Cuban Cigars: The Forbidden Tobacco

o lover of cigars can imagine the voluptuous pleasure of sitting in a café sipping slowly a strong magnificent coffee and smoking rhythmically those divine leaves of Cuba," wrote American pianist Arthur Rubenstein.

The first things that come to our mind when we think about Cuba are Fidel Castro, the innocent child caught up in a political tug of war.... and Cuban cigars. The Cuban cigar has the reputation of being the best in the world and have been a symbol of status and wealth, and more recently, rebelling against the United States government.

Tobacco has been used and enjoyed for thousands of years before the infamous Christopher Columbus set foot in the Western world. It is said that the first "official" documentation of cigar tradition among indigenous tribes was by Christopher Columbus, who witnessed the Taino Indians make giant cigars called cohiba. (The use of tobacco in cigar form seemed to be tradition for the Taino Indians, and the word cohiba is thought to have originated from the Mayan word "sikar", meaning "smoking".) Although the indigenous Cubans (and other indigenous people worldwide) had known the tobacco plant for thousands of years before Columbus, tobacco was a new discovery for the European.

As demand for Cuban cigars increased worldwide, the Cuban Cigar Industry emerged. Tobacco farmers usually rolled a few cigars as a supplementary income, but soon the need for larger-scale operations arose. Nonetheless, all cigar workers were required to complete an apprenticeship before they were qualified to work in the industry. Strippers learned the proper way to cut the stem out of the leaf, selectors learned how to properly separate leaves, and packers were trained to inspect cigars before being packaged. The most talented workers were the rollers who needed to learn the art of selecting and blending the proper amounts of leaves to produce the high quality cigars for which Cuba is known.

Cuban cigar workers, while largely unable to read or write, became educated while they worked. Lectors, paid by cigar worker contributions, sat on an elevated chair above the roller tables and read excerpts from local and foreign newspapers, novels, and works of philosophy, depending on the preferences of the rollers.

Cuban Cigar factories have traditionally named brands of Cigars after famous personalities when they died. Queen Victoria, Ernest Hemingway, and Francisco Franco have all been given this honor.

"There is no substitute for our tobacco anywhere in the world. It's easier to make good cognac than to achieve the quality of Cuban tobacco," said Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were big fans of the prestigious cigars, and although Castro gave up tobacco in the 1980's (a "heroic struggle"), Cubans smoke roughly 250 million a year. Former president John Kennedy banned Cuban Cigars in the US, along with other Cuban goods, when he introduced a boycott back in 1961, but not before storing over 1,000 cigars for his own personal use. Kennedy smoked Petit Uppmans.

Still "illegal" in the United States, Cuban cigars can go for over $700 on the street market in the United States! While Americans may not legally be able to enjoy the unique taste of a Cuban Cigar, the Cuban culture thrives around its unrivaled reputation for its prized tobacco. Cigars are a part of the national culture and can also be used as a source of hard currency. While the US Government ban on the Cigars has made a dent in the industry, Cuban Cigars have held their reputation for being the best in the world.