General Cigar Company - Dr Evil???

[cigar no baka]

The guy at one of the smoke shops I frequent gave me his speech on General Cigar Company the first time I came in, seven months ago, right about the first time I started to buy premium cigars. I asked him if he had Don Tomas, a cigar I had been getting at a grocery store humidor for about a year. He gave me a long speech about how General is using artificial methods to process tobacco, and only age them for about 45 days vs. a year or longer with most manufacturers. He even has pictures hanging on the wall to back his point up.

I have no reason to believe he is telling anything but the truth. Can anyone out there shed any more light on this? I have been searching the Web and found nothing on the subject.

[ggiese]

The guy at one of the smoke shops I frequent gave me his speech on General Cigar Company the first time I came in, seven months ago, right about the first time I started to buy premium cigars. I asked him if he had Don Tomas, a cigar I had been getting at a grocery store humidor for about a year. He gave me a long speech about how General is using artificial methods to process tobacco, and only age them for about 45 days vs. a year or longer with most manufacturers. He even has pictures hanging on the wall to back his point up.

I have no reason to believe he is telling anything but the truth. Can anyone out there shed any more light on this? I have been searching the Web and found nothing on the subject.

Bull crap!!! Clearly he's not happy with General Cigar for some damn reason - or he wants you to try "his brand". I smoke all different kinds of cigars from a variety of sources. There are things that I like about General Cigars cigars, and things I don't like about their cigars - like just about every other line I smoke.

General Cigar manufactures a long list of cigars - many of which are VERY nice. Don Tomas, Macanudo, Punch, Partagas, Hoyo, La Gloria Cubana, Cohiba, etc., etc. They wouldn't be in business if they "cut corners" on their cigar line as this guy suggests...

[cigar no baka]

Bull crap!!! Clearly he's not happy with General Cigar for some damn reason - or he wants you to try "his brand". I smoke all different kinds of cigars from a variety of sources. There are things that I like about General Cigars cigars, and things I don't like about their cigars - like just about every other line I smoke.

General Cigar manufactures a long list of cigars - many of which are VERY nice. Don Tomas, Macanudo, Punch, Partagas, Hoyo, La Gloria Cubana, Cohiba, etc., etc. They wouldn't be in business if they "cut corners" on their cigar line as this guy suggests...

OK, well he has a number of brands in his shop, as well as a few (very few) General Cigar cigars. He doesn't have any store brands, I have heard and seen all of the brands he carries in other stores. Still, I enjoy Punch Champions and Partagas Black magnifico among other GC cigars, so I can't detect a difference. And I believe that the La Glorias I smoke area also GC cigars so go figure.

[SFG75]

Aging for only 45 days? Sorry, but the price of developing such a program wouldn't be any more of a money maker than letting father time...well....take his time with the leaves. If it did work, we all would hear more about it as the other companies would certainly grab a variant of that invention to get more medium and low end cigars out on the market. I would say that the guy has gotten wind of a story that has changed slowly between ear to ear.