 Plus: the newest “Stairway to Heaven”
Los Angeles, July 1 – Here comes America’s Independence Day on Monday, the Fourth of July. What to smoke?
With almost all cigars marketed in the United States coming from outside the country, brands dedicated to U.S. history and patriotic figures are now few and far between. Some of your choices today include:
• All Americas
Never heard of it? It’s a Nicaraguan-made, mixed-fill, value brand offered by Phillips & King in four sizes in bundles of 20.
• American Stogies
This is a nice cigar, also made in Nicaragua and distributed by Indianhead of Miami, Florida. It’s box-pressed and offered in six sizes in two styles, with a Nicaraguan-grown Criollo wrapper or Corojo wrapper. All are offered in boxes of 25.
• Battleground
Virtually unknown outside the Northeast U.S., this brand is a tribute to the Civil War, with six shapes in the line, all named for famous Union or Confederate generals such as Grant, Chamberlain and Hancock for the North and Lee, Jackson and Pickett for the South. The artwork is spectacular and the cigars are nice, with a choice of mild-bodied, medium or full-bodied depending on the wrapper you prefer.
• Camacho Liberty
This is probably the best of the “red, white and blue” brands available today, but it’s hard to find thanks to its limited production and high price tag. It was introduced in one size by Caribe Imported Cigars in 2003 in a run of 20,000 cigars and is made annually. It’s very full in body as well as size, with the 2003 edition reaching eight inches long and 58 ring. It’s offered – if you can find it – in boxes of 20, as well as individual coffins.
For 2005, a new Liberty size (pictured above) was made in a perfecto shape of six inches long and 54 ring. A brilliant American flag is screened on the top of the box and on both layers of the individual coffins inside. The blend is even more special, with a combination of Honduran-grown leaves and some pre-embargo Cuban leaf from the Eiroa family warehouse. If you can find them, expect to pay about $14 per cigar before any applicable local tobacco taxes.
• Henry Clay
This is certainly a well-known brand, but does not have the high profile it enjoyed when it was made in Cuba. Named for the famed U.S. Representative, Speaker of the House, Senator and Secretary of State (not to mention failed Presidential candidate), it was one of the world’s top brands in the 19th Century, but has receded in fame since then.
Altadis U.S.A. makes the brand now, in its vast Tabacalera de Garcia factory in La Romana, Dominican Republic. It has a small corps of devoted fans who especially enjoy the line for its insistence on maduro wrappers on all of its sizes.
Amazingly, this is one of the only brands now on the U.S. market which is named for a famous American. We found only three others:
> Lars Tetens offers a two-size brand called Richard Nixon to salute the 37th President of the United States. Interestingly, these cigars are made in the U.S. in Frankfort, New York.
> Among the machine-made brands, there is a small brand called John Hay, named for the Secretary of State in the McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt administrations from 1898-1905, and William Penn, named for the founder of Philadelphia, and that’s it.
• Patriot
This is another inexpensive, bundled brand, made in the Dominican Republic offered by Big City Cigars. It features the bald eagle and an American shield on the band. Medium in body, it comes in four sizes in bundles of 25.
• Salute to Arms
Aimed primarily at the military market by the Tabacalera Esteli, this is a one-size (7 x 48) brand which is offered in your choice of Army, Navy, Marines or Air Force bands. The blend is medium in body and available in boxes of 25.
Pity that some of the brands of the past aren’t still available. Havana-made brands of the past often saluted political or popular figures from France, Great Britain, the U.S. and other nations. Among the Cuban brands named after noteworthy Americans:
> Benjamin Franklin
> Daniel Webster
> General R.E. Lee
> Jenny Lind
> Lincoln
> Uncle Sam
> Washington
> Wilson
Pity that in the “land of the free” we can’t enjoy cigars from Cuba and are barely allowed to smoke in public!
A new “Stairway to Heaven:”
With the continuing success of the hand-made, multi-flavored Heaven line, it was only a matter of time before Heather Phillips figured out how to incorporate the title of the Led Zepplin’s’ famed 1971 hit, “Stairway to Heaven” in her brand.
Now she’s done it.
It’s a special clear-as-glass plastic tube for the Heaven Petite (5 x 30) and Corona (5 1/2 x 46) sizes, available for the Celestial Cognac, Cupid’s Cherry Cream, Heather’s Honey Nut, Heavenly Vanilla and Raging Rum flavors. The tube caps are color-coordinated so you’ll know which flavor you’re buying.
Look for them in a stepped counter display at your local smokeshop, or in a sampler pack of the five different flavors. It gives a whole new meaning to Robert Plant’s line “and she’s buying a stairway . . . to heaven.”
~ Rich Perelman
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