Myth Busters. This cigar is in short supply because they are so hard to roll?

[El Presidente]

I love how myths gain traction. I am being polite 

We make an excellent Fat Fundy at Fabrica 5. Surprisingly, the rollers didn't do a 3 year university course. 

Think Olympic diving. Let's say a Corona has a "rolling difficulty" of 6. Fundarores would be a "7/7.5"

Doesn't quite equate to the 350%+ price difference. 

Scarcity of Fundadores is by intent and not due to how difficult they are to roll. 

[Namisgr11]

"It doesn't have any special tobacco in it".

15 seconds was all it took for him to go off the rails.

[MrBirdman]

More Russian misinformation!!!

I really will never understand why so many cigar "influencers" can't even be bothered to educate themselves on the product. Have you no sense of pride in your work?

[Fugu]

So, let me be the innocent to ask - what’s the reason you find any of the Cohiba and Trini formats in abundance, but not the Fundie nor the Lanceros?! (…and no SigV either)  

[El Presidente]

35 minutes ago, Fugu said:

So, let me be the innocent to ask - what’s the reason you find any of the Cohiba and Trini formats in abundance, but not the Fundie nor the Lanceros?! (…and no SigV either)  

Nor Double Corona or Churchills or Dalia (898) 

It's not because they are any harder to roll.

 

[GavLew79]

Is the prevailing myth that we've all heard many times; "only level 9 rollers in Cuba could roll Lanceros" BS as well? 

[Fugu]

4 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Nor Double Corona or Churchills or Dalia (898) 

It's not because they are any harder to roll.

True for Cohiba, indeed. But not for other brands. Hard to find - sure. But you can find them if you look hard enough and/or have connections. Lanceros/Fundadores … not so! Nada. At least not as far as I can oversee.

So, you’re meaning to say it’s essentially an issue with a particular wrapper?

[El Presidente]

53 minutes ago, Fugu said:

So, you’re meaning to say it’s essentially an issue with a particular wrapper?

I have heard many things, lack of wrapper size (and rationing what is available) being one. It still doesn't make sense to me. 

Difficulty rolling? As someone who commissions those sizes, that makes less sense to me again. 

[anacostiakat]

10 hours ago, MrBirdman said:

More Russian misinformation!!!

I really will never understand why so many cigar "influencers" can't even be bothered to educate themselves on the product. Have you no sense of pride in your work?

Hence my disdain for "influencers".   

[joeypots]

17 minutes ago, anacostiakat said:

Hence my disdain for "influencers".   

More and more about less and less.

[ha_banos]

Well trained by H&F is our Chris. 😊

[Fugu]

9 hours ago, El Presidente said:

I have heard many things, lack of wrapper size (and rationing what is available) being one. It still doesn't make sense to me. 

Difficulty rolling? As someone who commissions those sizes, that makes less sense to me again. 

I am not fully convinced whether one can completely dismiss any effects of rolling effort. Sure it’s not that difficult, but it certainly is more difficult. And that ‘plus’ in labour expenditure alone (and be it just 10 or 20 percent) don’t you think could be determinant of whether to roll this format or an Esmeralda or a La Trova, under conditions of limited labour skill? As long as these (wider/shorter) formats provide the same or even a higher margin.

But sure raw material and wrapper shortages will be at play as well, as has been the case many times before.

Doesn’t make much sense to me either, as you could always adjust pricing according to cost and market demand.

[El Presidente]

57 minutes ago, Fugu said:

Doesn’t make much sense to me either, as you could always adjust pricing according to cost and market demand.

Absolutely. 

The Cuban Cigar Industry is the no 3 or 4 producer of hand rolled cigars by volume in the world today. 39 factories across the island making hand rolled cigars, around 5000 rollers and  somewhere between 250-400 classified elite (8/9) rollers making top specialties. This info is second hand, from two years back, but wouldn't be far off the mark. 

Resources (human/material) may be getting scarcer. If it is not appropriate wrapper then the problem would likely lay with allocation of resources. It can't be level of difficulty.