 Views from a Smoke-Filled Room
Los Angeles, December 24 – It’s time to make our list and check it twice before Cigar Santa comes to town. We’ve been good, so we’d like to ask for:
• Equitable Treatment for Cigar Smokers!
We have suffered enough. The anti-tobacco craze has gone far enough and there are signs that no matter what the do-gooders try and how much money is wasted, there will still be millions of Americans who smoke tobacco products of one kind or another. Millions!
We who smoke deserve respect, too, just like those who consume alcoholic beverages, eat steaks and enjoy bleu cheese dressing!
Here in California, an effort will be mounted next year to try and modify the current law outlawing smoking in all enclosed places of business. The goal will be to allow businesses to choose whether they want to allow smoking or not. Large signs would be posted outside businesses which allow smoking so that no one who enters will be under any delusion as to the nature of the establishment.
The result will be less smoking on the street corners and the drop in tobacco tax collections in the state may be reversed.
It’s an uphill battle to be sure, but with anti-tobacco zealot John Burton now out of the California Legislature thanks to term limits and with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Governor’s Office, it’s worth a try.
Let Freedom Ring!
• More Sampler Packs and Boxes of 10
There are so many good cigars on the market today that it’s impossible to try them all. But we’re continuing to work at it.
We rarely find ourselves excited about buying a full box of 25 cigars anymore. We’re much happier to try a larger sampler pack, such as Fonseca’s marvelous “Classic Robusto Collection,” offering a two-cigar sampling of five tastes: their underrated Cubita Spanish Market Selection and four Fonseca robustos: Fonseca, Fonseca Serie F, Fonseca Vintage and Vegas de Fonseca. The entire line is one box at one time for the very responsible price of around $30.
This kind of all-line sampler is gaining in popularity. General Cigar offers a fine El Credito sampler with two each of La Gloria Cubana, El Rico Habano and La Gloria Cubana Serie R and a Macanudo Hyde Park sampler with the Café, Robust and Maduro blends included. Ashton has a sensational 10-pack sampler with all of their great lines included. Partagas and C.A.O. also have full-range samplers available, but with only one cigar from each line.
We’d like to see more.
• What About Rin Tin Tin?
Okay, we’re not going to the dogs here, but I can’t resist asking for more cigars in tins.
The classiest gift for the holidays had to be the now-widely-popular Altadis tins featuring three-packs or four-packs of popular brands such as Don Diego, Montecristo, Onyx Reserve, Romeo y Julieta and Trinidad. They are easy to use, virtually crush-proof and have endless after-uses for you and members of your family.
More brands should consider packaging some of their more expensive cigars in these kinds of packs to encourage new users to try them.
• The Ultimate Cigar Case
There seems to be no end to the types of cases you can buy, but I haven’t found one yet which meets all my needs:
> A slim, non-fingered, telescoping case made of leather in a choice of colors.
> A special end chamber or slot (about one inch wide) into in which a narrow lighter and cutter can be stored, on top of each other.
> Width to hold three 52-54 ring cigars, which with the cutter-lighter slot, would still fit into the breast pocket of a man’s blazer or suit jacket.
That way, I can carry everything in one place!
This concept is similar to the all-in-one ladies compact of the 1920s and 1930s. Ronson was famous for its “Magnapact” combination cigarette case, lighter and make-up kit, which was slim enough to fit into a small, wrist-bound purse.
Today, the only makers of a similar item are Csonka with its line of travel humidors and a wild item called the "Cigar Treasure," which includes a lighter, cutter and an integrated ashtray! Both, however, are too big for the coat pocket.
Who’s up for this design challenge?
• A New Look at Cuba
The Bush Administration has won re-election and with that should come a reexamination of the Cuban embargo.
Simply stated, the embargo has not resulted in a regime change and none will occur until the death of Fidel Castro. That much is quite clear.
What the Cuban people feel about their post-Castro future can be shaped now. It’s clear that the Cuban government is now pressing its anti-American message not only in protest of the tightened embargo, but also to help shape the days after Castro’s death, when the ruling Communist government will face a spirited challenge from internal forces as well as pressure from the U.S. government and Cuban expatriated living in the U.S.
The time to allow more cross-pollenation between these forces is now, on peaceful terms, before Castro passes and the crisis in Cuba starts. The policy of “constructive engagement” which worked so well in Vietnam – another Communist state – can work with Cuba.
The property claims of expatriate Cubans who were robbed in the name of “nationalization” in the 1960s can be settled fairly inexpensively and “clean the slate” so that a post-Castro Cuba can embrace all of its natives, rather than pit one against another in courts of unknown independence in a future, post-Communist state.
Too much change, all at once? Maybe. But a close reexamination of U.S. policy toward Cuba, based on current and future American national interests – including the continuing export of democracy as fundamental tenet of national self-rule around the world – could set us on a path that leads to a closer relationship between Americans and Cubans, regardless of what the Cuban government would have both sides believe.
As we said, Let Freedom Ring!
Thanks, Santa. Happy holidays to all.
~ Rich Perelman
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