Cigars, Cigar Information and where to find Premium Cigars, Discounted Cigars and even Cheap Cigars

ANCIENT CUBAN SEEDS IN NEW CIGARS

Page 1 of 2

Plus: Canadian province's ban on display of tobacco products now in effect

Los Angeles, July 3 – John Vogel spent years chasing his dream of resurrecting original Cuban tobaccos and re-introducing them in new blends to excite smokers who never got a taste of pre-embargo Havanas.

Now he’s on a roll.

Vogel’s Tabacos de la Cordillera will unveil four new cigars at the upcoming International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailer convention and trade show in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks, each using a different Cuban tobacco whose seeds were kept genetically pure since their planting in Cuban soil in the 1940s and 1950s:

Fundacion Ancestral Remedios 1942 and Fundacion Ancestral Santa Clara 1943 are both maduro-wrapped cigars using ancient seeds grown into new leaf today at the Tabacos de la Cordillera complex in Puriscal, Costa Rica. Leaves from different primings are used for the wrapper, binder and filler of these cigars, but all are from the specific seed used for that cigar.

The Remedios 1942 is medium-to-full in body while the Santa Clara 1943 is considered medium-bodied. Both are produced in four sizes: Churchill (7 inches by 52 ring), Corona (6 1/4 x 44), Robusto (5 x 50) and Torpedo (6 x 52), and offered in boxes of 25 and packs of five (Churchill, Robusto, Torpedo) and six (Corona).

The new Vogel Green line is made from a seed introduced in the legendary San Juan y Martinez area of Cuba’s Vuelta Abajo in 1950. It’s a mellow, maduro-wrapped cigar of medium body, offered in five sizes: the four sizes shown for the 1942 and 1943 series, but with the addition of a Toro (6 x 52). All sizes are offered in boxes of 25, unique in their use of a “V” cut-out to symbolize the brand. Retail pricing is from $11-12 per cigar, not including local tobacco and sales taxes.

The new Vogel Red blend is made from a seed introduced for growing in eastern Cuba, in Santiago de Cuba – capital of the Oriente Province – in 1951. Although less famous now than leaf from the Vuelta Abajo, Oriente still produces high-quality leaf to this day.

Vogel Red is medium-to-full in body, but has a lighter wrapper than the Green and like all of the other Tabacos de la Cordillera cigars, all of the leaf is grown at the 65-acre farm near Puriscal, Costa Rica. The Vogel Red line is offered in the same five sizes as the Vogel Green.

“Vogel Red and Green began with ‘a fresh piece of paper,’ with tobaccos chosen specifically to demonstrate the excellence of the cigars of Old Cuba,” said Vogel. “Due to the unique lineage of the wrapper, binder and filler tobaccos, they do not carry the familiar names of seeds used by the rest of the industry.”

Vogel also insists on using wrapper leaf for his binders in order to ensure better and more uniform combustion, as well as the time-honored entubado method of bunch, in which each leaf is rolled into a “soda straw” that runs the entire length of the cigar. This allows placement of the ligero leaves in the middle of the bunch and, according to Vogel, solves “the two greatest problems” in cigar construction: eliminating tight draws and plugs as well as uneven burning.

<< < previous page 1 2 next page > >>

< Following Column		Previous Column >

Did you know?

“Cigars, as we know them today, began serious production in Seville, Spain around 1676.