Por Larranaga CCC?

[ha_banos]

Does anyone know what the CCC is all about? Anything interesting? Sorry for the nerdy question!

 

 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

Not 100% sure but in 1920 PL moved to a new factory on Carlos Tercero Street (Carlos III), so possibly that's it. 

[nKostyan]

There is such a version:
previously, cigars with a light wrapper were labeled this way. CCC - Claro-Claro/Claro/Claro-Colorado

[ha_banos]

I thought maybe Cuban Cwalitee Control. 

We'll get to the bottom of it.

[KCCubano]

Cheap Cuban Cigars. Used to be at 60 a box. Their hands on QC department will have to have it removed. 

[ha_banos]

There's a reference here to Cuban Cigar Corp. http://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/pedro-perez-former-president-tabacalera-6133

Haven't found much more. I'm not up to speed with the history to be honest. But PL are the oldest of the current Cuban brands right?

 

[NSXCIGAR]

1 hour ago, ha_banos said:

There's a reference here to Cuban Cigar Corp. http://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/pedro-perez-former-president-tabacalera-6133

I think that statement suggests that entity came about in 1991.

And yes, PL is the oldest Cuban marca still in production. 1834. 

On 11/20/2022 at 10:32 AM, nKostyan said:

There is such a version:
previously, cigars with a light wrapper were labeled this way. CCC - Claro-Claro/Claro/Claro-Colorado

I don't think that would have been part of the brand's box design. The wrapper color designation was typically stamped on the bottom. 

[nKostyan]

I don't think that would have been part of the brand's box design.

If you look closely, then this is a sticker.

[ha_banos]

12 hours ago, nKostyan said:

If you look closely, then this is a sticker.

Ya. Thanks. Forgot to mention this. Wonder when the sticker appeared and what's behind it! Anyone got any older boxes? Can anyone try hairdry'ing it off?

 

I think it's on the picadores boxes too.

[garbandz]

cheap,cheerful,communist.....

[Kaptain Karl]

5 hours ago, garbandz said:

cheap,cheerful,communist.....

Cheerful and communist has never existed in the same sentence 😂

[Cairo]

2 hours ago, Kaptain Karl said:

Cheerful and communist has never existed in the same sentence

Hey, Karl.

I can't resist an anecdote from my first day at college many decades ago.

I saw the guy across the hall opening his door.

I walked up to him, looked him in the eye, shook his hand, and introduced myself.

He gave me a perfect Charles Manson stare and announced "I am a Marxist".

(I wonder what he is up to these days....)  

[vladdraq]

I'm coming from a communist country i i can tell there have been plenty of "cheerful communists",  human nature is the same. When you have nothing you enjoy life at the very basics of it. 

[NSXCIGAR]

10 hours ago, garbandz said:

cheap,cheerful,communist.....

This box design would have originated pre-Revolution. 

2 hours ago, Cairo said:

He gave me a perfect Charles Manson stare and announced "I am a Marxist".

Was this actually Charles Manson? 

16 hours ago, nKostyan said:

If you look closely, then this is a sticker.

Yes, I believe it is a sticker but this is probably nothing more than tradition. 

Using a red "CCC" sticker to reference any of the wrapper color designations doesn't really make any sense when they are stamped on the bottom and were pretty universal in CC production. And why not on other brands? 

[Edicion]

Whenever you feel nostalgic just crack one open. Encapsulated air from when communism was still around.

[Kaptain Karl]

23 hours ago, vladdraq said:

I'm coming from a communist country i i can tell there have been plenty of "cheerful communists",  human nature is the same. When you have nothing you enjoy life at the very basics of it. 

Happy to hear you have some joy and cheerfulness! 
My family has a very bad history with communism like many others. The Soviet’s tried to execute my grandfather in ‘48 in Czechoslovakia, after he survived the holocaust/labor and concentration camps because he was working in an uranium mine when his brother escaped to the west. He barely escaped with his life and was separated from his family until the fall of the iron curtain. My parents were able to visit his family in the ‘80’s, and said crossing from Austria into Czechoslovakia was like going into the twilight zone, like going from color TV to black and white. 
 

Hope you and your family are doing well! 

[vladdraq]

Thank you Karl. We had our fair share of tragedy too. Some fled, some died in Auschwitz. After the communists stole the '45 elections they took everything from us. 

But some survived, and passed those lessons to us. I was spared  from those horrors luckily, being born much later. I've had a happy childhood, life went on, but still remember my grandmother's sad eyes when she was looking to the few remaining pictures...Now i understand better. 

 

[nKostyan]

Yes, I believe it is a sticker but this is probably nothing more than tradition. 
Using a red "CCC" sticker to reference any of the wrapper color designations doesn't really make any sense when they are stamped on the bottom and were pretty universal in CC production. And why not on other brands? 

Of course, this is a tradition that means nothing now, because we saw Por Larranaga Colorado-Maduro at 24:24

From MRN encyclopedia two examples:

[Popof4]

On 11/24/2022 at 7:31 AM, ha_banos said:

Ya. Thanks. Forgot to mention this. Wonder when the sticker appeared and what's behind it! Anyone got any older boxes? Can anyone try hairdry'ing it off?

 

I think it's on the picadores boxes too.

Yeh I have a box of Montecarlos with that sticker.  Can't say what's behind it in a clandestine cover up operation sort of way, but i can say that physically there is nothing behind it when I peeled it off.  :-))

[ha_banos]

1 hour ago, Popof4 said:

Yeh I have a box of Montecarlos with that sticker.  Can't say what's behind it in a clandestine cover up operation sort of way, but i can say that physically there is nothing behind it when I peeled it off.  :-))

Thanks. That's a bit anticlimactic then isn't it. I mean why make it a sticker then? Something else for the quality control to overlook!

[Popof4]

2 minutes ago, ha_banos said:

Thanks. That's a bit anticlimactic then isn't it. I mean why make it a sticker then? Something else for the quality control to overlook!

The big secret. :-))   As long as the product doesn't change I'm fine.  I like the PLs MCarlos.  Keep the CCC.

Thanks

[NSXCIGAR]

20 hours ago, nKostyan said:

From MRN encyclopedia two examples

The older box has it and the newer one doesn't...also different models. Maybe factory forgot it, maybe it fell off. 

Even if it was wrapper color related what would the CCC be communicating? Pretty much all wrapper colors begin with C. Claro, Colorado and Candela. I'm not sure what the point would be. 

And of course why would only PL do this? 

[nKostyan]

The older box has it and the newer one doesn't...also different models. Maybe factory forgot it, maybe it fell off. 
Even if it was wrapper color related what would the CCC be communicating? Pretty much all wrapper colors begin with C. Claro, Colorado and Candela. I'm not sure what the point would be. 
And of course why would only PL do this? 

If the assumption is correct, then it may be a pre-revolutionary tradition, the tradition of the Por Larranaga brand. As you know, a single standard for all brands appeared after the revolution.
By the way, on cigar boxes from the Canary Islands, light cigars are sometimes marked with the abbreviation CCC, dark - CM.
As for the practical meaning, it is obvious: one customer likes cigars in a light wrapper, the other in a dark one.

[ha_banos]

Couple more old box images. There from the 60s at least.

[ATGroom]

I don't have an answer, but I find the idea that it's "claro claro claro" dubious.

"Claro claro claro" would be a very light wrapper shade. Not very common to see this stamped on the bottom of any boxes compared to plain "Claro", "Claro Claro" or even "Oscuro." If the CCC sticker was the wrapper shade, then unless PL was known for specialising in only the lightest wrappers (not something I've ever heard of if so) then would expect to see "C" and "CC" stickers much more often than "CCC." As it happens only CCC seems to exist and is on most PL boxes going back forever.

@NSXCIGAR's Carlos III theory seems more plausible to me.

Or some other forgotten certification. (Cigarros Cubanos de Calidad?)