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A LEGENDARY CIGAR TO RETURN

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So Rubin is following up on the success of the Alec Bradley MAXX line by naming all new blends with “Alec Bradley” at the start. The newest is the Alec Bradley Tempus (band pictured above), being introduced this month in national distribution.

“I decided to put our company’s name on Tempus, because I know this cigar is something special,” Rubin said. “When I saw this wrapper tobacco on a small Nicaraguan farm in 2001, I could see it was extraordinary, something memorable. I checked back on it periodically ove the next two years.

“Finally in 2003, I knew it was ready, and was thrilled by its appearance, flavor and strength. Two more years followed, for the exhaustive process of sorting and selecting only the finest tobaccos and aging the limited amount of wrapper to produce the Tempus line.”

Rubin says that the final blend is full-bodied, full of flavor and complexity, but also with some subtle power: “its strength sneaks up on you.” Tempus will be offered in five as-yet unnamed shapes:

A corona size: 5 1/2 inches by 42 ring.

A robusto size: 5 inches by 50 ring;

A giant corona: 7 1/2 inches by 41 ring;

A double corona: 7 inches by 49 ring and

A torpedo: 6 1/8 inches by 52 ring.

Retail prices will range from $6.25 to $8.50 and a host of in-store tastings and promotions can be expected.

Change coming to Cuba, tobacco included:
In a country in which the pace of change has been glacial at best, these are wild times in Cuba, where the government – now under the direction of Raul Castro – has announced that Cubans may obtain and use cellular telephones in their own name and is allowing the widespread sale of modern electronics such as computers, DVD players, microwave ovens and other items.

Of considerable interest to cigar hounds is the announcement that land will be made available to individual farmers or to cooperatives with the goal to increase production of salable crops, such as tobacco. According to the Associated Press:

Government TV said 51 percent of arable land is underused or fallow, and officials are transferring some of it to individual farmers and associations representing small, private producers. According to official figures, cooperatives already control 35 percent of arable land — and produce 60 percent of the island's agricultural output.

“Everyone who wants to produce tobacco will be given land to produce tobacco, and it will be the same with coffee," said Orlando Lugo, president of Cuba's national farmers association.

The change is a sharp contrast to the early days of Cuba's revolution, when the government forced or encouraged private farmers to turn their land over to the state or form government-controlled collective farms. But without more details, it was difficult to tell the significance of the program, which began last year but was announced only this week.

“If this means all land that's not being used, like for private farmers, cooperatives and state farms, is available, that's positive,” said Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a Cuba economics expert at the University of Pittsburgh. “Assuming, of course, they have the freedom to sow and sell whatever they want.”

While it is far too early to know whether Cuba’s own cigar output will be impacted by this decision, it is also the case that European manufacturers such as Villiger, which use Cuban tobacco in their blends, could find additional sources of tobacco from this initiative.

In addition to the famed Pinar del Rio tobacco fields in western Cuba, quality tobacco has also been produced in the past in the Oriente region in eastern Cuba as well as in Santa Clara province in the middle of the island that was used in cigars in the middle of the 20th Century and that has also been exported for use by off-island manufacturers.
~ Rich Perelman

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