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Robaina in Ecuador

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good points all. it is a very interesting development. after all, Ecuador produces some of the finest wrapper leaf in the world...


Plus look at what they're planting there... "Hiroshi said that they would be planting various tobacco types including Habana 92, Criollo 98, Corojo 99, Habanos 2000, and Sumatra. ". Let the drooling commence.
Hopefully smoking them!:cbig: This maybe a little off topic, but I've heard of people taking the wrapper off one cigar and back onto a different one , I thought it would be interesting to pull the wrapper off a La Aroma E.E. and place it onto either a Cohiba robusto or a PSD4. LOVE all 3 cigars, though it certainly would make either cigar different, I have one question... would it become even tastier?
 
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Hopefully smoking them!:cbig: This maybe a little off topic, but I've heard of people taking the wrapper off one cigar and back onto a different one , I thought it would be interesting to pull the wrapper off a La Aroma E.E. and place it onto either a Cohiba robusto or a PSD4. LOVE all 3 cigars, though it certainly would make either cigar different, I have one question... would it become even tastier?

I'm of the thought that wrapper contributes greatly to a cigar's overall flavor. So for me, this would not be an improvement... but it would be an interesting experiment.
 
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I can't imagine my self smoking a vegas robaina with an Ecuadorian wrapper because I really like it the way it is.
Its maybe just the son who's leaving and using CA to market him self.
 
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It probably would be a matter of time before Altadis decided to float a Robaina brand so why shouldn't the family expand their business and do the same?


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AlohaStyle

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Some of the "old timer's" in the industry have sworn for years that Cuba was importing tobacco from Nicarauga and Hondoraus for sometime!
Exactly my point, I have heard the same rumors Larry...
Until it's fact, it's just that, a rumor.
I've heard those rumors too, and it's a load of crap if you ask me.
that rumour has smelled like so much bullshit since "Lew" was throwing it around over 10 years ago.

Not sure why or how I found this older thread, but I find it interesting that the "rumor" of cuba using non-cuban tobacco has been floating around so much. I was just talking to Pepin Garcia last week at a local event and asked him about Hiroshi Robaina starting operations in Ecuador and he said of course Cuba will be using that tobacco with their Cuban tobacco. He said it has been happening already but no one knows about it.

So take that with a grain of salt, but Pepin says Cuba is currently using tobacco from other countries. I think he has a few connections on that island. And no I didn't translate him incorrectly... his sales mgr John was translating for me. :)
 
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Not sure why or how I found this older thread, but I find it interesting that the "rumor" of cuba using non-cuban tobacco has been floating around so much. I was just talking to Pepin Garcia last week at a local event and asked him about Hiroshi Robaina starting operations in Ecuador and he said of course Cuba will be using that tobacco with their Cuban tobacco. He said it has been happening already but no one knows about it.
That would explain the Montecristo Open Series.. either way Cuba has for long been sending it rollers, growers out to the Caribbean and other states to promote their cigar industry so it seems like a natural progression that some of its growers should expand their business. If you ask me its really smart of them the embargo won't be coming off any time soon at least this way Cuban brands can get on to American shelves and of course the forex goes to Cuba!
 
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Not sure why or how I found this older thread, but I find it interesting that the "rumor" of cuba using non-cuban tobacco has been floating around so much. I was just talking to Pepin Garcia last week at a local event and asked him about Hiroshi Robaina starting operations in Ecuador and he said of course Cuba will be using that tobacco with their Cuban tobacco. He said it has been happening already but no one knows about it.

So take that with a grain of salt, but Pepin says Cuba is currently using tobacco from other countries. I think he has a few connections on that island. And no I didn't translate him incorrectly... his sales mgr John was translating for me. :)
John told me the same thing. He also told me Pepin does all the blending on all the cigars he makes including boutiques (which got me in trouble with Pete). Maybe that was a translation mistake. :disappoin

But I remember reading somewhere where the estimated the amount of land set aside for tobacco and compared it to the amount of cigars produced from the island and the numbers weren't even close. And it's not like they have extra tobacco lying around down there... I'll try to find the article.
 
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still trying to find the article. i thin kit was in an old smoke.

interestingly, here's a post from Suckling re: Cuba volumes that shows some misquoted numbers. In other words, the volume may be all heresay/unreliable. So who knows...

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Blogs/Blog_Detail/0,4695,535,00.html

It stated “the number of cigars produced for export plunge from 217m in 2006 to 73m last year.” First, Cuba has never in the last half century exported 217 million cigars. Second, my estimate for exports last year was between 80 million and 90 million cigars.
here's more:

Nonetheless, I spent some time on the Guerrillero’s Web site and found out that the harvest was down in Pinar del Río in 2010 from about 22.4 million “cujes” to 26 million in 2009. The latter was slightly up from 2008.

“Cuje” is a confusing measurement for Cuba tobacco, but what I gather it denotes the number of leaves on a pole used in the tobacco curing barns. Each pole (or “cuje”) usually has 100 leaves, and are stacked in any large curing barn.
Hmm, if someone has the time to do the math...
 
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ok, so i got bored.

based on Sucklings numbers that's 2.6 billion (26 million cujes x 100 leaves/cuje) leaves in 2006.

if the average cigar uses, let's say 3 leaves, then that's 867 million cigars.

and if they only exported 80-90million cigars of potentially 800 million cigars (!!!), there's a slight discrepancy there. Maybe someone rounded wrong?
 
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Ok, to make this more complicated, I found a book, The History of Cuba
By Willis Fletcher Johnson, that states that a cuje is 220 PAIRS of LEAVES (the pairs are sewn together).

this makes the above number even larger. Somethings rotten in the state of Denmark...
 

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I think your math is off somewhere. It's no secret that Cuba is producing less cigars while rolling out more premium cigars at an inflated price. Also, Cuba has started to age tobacco (filler, binder, wrapper) for longer periods then they used to. This is having a profound effect on fresh cigars and is making them better out of the box.

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I asked Dion Giolito about cujes and he echos what Suckling (100 leaves per) stated adding that with wrapper leaf, there may be less leaves on a cuje to prevent staining.

It looks like the math is correct based on the numbers provided above. Either a lot of leaf is wasted (sold, unusable) or Cuba has begun to stockpile LOTS of tobacco. That for one is good news to me. :smokingbo
 

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I knew I remembered reading this somewhere.

From Rob Ayala:

March 7, 2010
There was a multi pronged approach initiated at that time to repair the Cuban Cigar industry.

  1. Reduce production and improve training.
  2. Put tobacco aside for proper aging.
  3. Inject cash to modernize production (drying barns/dryers, modern centralized sorting and baling facilities, moistening chambers at factories, draw machines, freezing facilities etc).
  4. Increase ROI through the LE and specialties program while at the same time increasing interest by producing these benchmark cigars.
  5. Re-evaluate what the market sought through an accelaration of "Deletions" and new releases.

It took 5 years to cement all of these features. By late 2005 early 2006 ligero was now aged 36 months before use in all cigars with Seco 18 months. Today, there are three years reserves of well aged tobacco leaf for general rolling. it has taken a decade to reach that point.
 
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