Cuba

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Cuba

This month’s article, rather than being a pairing, is a series of guidelines for those Americans interested in traveling to Cuba for the first time. I’m going to share some tips about the cigars and a few morsels of travel wisdom.

Upon your arrival in Cuba, everything you see will be something new (to you), starting with the airport. If you already made plans with your hotel, a representative will be there waiting for you. If you still haven’t booked a hotel, there are a couple that I will recommend in “Habana Vieja” (“Old Havana”). I really like one from the Iberostar chain, named Hotel Parque Central a few steps away from the Capitol. You will also find the Spanish-inspired Meliá hotels: the Meliá Habana is a bit away from the downtown area and the Meliá Cohiba, a few minutes from downtown and, of course, the “malecón.”

There are other historic hotels, such as Hotel Habana Libre, which are almost museums, filled with photographs from the revolution. Finally, there is Hotel Nacional which is covered in history but also has a great view.

Setting aside my gig as a travel agent (I’ll expect a commission next time I travel to Havana!), don’t forget to try the “Paladares”, which are traditional Cuban food restaurants, cooked at home by the owners of the establishments. These are very trendy ways to savor authentic and freshly-made gourmet meals.

Time now to focus on the core of our interest. More than likely, anyone traveling to Cuba is passionate about rum and cigars. Some of the rums that you can still find in Cuba include Ron Santiago de Cuba 11 Años, as well as the rums from the Caney line, all these from the eastern part of the island, from Santiago.

As far as cigars, there are a few factories you can visit and hopefully they won’t be closed for restoration when you show up. Among them is the Partagás tobacco factory on Amistad  Street, number 405, very close to the Hotel Parque Central. Another factory you can visit is H. Upmann, located on Belascoaín Street, number 853, between Peñalver and Desagüe streets.

The cigars or “Habanos”, mostly hand-rolled, with leaves coming from the best tobacco growing regions in Cuba, especially from the western zone of the island, from the Pinar del Rio province. This province is a magical place, where time seems to have stood still, with scenes reminiscent of those from dinosaur movies. The mineral- rich soils are the home of the “Vegas Finas de Primera”, the elite tobacco plantations. These plains are silent witnesses to the growth of the different tobacco plants, which after careful of patient maturing, are rolled by craftsmen from the different factories around the island.

Witnessing with your own eyes the myth and legend of the lands from where the famous Cuban tobacco comes is a beautiful thing. But beware, there is a high probability that you’ll find counterfeit Cuban cigars both inside and outside the country. More than likely, if you decide to take a stroll through the old Havana, you’ll attract the attention of someone who’ll offer to sell you Cohiba cigars “just like the ones Fidel used to smoke…” They will all claim to have the real thing…

I once played the role of a tourist looking for cigars and in no time there was a Cuban guy offering to sell me a box of Cohiba for $60 dollars. The price was the first indication that something was wrong. I asked him if I could take a picture of the cigars. At first sight, they appear to be real, but there are flaws that either the counterfeiters are not aware of, or they don’t bother fixing them because they don’t have to (it is very easy to sell them to ignorant tourists).

So here is a list of things to keep in mind when examining a box of cigars:

• Price: too good of a price is often a bad sign. In my case, the Cuban vendor even offered to lower the price to $40 dollars for the box.

• Seals: in this case, the seals were loose, on top of the cigars. It would be very strange for the Cohiba factory (El Laguito) to produce the box and not attach the seals.

• Part of the boxing process for cigars involves selecting them based on wrapper quality and wrapper color. As you can see from the picture, the quality of the wrappers is low and colors are not uniform and many of the leaves have very pronounced veins.

• Another aspect you can use to verify the cigars is the seals that are applied at the bottom of the box, sometimes heat-branded, usually “Habanos SA – Hecho en Cuba – Totalmente a Mano” (if made totally by hand) and a stamp with the month and year of manufacture and a few additional letters that resemble codes. Knowledgeable people from the industry can decipher those codes and ascertain from them the factory where the cigars were rolled.

Why, you may be asking yourself, would it be important for a Cohiba cigar to indicate which factory it was produced at, when it should have been produced by Cohiba’s own factory?

The truth is that cigar factories tend to be format /shape specialists (which can take many years for a cigar roller to become proficient), rather than brand-specific factories. For example, a pyramid selection box, which contains 5 pyramid cigars from different brands, is always rolled and assembled at the H. Upmann factory. These codes, therefore, ensures that consumers are actually get ting what they are paying for, even if the superficial impression is that they are buying one brand that is made by another one.

Even with all these clues, if we still have any doubts, the best way to find out if you have the real thing is to light one up. The counterfeit ones, made with tobaccos that are not from the Vegas Finas, the cigar will be drier, without any of the typical aromas associated with the brand, sometimes very earthy and spicy. Often times the cigars are not properly stored, but other times you may be pleasantly surprised from them too!

My advice is for you to go to different Casas del Habano, be aware of the different options available. You don’t need to star t with a Cohiba, there are many other fantastic brands. Enjoy your trip, you’ll soon find out that you can’t judge a book by its cover; Cuba is a fantastic country and Cuban people are very kind and you may develop life-long friendships with them.

Cheers,

Philip Ili Barake

Philip@gotrum.com