toscani??

[Ken Gargett]

mate just sent this through. he picked it up in a news report in bangkok. what the hell is a toscani and why would rich people be smoking them? other than for the famous lack of taste for which sydney is renowned.

Sydney's rich fume: $4m cigar theft

Daniel Emerson

June 18, 2008 - 2:23PM

Tobbacconist Charles Vella swears that thieves who stole $4 million

worth of cigars from his Girraween warehouse at the weekend would

have needed a "five-tonne truck" to cart them all away.

He said the theft included 83,000 sticks of one brand favoured by

cigar connoisseurs, Toscani, after the thieves broke in through the

roof sometime between 4pm last Friday and 8.20am on Monday.

The 77-year-old businessman said he thought the theft was an

organised job rather than an opportunistic crime.

Worryingly, he said, the Amax Avenue warehouse's sophisticated alarm

system was simply bypassed when "somewhere along the track [it] was

deactivated, not from inside the premises".

[Ken Gargett]

just googled this. not promising.

Toscani cigar machine

Document Type and Number:

United States Patent 3033210

[Ken Gargett]

and now this.

DELETED THE NAME OF THE VENDOR SO AS NOT TO ENDURE THE WRATH OF THE FORUM.

Average Rating of 8.02 by 12 Customers

xxxxxxx Toscani cigars are produced in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA. Originating in 1896, these distinctive, dry-cured cigars are machine-made with a mellow, medium-bodied blend of 100% dark-fire-cured Kentucky and Tennessee tobaccos.

Country: United States

Length/Ring: 6 1/2 x 34

Shape: Panatela

Wrapper: Natural

Strength: Medium

Quantity: 50

Found a lower price?

Famous Price: $41.99

Availability: IN STOCK

so less than a buck a stick? sydney's wealthiest must be devastated.

[JMH]

Clearly insurance fraud because he couldn't get anyone to buy them.

[88keys]

Hey Ken,

I'm no expert but I think "Toscani" simply refers to normal Italian cigars. They're thin, hard and dry. They're still made in Italy and imitated here in the U.S., mostly for old Italian-Americans I guess. If a habano is a great steak, a toscano is no better than meatloaf, but they can be sort of fun.

I have a 5-pack from Italy which says "Toscani. Il sigaro italiano dal 1818. Prodotto tipico italiano fabbricato secondo una antica ricetta del Granducato di Toscana." (Characteristic Italian product made according to an old recipe of the Granduchy of Tuscany)

They're a niche product within a niche market, but they must have loyal customers. When I asked about them in Dusseldorf, the guy said that he had plenty of call for them but couldn't get them because of problems with the Italian tobacco monopoly.

[88keys]

Perhaps too much info -- if so, sorry. It's comical that in Italy cigars may wind up protected as "slow food"!

http://editore.slowfood.com/editore/rivist...01/toscani.html

The real toscano

Nanni Ricci

Italy’s answer to the puros of Cuba. An appreciation of the best Italian cigars, their origins and how they are made.

In a world which is now is committed to banning smoking in public, the growing interest that surrounds cigars, and how well they complement an after-dinner drink, seems paradoxical to say the least. In this article, we would like to help our readers understand the profound difference between enjoying a top-quality cigar in good company, what one might call a mellow, or “slow” smoke, and the nervous chain-smoking of cigarettes, which could be termed a “fast” smoke.

( ...)

As we said, only some cigars are made up of 100% “natural” tobacco, that is to say they do not include any additives. These are the puros produced in many tropical countries, especially Cuba, the elegantly tapered Virginia cigars, with their straw tip, and the toscani, the Tuscan cigars we would like to tell you about.

The name toscano is no coincidence because this cigar was conceived, around a century and a half ago, at the tobacco factory in Lucca, in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The invention appears to have been fairly serendipitous for the story goes that a bale of Kentucky tobacco leaves was left out in the rain by mistake and began to ferment. The manager, a parsimonious administrator by nature, decided that rather than throw the bale out, it should be used to make coarse cigars instead of going into the usual pipe tobacco. The end product was found to be so good that a production line was set up to make this unique cigar. In a short time, it became highly sought after throughout Europe and became known as the Toscano.

Maybe this is just a nice story but it is true that tobacco has played an important role in the rural economy of Tuscany. Witness to this is borne by the imposing gabled barns of the tobacco farms that you can see along the valleys of the Tiber, the Chiana and the Arno, as well as along some of the smaller valleys in the region. These fertile plains once grew the highly acclaimed black tobacco used to make Tuscan cigars, which were cured in these very barns. Nowadays, the Tiber valley is the only area of cultivation, but the method of using direct heat to cure the tobacco has not changed. The leaves are hung in rows and slowly dried by the heat and smoke of fires lit on the ground. Gradually, they absorb that smoky aroma that is typical of the Kentucky tobacco produced around here. It is this aroma which distinguishes genuine Tuscan cigars. The dried leaves are sorted and collected into bundles, then pressed and packed into large boxes ready for sale. This is where the agricultural phase ends and the tobacco, all boxed up, can remain in dry warehouses for years without deteriorating.

Once they arrive at the factory in Lucca, the boxes are immersed in water to restore to the dried, fragile leaves the necessary humidity to enable them to be worked. The best leaves, those that are big, elastic and thick, are detached from the midrib to form two perfectly matching halves that will go to make the wrapper, the outermost layer of the cigar. The other leaves are cut into strips for the filling. At this point the women who roll the cigars, and whose manual dexterity is crucial to the quality of the finished product, enter the picture as the proud upholders of an ancient tradition. Seated at their workplace in a neat room reminiscent of a school classroom, they work with great concentration, occasionally pausing to swap friendly banter with the wit that is so typical of women from Lucca while keeping up the serene, steady working rhythm that belongs to craft production. Thanks to their skill, the cigars take shape, each one almost identical to the next. In fact, there is so little variation in size and shape that even the most sophisticated machinery would be hard pressed to improve upon their products. The supervisor prowls slowly round the room, like a teacher overseeing an exercise in class. He is an expert on the tricks of the trade and offers advice or encouragement with the measured tones of a man who knows he can trust “his women”. The supervisor also knows that the survival of this old tradition depends on maintaining the serene atmosphere of this very special workplace.

The wet, shiny cigars are now laid out on large trays of cloth and placed in special rooms where careful controls on the temperature and humidity encourage the mysterious fermentation process from which the cigars derive their rich, complex aromas. After this, when the toscani have been allowed to dry out, the cigars are individually wrapped in cellophane and sent to the warehouse to mature. Here, expert personnel ensure that the temperature and humidity are ideal. The cigars will stay in the warehouse for six months to two years, depending on their quality, until they reach perfection.

From this brief account, readers will have noted the similarities between Tuscan cigars and many of Italy’s greatest traditional food products. In this particular case, we are not talking about a food but a product which nevertheless is destined to give connoisseurs marvellous sensations of taste and smell. Tuscan cigars (unfortunately, not all of them) are made from a natural raw material grown in a designated region with traditional methods. Their manufacture is a combination of craft skills and special environmental conditions. Maturing is the result of a completely natural biological process that imbues them with unique characteristics of taste and smell. It’s almost as if we were talking about a traditional salami or a great cheese.

It is not surprising therefore, that Slow Food has included the original Tuscan cigar in its list of protected products, and is ready to set up a defence committee should it look as though production might be coming to an end.

Agriculture minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio is keen to draw up Dop (protected designation of origin) or Igp (protected geographical indication) regulations in defence of this exceptional product. This may be reassuring but at the same time, we feel we must continue to badger the state-owned tobacco company to modify its curious manufacturing and marketing policies. On the one hand, it wants to create new products that are Tuscan lookalikes while on the other it appears unable to promote seriously the genuine article.

The success enjoyed by the pairing of Tuscan cigars with Italian grappas at the taste workshop held at the Salone del Gusto reinforces our belief that there is an “Italian way forward” when it comes to matching after-dinner spirits with cigars. They surely have a place even in the most exclusive restaurants, where until now Cuban puros, rum and brandy have reigned unchallenged.

[anacostiakat]

Sounds like a scam to me.

[smokum]

I will never forgt the stench of these as we were terrorizing the old guys at the corner Italian Club in the old neigborhood when we were kids. There was an old fellow we called "Cleats" because when he hobbled along he made that distinctive "click=click" of heal cleats. He douldn't catch us but he swore at us and we laughed our balls off ! I dont know how to create a link without showing the company name but I doubt anyone will be buying these !! These are the Toscanis

http://www.avanticigar.com/avarticle4.html

[tigger]

I know that Gino brought a few of these to Queens during Lisa's visit in December. He may have more information about them.

Once in a long while, meatloaf hits the spot. :-)

[GoSteelers]

Usually flavored with some horrible liquor such as Anise or Ammareto:-(

[Jay Hemingway]

i thought toscani was an appetizer at the olive garden???:-P

[kjellfrick]

I picked up some boxes of different Toscano cigars when I was in Italy last year. They do have a following, not only in Italy. Interesting taste, very smokey, and definitely a "change of pace" from the habanos. I asked the guy in the LCDH in Rome what cubans he smoked and he answered that he only smoked Toscanos! :-|

[Tampa1257]

I thought that Clint Eastwood made them famous in his spaghetti westerns such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". :-)

[Ken Gargett]

guys, thanks for all the info. never fail to learn something here.

i'd always thought he was a singer.

[BlackFriar]

Used to smoke toscani style cigars in Iraq. They came in five packs were bone dry and looked much like what Clint Eastwood smoked in spaghetti westerns. Mean little buggers but they get you your nicotine fix, and in such a harsh and dry climate they needed no babying. Don't smoke them now but I will when I go back.

I loved them but never thought of them as "cigars."

[Ken Gargett]

the world is full of coincidences. went to a mate's place for dinner in the barossa last night. terrific night and after, quite a few of us sat around his bonfire in one of the thickst pea-soup fogs of all time - lasted till about 11 the next morning and the trip home was a snail's pace as hard to see more than six feet.

any way, after dinner, what did he pull out. a little box of five of these. i gave him a hamlet and everybody was much happier.