Habanos S.A. has just released the tenth volume of the Habanos Collection. The 2010 edition has the Bolivar Gran Belicoso front and center. The cigar was made at the Partagas factory in Havana and is 7 1/8 inches long with a 54 ring gauge. Known as the “rodolpho” size in Cuban cigar factories, only the [...]
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In what amounts to a he-said/she-said sort of thing, a Democratic candidate for senate, Jeff Greene, has been accused of going to Cuba. The story is pretty weak stuff – Greene’s boat stopped there, then he went to visit synagogues, then the bought a bunch of cigars – the idea that “going to Cuba” is [...]
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It looks like Cuba is liberalizing a bit. The country’s president, Raul Castro, said this week that more private businesses would be able to run in the communist state. Also, many state jobs will be on the chopping block. This isn’t new, of course. In the early 1990s, Fidel Castro made a little room for [...]
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It’s really not a big deal, but Zsa Zsa Gabor’s eighth husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, has dropped out of the race for the big seat in Sacramento. The Los Angeles socialite cites the need to care for his hospitalized 93-year-old wife. Von Anhalt announced his candidacy for governor of California in February ad was [...]
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For a while there, it started to look like Cuba’s economy was going to implode. With international cigar sales slowing and with weak domestic consumption (i.e. industrial goods, beer and eggs) things were looking so bleak for Cuba, it even seemed like lifting the trade embargo wouldn’t help out Cuba that much.
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For those of you who like larger vitolas (cigar sizes), there’s good news for you, if you can get your hands on them. Habanos S.A., of Cuba, has just released their thickest Romeo y Julieta vitola, the Wide Churchill. At 5 1/8 inches and 55 ring gauge, this oversized robusto with a newly redesigned ornamental [...]
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Cuba’s economy is so battered, it seems, that lifting the U.S. embargo wouldn’t even be enough of a help … well, not in the short run. The country’s infrastructure is in such a sorry state that I would take an incredible amount of time to modernize, according to Dr. William N. Trumbull, interim dean at [...]
Continue reading about Lifting Embargo No Solution to Cuba’s Near-Term Economic Woes
It’s hurricane season, and the storms are starting to swirl. Bonnie, the current tropical storm, is pushing toward southern Florida, the most important location for the cigar industry in the United States. According to Cigar Aficionado (yesterday): Most of the companies in the premium sector of the American cigar industry make their headquarters in and [...]
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Cigar Aficionado reports rather abrupty: “James Suckling, who has been the European Editor of Cigar Aficionado magazine since it was launched in 1992, has retired from the company.” If the company were a human being, Suckling, the parent around at the birth, would be leaving just as it reaches adulthood. Suckling mostly covered Cuba, and [...]
