plants were used on Habanos. Nevertheless, the lack of any alternative meant that serious consideration had to be given to using the domestic leaves if production was to be maintained.

I was told about the problem on a visit to Havana in June 2000. A debate was raging in the industry about whether the use of dark wrappers would undermine the precious global image of the Habano. Having been shown some samples, my only comment was that there were many enthusiasts in Britain who would willingly sacrifice their right arms for Habanos with dark, oily wrappers.

In short, I felt that the project had plenty of potential. Goodness knows whether my view carried any weight, but soon afterwards the project got the green light. Dark wrappers were to be used, provided that they were on cigars that could be clearly identified as separate from standard-production products.

I felt that the project had plenty of potential.

In London at the end of November 2000, we received the first shipment of four different vitolas – the Montecristo Robusto, the Romeo y Julieta Exhibición No. 2, the Partagás Pirámide and the Hoyo de Monterrey Particulares – all under the banner of Ediciónes Limitadas, or Limited Editions. Since then, usually three, but sometimes up to five Limited Editions have been released annually, with the exception of the year 2002, though the cigars banded in 2001 were not distributed until mid 2002. In total, until this year, there have been forty-eight Limited Editions.

The main characteristics of Limited Editions are:

• they are made only in Havana’s best-known brands;
• they are manufactured in one production period;
• the sizes are rare;
• they are dressed in darker coloured wrapper leaves; and
• they are made from extra-aged tobaccos.

 

For the first five years, Limited Editions were only found in five brands: Cohiba, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Partagás and Hoyo de Monterrey. However, since 2005, H. Upmann, Trinidad, Cuaba, Bolívar, Ramón Allones and Punch have joined the elite group, bringing the total up to eleven brands.

The production run for each cigar takes place within a limited period, usually during the year for which it is designated. The exact quantity made for each release is not declared because the Cuban industry cannot tell how many cigars of each vitola it can make until after the bales of specially aged wrapper leaves are opened and graded for quality and colour. Limited Edition sizes are rare because they must not replicate any of the vitolas normally made by the brands in question.

Photo: Hunters & Frankau

Sometimes they are entirely new sizes, never produced before in Havana, such as the Sublime (61⁄2” | 164mm x 54 ring gauge), first made for Cohiba’s 2004 Limited Edition, or the Duke (51⁄2” | 140mm by 54 ring gauge), first made for Romeo’s 2009 release. They can also be vitolas that have not been made for many years, like the 2004 Partagás Serie D No. 1 (63⁄4” | 170mm by 50 ring gauge) and last year’s  (2013) Punch Serie D’Oro No. 2 (5 1⁄2” | 140mm x 52 ring gauge), neither of which had been seen since the 1950s.

The darker wrappers picked from the upper levels of tobacco plants are younger, thicker and fuller of natural oils and sugar. Consequently, they demand longer periods of fermentation and ageing than normal wrappers: up to nine months for fermentation, as opposed to one month, and over a year for ageing, compared to six months. All Limited Edition wrappers are over two years old before they dress the cigars.

There is some variation in the colours. They can be Colorado (dark brown), Colorado Maduro (very dark brown, sometimes slightly mottled) or Maduro (nearly black). Contrary to popular belief they are not all Maduro (nearly black), but most are. Up until 2006, Limited Edition filler and binder leaves were fermented and aged in the same way as for the standard production of the brands. However, since 2007 onwards, all the fillers and binders have undergone an extra ageing process so that all the leaves are now a minimum of two years old before the cigars are made. Extra ageing delivers a more rounded, more mellow flavour to which the higher sugar content of the darker wrapper adds a hint of sweetness.

In total, until this year, there have been forty-eight Limited Editions.

The distinct taste of Limited Editions has not always proved popular. In the early days they had a somewhat medicinal flavour with a hint of eucalyptus, probably caused by the thickness of the wrappers. Particularly when the cigars were young, a similar taste could be identified across all brands and sizes. In 2000, for this very reason, I remember recommending that the Limited Editions be laid down for a few years before they were smoked. It worked, because now, fourteen years later, the Partagás Pirámide, for example, smokes very well and tastes only of good, aged Cuban tobacco.

Photo: Hunters & Frankau

To pick a few personal favourites, I would mention the 2003 Partagás Serie D No. 2, a powerhouse of a cigar, ideal for ageing; the 2004 Cohiba Sublime, which has become a costly collectors’ item; the 2009 Romeo y Julieta Duke, which introduced us to a 54 ring gauge in a shortish smoke; the 2010 Trinidad Short Robusto T, a diminutive vitola that conquered the hearts of French enthusiasts despite its comparatively high price; and the 2011 Cohiba 1966, a cigar that tasted as if the tobaccos had been aged for longer than the minimum of two years. At the time of writing, this year’s releases have yet to be shipped, but the cigar everyone is waiting for is the Cohiba Robusto Supremo, the first Cuban in living memory to boast a 58 ring gauge.

It could be said that necessity was the mother of invention when it came to the birth of Cuba’s Limited Editions. Nevertheless, Habanos S.A. can look back with pride on a programme that has produced some distinctly different, first-class cigars.

Information:

Overview: Ediciónes Limitadas in the years 2000 to 2014 (taken from: Cigar Journal 4/2014: “The Long View: Innovation Born of Necessity” by Simon Chase, pp. 144-147).

[NSXCIGAR]

Was linked to and some good discussions of it here:

I had forgotten that he wrote this piece in 2014--not that long ago. Before then, the details of the EL program had never really been revealed in such detail. 

[Ciscojohansson]

Thanks Ken! Very interesting

[Corylax18]

Thanks for posting Ken!! I've looked for this article half dozen times over the last few years and can ever seem to find it. It really makes you think three times about why you would spend money on these things. 

[Mickey D]

Very informative Ken. Thank you.

[joeypots]

15 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

But there was one place in Cuba where large wrappers were plentiful, and that was in the warehouses that stored the leaves for domestic-production cigars.

These wrappers were different from those used on cigars classified as Habanos because they had been picked from the upper levels of shade-grown tobacco plants.

They were darker in colour and thicker too, which made them harder for the torcedores to work with. Over the years, it had been established that only wrappers from the middle section of tobacco plants were used on Habanos. Nevertheless, the lack of any alternative meant that serious consideration had to be given to using the domestic leaves if production was to be maintained.

I read they needed wrappers and started to use leaf that was previously categorized as not good enough for export cigars. Then they had the  nerve to charge  a premium for the cigars. Aging such wrapper is akin to putting lipstick on a pig in order to sell the pig. It's still a pig. I'll concede that there  have been a few good ELs but I mostly found them disappointing. If Habanos did in fact declare that the Els were meant to be aged I have never seen such instructions. And I smoked quite a few that I had for way longer than five years. So I'll stay away and let those who love the Els have them. Different strokes and all of that.

[Nino]

I can basically confirm Simon's story of how the EL series was launched through a good friend of mine, a German collector and great friend of Cuba with very good connections who let me have his report and pictures back in 2008 basically describing the same story of the "bad wrapper leaves" that had to be put into use by HSA that Simon described.

I met Pepe, the then fired director of La Corona a few times back then and assisted in his being able to leave Cuba for Miami where he died shortly after arriving there.

His friendship with my friends Hannes and Urs Portmann was very strong, Mr Portmann fought for his departure from Cuba via the Swiss Embassy, back then the official US diplomatic mission in Cuba.

Here is the story and pictures as told by Hannes :

The True Story of the Edición Limitada

There is one entry in my Encyclopaedia that I am very proud of and happy about.

Proud, because it was written by a real and good friend which was a remarkable person.   Unfortunately, he passed away shortly after he was able to emigrate to the United States (his emigration largely supported by Urs Portmann and myself).

Therefore, I am happy to have the entry in my book, it does serve as a reminder of the good times we did have together.

When Pepe wrote the entry (in early 2003), he already had been forced to resign as a Director of La Corona due to some illegal activities by one of his sons. Pepe himself has never been involved in those activities, but since it was his son, those activities did cost him his job anyway. 

Pepe wrote:                                                                                 

 “Al Amigo Hans, inspirador de la idea de la Edición Limitada fiel amigo de lo exclusivo y selecto del corazon de su amigo Pepe

La Corona Habana Cuba 2003”

How come he did write this?

Let me tell the story:

I was travelling to Cuba in September 2000.

At that time, the - lets say - "Top-Management" of the La Corona Factory consisted of three persons:

 

José A Gonzalez (Pepe) Director

Nuvia (Assistant to the Director)

Barbara Canedo-Valdez (Lawyer, in Charge for the workers)

I was a good friend to Barbara’s family.

She was giving me a factory tour at La Corona, which also did bring us to the Escaparate.

I think, not many visitors have been allowed to go to that part of the building.

Actually, even people from Intertabak have been asking me (years later !!) if I could arrange such a tour for them !

In the Escaparate, I saw some cigars in several drawers.  They did have incredible wrappers:

Dark brown, oily and shiny and silky, colorado-maduro maduro wrappers.

The smell of the bundles was incredible.  Of course, I took several pictures.

And I nearly could not believe what Barbara and Nuvia told me:

These Cigars should be scrapped, by order of Habanos.

Reason: The wrappers are too dark. Customers do associate "dark" with "strong".

Customers do want less strong cigars and therefore they will not like (and not buy) cigars with dark wrappers.

I could not believe this and we went to the Directors office immediately.

I talked to Pepe for more than two hours and did explain that I, all my friends and the majority of my cigar merchant and year-long good friend Urs Portmann are always in search for exactly that kind of cigars that Habanos was ordering him to throw away.

I told Pepe to go to Habanos S.A, and tell them these details.

And, I told him: "Make them a special series, a Limited Edition, with a special band and a special package and offer them at twice the price of a normal cigar -- and customers will buy and ask for more ...". This conversation took place on Monday, September 25th, 2000

Pepe was skeptical, but he remembered that all my other advices did work perfectly, such as
 

• build up of a special workforce to remove wrappers with green spots and replace them by
  new wrappers
• do not throw away rejected cigars as a whole but have people (since they have enough of them) tear them into pieces and use these for short-filler-cigars
• sell rejects with minor defects as factory-rejects at lower price instead of throwing them away
  (this was done and 250.000 cigars have been sold to Muhammed Zeidan who claimed that he would replace the wrappers in an operation in the north of Lebanon. I heavily doubt that he replaced the wrappers but believe he was selling the cigars just as they were ...!).

So, Pepe started to like the idea and next day he went to Habanos Marketing and talked to Roberto Delgado, who, at that time, was in charge as a Marketing Manager.

He liked the idea and so they started to prepare a special band.

By sheer coincidence and luck, Barbara’s brother, Mylord, was in charge of box production and band printing for Habanos SA which helped speed up the production and delivery of the boxes and extra bands.

In early November 2000, a client of Urs Portmann, visiting Cuba and receiving a factory-tour through my contact to Barbara did bring back a bundle of 10 Partagas Pyramides (non-existing at that time) with the special "Edición Limitada" band.

This is a true story. Photos and the entry of Pepe are good proof already. Further confirmation could be obtained by  

• Barbara Canedo Valdez
• Nuvia
• Inalvis Perez
• Roberto Delgado
• Jorge de la Concepcion Luna

Whereas I have to say that it is not my interest to make this story public.

After so many years, it does not have much meaning, who did have which idea at what time.

But, I do think it is a nice little story and good to know for well informed insiders !

Hannes Weiss
February 2008

 

 

 

Pictures 1

 

 

Outside of the Escaparate.

The guy opening the door is the son of Jose A. Gonzalez "Pepe"

Inside the Escaparate. Not too tidy ... looked different some months later !

Double Coronas. Very dark, maduro wrapper.

More Double Coronas ( Pacos )

 

 

Pyramides -- look at these incredible Wrappers.

 

 

The smell was according to the appearance.

 

 

José "Pepe" A. Gonzales with his three Mulatas

Barbara (Lawyer) - Inalvys (Quality) - Nuvia (Assistant Director)

 

 

Hannes Weiss and Pepe Gonzales in his office in the old La Corona Factory
Picture taken Monday September 25th, 2000

Day of the creation of Edición Limitada

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Puros Y Vino]

Great read @Nino

It gives us a bit of insight as to Habanos philosophy at the time regarding what they perceived in terms of customer wants. The dark wrapper=strong cigar belief. Interesting how they would consider "throwing away " great looking cigars. The early EL's do have the stigma of having "fireproof" wrappers. 😁. Perhaps age has done them well?  I haven't had many myself to verify that claim.  What started as a measure to not waste tobacco has now become too much of the norm. There is so much excitement and demand over the EL and RE releases that Habanos s has felt justified in axing so many regular production cigars.   

[Ken Gargett]

7 hours ago, joeypots said:

I read they needed wrappers and started to use leaf that was previously categorized as not good enough for export cigars. Then they had the  nerve to charge  a premium for the cigars. Aging such wrapper is akin to putting lipstick on a pig in order to sell the pig. It's still a pig. I'll concede that there  have been a few good ELs but I mostly found them disappointing. If Habanos did in fact declare that the Els were meant to be aged I have never seen such instructions. And I smoked quite a few that I had for way longer than five years. So I'll stay away and let those who love the Els have them. Different strokes and all of that.

in fairness, they did not charge a premium for the early LEs. they were cheap as chips, at least for the most of them for the first two years. after that, when they realised what a winner they had, up went the prices. i have always believed that there were no 2002 LEs, as they simply were not prepared for how successful the program would be. they got through a lot of those leaves early and suddenly found the world clamouring for more.

some of those early LEs, the partagas pyramides etc, i remember as $130 a boc at the time (or CUC or whatever). still had the price tags. but they were a bit cheaper than many normal production cigars at the time. 

 

and thanks Nino. terrific read. 

[NSXCIGAR]

5 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

they did not charge a premium for the early LEs. they were cheap as chips, at least for the most of them for the first two years.

That's correct. I think HSA still really didn't believe they could get away with higher prices on them and were just happy to blow them out the door at any price. 

IIRC, the Party Piramides were under $200 a box. I know Monte 2 wasn't too far from that (low $200s or thereabouts). I don't recall any price hikes until at 03 I believe.

My question is why would they use the wrappers knowing the cigars wouldn't be viable? You can see that they're dark to begin with...

My impression from the Chase piece was that the wrappers were gathering dust before the the idea of the EL program allowed them to be used. 

[Ken Gargett]

26 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

That's correct. I think HSA still really didn't believe they could get away with higher prices on them and were just happy to blow them out the door at any price. 

IIRC, the Party Piramides were under $200 a box. I know Monte 2 wasn't too far from that (low $200s or thereabouts). I don't recall any price hikes until at 03 I believe.

My question is why would they use the wrappers knowing the cigars wouldn't be viable? You can see that they're dark to begin with...

My impression from the Chase piece was that the wrappers were gathering dust before the the idea of the EL program allowed them to be used. 

got the same impression from the chase article. 

quite a few of them were $130 a box. i think i still have empty boxes with the price tags. and were certainly cheaper than cigars like monte 2. they started to seriously climb with the 03s. all in agreement. 

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

quite a few of them were $130 a box.

I know the Monte Robustos and RyJ Ex 2 were pretty cheap but I didn't think they were that low, although now I'm thinking back I believe the Party Piramides were well below $200. The Monte Robustos would certainly have been cheaper than the No. 2. And the RyJ certainly the cheapest of the bunch. RyJ was a very low priced brand at the time as was Bolivar. I recall 50 cabs of Ex 4 for like $210. BRC was about $130. 

I have a receipt for the 02 RyJ Robustos for about $250 from a Hong Kong online vendor and I recall paying a little less for the PSD3 so the 02s were substantially more. 

[griller]

I remember getting a 10 of those initial release Partagas Pyramids way back. I'm not going to say they were terrible, but the flavor profile was not to my liking, and heavy on what you'd get from a very young NC maduro. The wrappers were fireproof, too. Worst of all, they were the cause of a beetle outbreak that forced me to toss several, plus about a half dozen others. So, no fond memories of this release, unfortunately.

Now that I think about it, I may still have 1 buried in a 'dor. Will try to dig thru this weekend to verify. Would be awesome interesting to revisit, but not expecting much...

[Ken Gargett]

6 minutes ago, griller said:

I remember getting a 10 of those initial release Partagas Pyramids way back. I'm not going to say they were terrible, but the flavor profile was not to my liking, and heavy on what you'd get from a very young NC maduro. The wrappers were fireproof, too. Worst of all, they were the cause of a beetle outbreak that forced me to toss several, plus about a half dozen others. So, no fond memories of this release, unfortunately.

Now that I think about it, I may still have 1 buried in a 'dor. Will try to dig thru this weekend to verify. Would be awesome interesting to revisit, but not expecting much...

when you say a '10', you mean part of a box? i may be wrong but i don't believe that they were ever sold as a pack of ten. perhaps someone with more info than myself can advise? 

[joeypots]

15 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

in fairness, they did not charge a premium for the early LEs. they were cheap as chips, at least for the most of them for the first two years. after that, when they realised what a winner they had, up went the prices. i have always believed that there were no 2002 LEs, as they simply were not prepared for how successful the program would be. they got through a lot of those leaves early and suddenly found the world clamouring for more.

some of those early LEs, the partagas pyramides etc, i remember as $130 a boc at the time (or CUC or whatever). still had the price tags. but they were a bit cheaper than many normal production cigars at the time. 

 

and thanks Nino. terrific read. 

   And in fairness, do not see myself as any kind of expert given the level of knowledge many on this board have. I had just started to buy Cuban cigars in 2000 and the Els became all the rage shortly thereafter. I was buying them because they were so popular and was waiting around for them to come into their own. So I am a bit of a fashion victim. I remember sharing 5 year old PSD#3ELs with friends who were less than impressed. And, then the mythology started to evolve about getting first release Els if one wanted the good cigars. All the while I'd smoke Epi#1s, Partagas 898 V, Partagas Lonsdales, BCEs, ERDM PC, Lusitanias, and HU Mag 46s and Conni 1s, amongst others and after about 8 years it dawned on this marble head that I was treasuring the special productions cigars while smoking the cigars I liked. No doubt some of the Els were pretty good but I simply do not care for the flavor of the cigars and lost patience with the program. I've have stuck to regular production since then and never looked back.

 

 

[Tstew75]

Kudos to them for the genius marketing idea with ELs, it's made them tons of coin.

That said, I can never figure out how they get away using those thick, rough, mottled wrappers on their flagship cigars. It's embarrassing.

Another interesting point...ELs of today seem to look nothing like the OG ones in the photos above. Sheen on modern EL wrappers is pretty damn rare, yet those original releases looked like they could blind you.

[Hammer Smokin']

but did you see the sparkling second band?

[griller]

12 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

when you say a '10', you mean part of a box? i may be wrong but i don't believe that they were ever sold as a pack of ten. perhaps someone with more info than myself can advise? 

Sorry, I should have been more clear... I got 10 cigars from a box of 25. I had a friend back in the day who liked to do box splits, and I got 10 & he kept the rest. 

 

[Ken Gargett]

34 minutes ago, griller said:

Sorry, I should have been more clear... I got 10 cigars from a box of 25. I had a friend back in the day who liked to do box splits, and I got 10 & he kept the rest. 

 

thanks. makes much more sense.

[griller]

Update...

Looks like I actually had 5 left of the Partagas Piramides LE from 2000. Definitely buried in the 'dor, but found nonetheless. 

For reference, I added pics from 2 other pyramid sized cigars so you can sort of see the difference in wrapper hues. 

The RAs pictured also have those dark, nearly Maduro wrappers. Last one of those I smoked was maybe 2016, and it displayed the same negative characteristics (fireproof wrapper, NC maduro-esque flavors) as the Partagas. Some folks may love a Maduro wrapper, but my palate isn't suited for that flavor profile unfortunately (especially when I'm expecting a Cuban experience).

[ChanceSchmerr]

Thanks for digging up this article, @Ken Gargett, as well as the further background @Nino!

I remember reading that article when that issue came out years ago (I love Cigar Journal, and ECCJ before that), but one nugget escaped me then that stands out glaringly now - probably the first time I've ever seen anyone recommend the Trinidad Short Robusto T LOL

Also, it makes me pine for my since finished box of Partagas Piramides LEs that I found in Bahrain in 2012. Those wrappers were toothy, but not too dark (a nice colorado, tbh). They weren't a perfect burn but not fireproof as some others have seen. Most of all, they were delicious smokes!

[Doctorossi]

It dumbfounds me that Habanos could be so without an understanding of how/where to market that product after mere DECADES of selling EMS stock to Hunters & Frankau.  🤦‍♂️

[NSXCIGAR]

On 8/5/2021 at 8:11 AM, Lrabold89 said:

and they still barely burn

..................total garbage 

They were originally considered unsuitable for a reason. Magically they become suitable with a second band. 

On 8/5/2021 at 10:15 AM, Tstew75 said:

That said, I can never figure out how they get away using those thick, rough, mottled wrappers on their flagship cigars. It's embarrassing.

Second bands erase all embarrassment. 

23 hours ago, Doctorossi said:

It dumbfounds me that Habanos could be so without an understanding of how/where to market that product after mere DECADES of selling EMS stock to Hunters & Frankau.

Marketing? All HSA knew before 2001 was keep doing what we're doing but more and faster until the wheels come off which they did by 2000. Everything about the process was cookie cutter and had been in place for 35 years. Same vitolas, same formats, same quality. There wasn't any marketing until a private company took over in 2000. Decades of success don't resonate when there's no profit. Keep doing whatever you've been doing is the only directive. In fact proactive, creative and out-of-the-box thinking can easily get you fired.