EAR: Clear Havanas, the gas station cigars of their time?

[El Presidente]

EAR = email assistance required. 

 

"being a colector of cigar memorabillia I have several advertising posters from US manufacturers in the late 1800's and early 1900's pointing out that they don't use Clear Havana tobacco and that their cigars were "premium". 

Rob to your knowledge, were Clear havanas, the gas station cigars of their time?  I am having a hard time finding out the answer"

[BrightonCorgi]

Which tobacco did they use then?  Domestic?

[Fugu]

That statement brought up by the enquiry doesn’t make too much sense to me. Perhaps just a marketing ploy instated by certain manufacturers? „Clear Havanas“ were made with Cuban leaf in the US (Florida), often by Cuban immigrants. The tax burden of imported raw tobacco was lower than that of finished cigars at the time.

Perhaps that particular Cuban leaf was (purportedly?) of lower quality than that used in a habano. And I suspect that could’ve actually been the case, indeed.

But other than that, I have no clue what those other manufacturers were alluding to.

[TobaccoRoad]

Just marketing. If that manufacturer had access to Cuban tobacco then they would've been trumpeting that as "premium". I would suspect that just like today, regardless of the origin of the leaf or where it was rolled, there were good manufacturers that made quality product and there were crappy manufacturers that made crappy products. To say that all clear havanas were great or all were gas station cigars would be casting too large of a net. 

[bpegler11]

1950s clear Havanas. Short fillers, machine made cheap cigars. But all Cuban tobacco.


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[MrBirdman]

As I understand it, the vast majority of clear Havanas were machine rolled by the mid-20th century, though there were hand rolled, long-filler varieties. But the true premium market was in actual Havanas.

Given how high production was I’m sure many could be considered “gas station cigars.” But other varieties would’ve been produced for a middle-class market that wanted some quality but couldn’t afford Havanas on a daily basis. It’s worth bearing in mind that back when you could smoke almost anywhere, you might burn through 3-4 cigars a day. 

[Fugu]

We are talking about hand-mades (mostly) for the period concerned.

[El Presidente]

Looking around, I suspect this is the type of marketing that lead to his line of questioning.