What makes a cuban cigar so special?

In the world of cigar journalism, few subjects have had more column-inches devoted to them than the question of what makes Cuban cigars special. If you ask any person with no familiarity with cigars where the best cigars in the world are made, they will certainly reply “Cuba.” If you ask many people who know a great deal about cigars the same question, there is a good chance they will answer the same.

From the 1600s when tobacco first became popular in Europe until the 1960s, Cuba enjoyed a near-worldwide monopoly on the premium cigar market. Today, premium cigars are produced all over the world, from the Caribbean and South and Central America, to Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Cameroon, to name a few.  

Cuba’s centuries-long seat on the top of the heap has generally kept Cuban cigars fairly conventional. Every non-Cuban cigar producer must distinguish itself in a competitive field, and as such their products come in novel shapes, sizes, and strengths. Cuba produces cigars in standard shapes, within tradition lengths and ring gauges and, while some Cubans are blended lighter and others stronger, they all fall squarely in the middle of the bell-curve. The designs of Cuban cigar packaging  typically follow the classic same cues they have since the early 20th century. Non-Cuban cigar packaging comes in a cornucopia of styles that will either satisfy or disgust every taste.

In terms of construction, Cuban cigars tend to be slightly firmer drawing than many non-Cuban varieties. This is by design (the draw-tester machines in Cuban factories are calibrated for 10 notches more resistance than most of their contemporaries). The advantage of a firmer drawing cigar is that less air passes over the coal with each puff, keeping it cooler, which results in less tar and bitterness in the smoke. This is a key factor in the appeal of Cuban cigars for most die-hards, and is also the source of many of Cuba’s detractors who, accustomed to looser drawing non-Cuban cigars, disparage Cubans as being plugged and unsmokable.  

Cuban cigars are all puros, meaning that all their leaf comes from a single origin. The non-Cuban world has no such constraints, and it is common for cigars to be made with a mix of leaf from all over the world. Cuba does export raw tobacco, although not the prime leaf used in Cuban cigars.

Some non-Cuban producers claim to use Cuban exported leaf in their cigars (which, if true, would render them unsaleable in their primary market - The United States). More often, non-Cuban producers claim to use domestically grown tobacco that comes from Cuban seed. This may be true to some extent, as the seed may well be derived from native Cuban varietals, but it does not account for the amount of effort that Cuba puts into managing its seedstock.

All of Cuba’s seed is produced by the Cuban Tobacco Research Institute, which is a state-level scientific institution who undertake a constant process of careful hybridisation and selection to improve the genetics of their tobacco plants. Each year, the seed for the entire island’s tobacco crop is produced at a handful of farms under specialist supervision to ensure that there is no accidental cross-pollination, and thet only seeds from the strongest plants are issued to farmers. Few if any non-Cuban producers have the capacity to make the same efforts with their seedstock.

Much is made of the unique terroir Cuban climate and soil, and particularly the Vuelta Abajo valley, which is often described as the perfect place for tobacco cultivation. Certainly, the soil in Cuba is chemically unique, but it seems dubious to claim that this tiny location is superior to any other patch of land on earth. What is true is that Cuba has the longest history of tobacco cultivation; many farms in Cuba having been operated by the same families for many generations. Much of the tobacco farming knowledge elsewhere in the world came from Cuba via Cuban emigrees, so perhaps rather than saying that Cuba is the perfect location for tobacco cultivation, it is more accurate to say that tobacco cultivation was designed with Cuba’s environment in mind, and the Cubans have a few centuries advantage in perfecting the techniques for their environment.

Cuban life is one of shortage. Cuban tobacco fields are most often tilled using oxen, not because the Cubans have any particular fondness for the creatures, but because tractors are few in Cuba and fuel is hard to come by. After the oxen, almost every other process from plant to the finished cigar is done entirely by the human hand. When pesticides and fertilisers are used, they are either some home concoction by the farmers, or else a product of Cuba’s Soviet era chemical industry. In terms of pure productivity, the Cuban methods are undoubtedly worse than in nations with modern western machinery and agricultural chemicals. They may not, however, be worse for the  flavour of the cigars they produce.

The final aspect that makes Cuban cigars special is their history. When you light a Habano, you are burning leaves from the same fields as those enjoyed by great heroes and villains, and at famous and infamous occasions, stretching back for centuries. The enjoyment of a cigar is as much an intellectual process as it is an organoleptic one. A moment of quiet contemplation is one of the key joys of cigar smoking, and the pleasure of a cigar can only be enhanced by ruminating on those figures of history and how they felt in the same circumstances that you find yourself. No matter what the future holds for tobacco, the history of the Cuban cigar is one thing that will never be lost and will never be replicated.