This week on Lounge Lizards: Stoic Equanimity in Wisdom with fifteen years aged Redbreast Single Pot Still Blended Irish Whiskey/Cigar Pricing/Humidor Disaster!/Exclusive Members Club/

[El Presidente]

The Lizards pair Stoic Equanimity in Wisdom with fifteen years aged Redbreast Single Pot Still Blended Irish Whiskey. The guys detail discuss how drastic cigar pricing differences can be around the world, they share a listener email on a disastrous situation in his humidor and Senator shares that he’s joined an 'exclusive member club'. PLUS: Limited Avowed Sampler, Listener Asks: "Are My Cigars Ruined?", The Trouble with Thermoelectric Humidors, Alaska Bans New Lounges, Cuban Tobacco in Non-Cuban Cigars, New 11,000 ft² Cigar Bar & More

 

 

 

[Christophe]

I agree with Senator, I don't see the Cuban tobacco in non-Cuban marckas happening. At least not on a large scale. Even if Cuba opened for international trade across the board tomorrow, I think they can get a much better return-on-investment from putting their tobacco in highly sought-after and profitable Cuban cigars than from selling it off as raw material, and a lot of economics would have to change for this equation to flip. And there's probably also a bit of pride involved in keeping Cuban tobacco exclusively in puros (but I think this wheighs less than economic arguments). 

BTW, Cuba has been selling tobacco (or at least used to recently), for cigarettes, and I have a few business partners who used to buy it. They all stopped buying a few years ago because of either supply (chain) issues, or because they feared issues with US government or US partners. I know it's different grade tobacco, but perhaps that does point to the pride and monetary incentive of not selling Cuban leaf for cigars. 

As a Belgian cigar smoker, I'd like to echo the British listener as well. Plenty of Non-Cuban brands are available here, but most of the time at a premium. An Exclusivo (~ € 30)  is more expensive than a D.4 (€20) in Belgium. Many NCs have increased more in price the last 5 years than CCs. Luckily, overall, prices are still far below the UK. But yeah, we can find a wide variety of NCs in Europe. The most notable exceptions being boutique brands like e.g. Stoic and all the pretend-Cuban-NCs (like the Trinidad Espiritu, Montecristo White Label, etc.).

[dan05]

I’m new to Cuban cigars but haven’t they been revered and sought after forever? Even Kennedy quickly snapped up some Upmanns before he shut it all down. They have a product the world wants, it makes no sense to muddy the waters by mixing with non-Cuban. That being said, non-Cuban manufacturers do procure seeds from Cuba to grow, so is it already sort of happening? 

[Chibearsv]

Is this the same cigar that Mitch smoked on the last discord meet up? Sounds like my kind of cigar. I’ll be grabbing a couple. Thanks.

[zacca]

10 hours ago, dan05 said:

that being said, non-Cuban manufacturers do procure seeds from Cuba to grow, so is it already sort of happening? 

That's been happening for a long time. Regardless though, the genetics of the plant are the same but the terroir is much different so you get leaf with a different composition. 

[dan05]

I’m listening to the most recent one where they are talking about the group and how we select cigars compared to them. It’s interesting. They are at the moment talking about El Presidente’s choices and preferred cigars. Thanks for sharing their show. Good listening in the car. 

Also, your show with comparing cigars with the panel is pretty cool. Watched one last night with a H.Upmann Magnum 46. 

[ha_banos]

Listen...in wisdom. It's a Churchill. It's bad enough there are a heck load of vitolas and factory names already. In wisdom indeed...Yes, yes, Stoic. I know. But, no. Stop it. Marketing again. Why does marketing not respect cognitive load?

 

[TomsRibs210]

Big influencers. The Kardashians of the cigar world.