Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Monday, December 19. 2016

Christmastime cigars, reposted


I would never recommend purchasing Cuban cigars for use in the USA as it is, or used to be, against some dumb law. However, I did happen to notice that Top Cubans has some appealing Christmas and End of Year specials right now.


By the way, when are we going to take down that dumb cigar embargo? It just hurts the poor farmers - and us scrupulously law-abiding Americanos.


Photo is a Habanos Romeo y Julieta


BTW, where is the best cigar wrapper tobacco in the world grown? In my home state, Connecticut in the US of A. Also in Massachusetts in the Connecticut River Valley.

Posted by The Barrister in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:02 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

The impression I took away from numerous lectures by Cuban officials when I visited there about a year ago is that the Cuban government needs the embargo (or blockade as they call it). That's not what they said; that's the impression they left me with. If the US were to abandon the embargo the consequences would be devastating for the regime as the economy would re-orient towards the US, and people would abandon all other activities to work in tourism and export-related industries such as cigars.
#1 Acad Ronin on 2012-12-28 12:27 (Reply)
The embargo is a whipping boy for the regime. It's convenient as it allows them to blame all sorts of evils on it.
#1.1 m on 2012-12-28 21:35 (Reply)
is that a prop? or a Romeo y Julieta band pasted on a Swisher Sweet? because, the law, you know.
#2 wirraway on 2012-12-28 12:31 (Reply)
Cubans are already heavily involved in Tourisn, since other countries, like Canada have no travel restrictions. Americans already travel to other destinations. Bahamas, Mexico, etc.

The bigger issue is who benefits from the embargo? If it was lifted, would the 'poor farmer' really receive any additional benefit? They already export cigars to everywhere else in the world.

Additional exports of cigars and sugar would just put more money in the pockets of the socialist dictators and bureaucrats.

Need cigars? Can I ship them from Canada or are they illegal regardless of the place they are shipped from?
#3 EarlW on 2012-12-28 12:47 (Reply)
Listen, there's more to Koober than the cigaahhhz.
#4 buddy larsen on 2012-12-28 13:01 (Reply)
Cubans work in collective farms do they not?

Any additional revenue from free US sales of cigars would, as noted, only benefit the regime and not the workers in that "workers paradise."
#5 Whitehall on 2012-12-28 13:27 (Reply)
Ain't no law against importing pix of cigars. Or photoshopping a different band on one. If you are not selling.

Doubt you could buy them from the source in Cuba. That would be an anti-socialistic act, for the seller.
#6 Sam L. on 2012-12-28 15:00 (Reply)
Isn't displaying a picture of a Cuban cigar against the law in DC? And you will pay a $25 dollar tax in Chicago.
#7 Sam on 2012-12-28 18:33 (Reply)
Ugh......site only accepts Amex and odd cards.....so close and yet so far....
#8 TimC on 2012-12-28 19:10 (Reply)
deem said seegars refugees, and we can import them legally by the billions.
#9 Will Bithers on 2016-12-19 13:29 (Reply)
You are allowed to bring up to $100 worth of cigars or rum or a combination thereof with you from Cuba. Though I have been told by people who have been there several times (I have been there once) that they are fairly lax on enforcement of that as long as you don't have a suitcase full. The prices are a fraction of those listed on Top Cubans.
#10 Dirk on 2016-12-19 13:29 (Reply)
An inveterate cigar smoker, I've been gifted many genuine Cubans in addition to many knockoffs with fake bands that tourists bought on Caribbean beaches for way too much money.

I'm currently deep into a box of real Cuban Cohibas, they're good smokes but I'd never pay the price I'm afraid was paid for them, not when there are so many other good and better cigars available for less.

Re: the pic. My current favorite free market Dominican Romeo y Julieta is the 1875, made of tobaccos from the DR, Brazil, and Java. A heckuva smoke and not too pricy when you can find an online deal.

A friend on a business tour of Cuba last year was shown around a cigar rolling plant but warned sternly not to talk to the workers or attempt to buy cigars. At the completion of the tour their ever present minder disappeared for a few minutes and the workers eagerly peddled handfuls of cigars. Obviously, a set up. All that I smoked were ok to good but nothing special, certainly not up to Cuba's fabled reputation. I suppose the commies have even screwed that up.

He said their bus drove thru many, many miles of former farm fields now growing weeds, brush and trees. When asked why it wasn't being farmed the minder said no money for fuel, seed or fertilizer.
#11 tljhound on 2016-12-19 15:02 (Reply)
Indeed. As with any communist enterprise, the Cubans have serious supply problems. Plus, paying the help twenty dollars a month to roll cigars only adds to the quality control issues of Cuban cigar makers. God bless the Dominican Republic.
#11.1 fodderwing on 2016-12-19 21:24 (Reply)
I worked a tobacco farm in North Hadley, Mass for a season in the late 90s. They grew wrapper leaves (amongst much other local produce), which I couldn't judge for quality, but the scraps made a rough ciggie hand roll. Worked with imported Jamaicans, resettled Vietnamese, and the husband of a Smith professor. Hard work but a lot of fun.
#12 Mike Soja (Link) on 2016-12-20 00:27 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.