Cigars made in America

[ashauler]

I will not disagree that sometimes "hand made" is not the best. We know a few humidor makers who make complete crap - the Chinese pressboard machine made humidors selling on eBay are far better quality.

However - machine made does not automatically mean quality. As a matter of fact, all machine made cigars I've tried are - at best - "okay". But - the best cigars I've smoked we're hand rolled. The more skilled the roller - the better the cigar. And I've dissected machine made cigars and saw what was packed in it - clearly someone swept the floor of the tobacco factory and packed it into the cigar...

There's a damned good reason cigars are still hand rolled in "sweatshops" (your words not mine). Because those hand rolled cigars are truly the best. A skilled roller knows how to pick and pack/bunch the tobacco leaves, apply the proper pressure to the binder, and - most important - skillfully apply the wrapper. If it's done properly - it's a masterpiece.

If you truly want cheap smokes - why not take up cigarette smoking. Those are machine made and are a fair piece cheaper than even machine made cigars...

There are serious differences between mass-market non-tobacco ingredient using machine made cigars and cigarettes and the cigars that are machine made from all tobacco leaf. The differences begin with the tobacco varieties used, and continue right on through the harvest-curing-fermentation processes up to the additions of chemicals-curing agents-flavors-burn enhancers, etc. The comparision is not valid between the two products imo.

I am in no way debating the overall quality of the experience between smoking hand-rolled premium cigars and a machine made 100% tobacco cigar. I don't have any machine made cigars in my stash.

[webmost]

JC Newman machine rolls their "Factory Throwouts" in Miami from tobacco left over from their Latin American hand rolling factories. Same ingredients, just not whole leaves. If you can get past the "throwouts" name, they are some tasty smokes. Twenty three bucks gets you a bundle of twenty.

The question is: What are you really after? Good smoke or a decadent experience? It's like pups -- Do you need to impress yourself with the pedigree and price of your pampered pug, or are you content with a boon flop eared companion? When I was a kid, we got our pups from a neighbor, sired by a fence jumper. Only papers they ever had were newspapers over the snout to house train them. Loved them all the same. Got some darn good dogs that way. Old Duke could share my ice cream any day. More money does not always equal more better. You need to uncouple price from pleasure.

Yes, even among the imported hand rolled premiums. The cigars I buy by the box to always keep stocked in my humidor include the Ave Maria (Crusader), the Torano 1916 Cameroon, and the Fonseca Arana. The Fonseca runs a mere $35 a bundle of 20, but is in no way an inferior smoke to the other two, which run a buck twenty a box.

But we're getting off track. We are talking about American cigars here. What with OSHA, minimum wage, cost of living, overtime, health insurance, and all the rest, I don't see how you going to get a hand rolled pampered twelve buck gem. But you can get a darn good smoke made by machine. And you will pay less.

Fancy bands are nice. But they don't smoke worth a damn.

[webmost]

I got to hit this Palma cigar shop once the weather thaws. Looks like they have tons of American brands. My kind of meat. Thanks for the link.

[badwhale]

I got to hit this Palma cigar shop once the weather thaws. Looks like they have tons of American brands. My kind of meat. Thanks for the link.

What link?
ETA: nevermind that question. carry on. the necrobump caught me.

[webmost]

Hey this interesting angle slipped my mind before: The guys at Flatbed Cigars have partnered up with a fellow in Richmond Virginia area who has organized what is called the Virginia Wine and Cigar Trail. Look it up on line if you live in VA. It's a series of wineries where he has left a selection of Panacea cigars, each variety of cigar paired with a certain wine from there. So you go to the winery, score a bottle and a stick, sit at a piazza table overlooking a sunny vineyard, smoke, and drink. What a great idea. Vineyards often have live music on a weekend to boot.

The same guy also tours from one street fair to another selling his cigars. We ran into him at Rock Hall Merryland. The air was redolent, so we followed our noses, and there was his booth. Does one heck of a land office business that way too.

These are all rolled overseas. But as I say, the Green Label is PA Broadleaf, and tastes it. Interesting marketting idea, eh?

[ggiese]

Hey this interesting angle slipped my mind before: The guys at Flatbed Cigars have partnered up with a fellow in Richmond Virginia area who has organized what is called the Virginia Wine and Cigar Trail. Look it up on line if you live in VA. It's a series of wineries where he has left a selection of Panacea cigars, each variety of cigar paired with a certain wine from there. So you go to the winery, score a bottle and a stick, sit at a piazza table overlooking a sunny vineyard, smoke, and drink. What a great idea. Vineyards often have live music on a weekend to boot.

The same guy also tours from one street fair to another selling his cigars. We ran into him at Rock Hall Merryland. The air was redolent, so we followed our noses, and there was his booth. Does one heck of a land office business that way too.

These are all rolled overseas. But as I say, the Green Label is PA Broadleaf, and tastes it. Interesting marketting idea, eh?

Interesting? Uhhh.... Let's' just say it's hardly unique.

[ashauler]

JC Newman machine rolls their "Factory Throwouts" in Miami from tobacco left over from their Latin American hand rolling factories. Same ingredients, just not whole leaves. If you can get past the "throwouts" name, they are some tasty smokes. Twenty three bucks gets you a bundle of twenty.

The question is: What are you really after? Good smoke or a decadent experience? It's like pups -- Do you need to impress yourself with the pedigree and price of your pampered pug, or are you content with a boon flop eared companion? When I was a kid, we got our pups from a neighbor, sired by a fence jumper. Only papers they ever had were newspapers over the snout to house train them. Loved them all the same. Got some darn good dogs that way. Old Duke could share my ice cream any day. More money does not always equal more better. You need to uncouple price from pleasure.

Yes, even among the imported hand rolled premiums. The cigars I buy by the box to always keep stocked in my humidor include the Ave Maria (Crusader), the Torano 1916 Cameroon, and the Fonseca Arana. The Fonseca runs a mere $35 a bundle of 20, but is in no way an inferior smoke to the other two, which run a buck twenty a box.
P
But we're getting off track. We are talking about American cigars here. What with OSHA, minimum wage, cost of living, overtime, health insurance, and all the rest, I don't see how you going to get a hand rolled pampered twelve buck gem. But you can get a darn good smoke made by machine. And you will pay less.

Fancy bands are nice. But they don't smoke worth a damn.

I'm on my phone and have fat fingers, so I'll just say you were doing well until the condescension took over.

[badwhale]

JC Newman machine rolls their "Factory Throwouts" in Miami from tobacco left over from their Latin American hand rolling factories. Same ingredients, just not whole leaves. If you can get past the "throwouts" name, they are some tasty smokes. Twenty three bucks gets you a bundle of twenty.

The question is: What are you really after? Good smoke or a decadent experience? It's like pups -- Do you need to impress yourself with the pedigree and price of your pampered pug, or are you content with a boon flop eared companion? When I was a kid, we got our pups from a neighbor, sired by a fence jumper. Only papers they ever had were newspapers over the snout to house train them. Loved them all the same. Got some darn good dogs that way. Old Duke could share my ice cream any day. More money does not always equal more better. You need to uncouple price from pleasure.

Yes, even among the imported hand rolled premiums. The cigars I buy by the box to always keep stocked in my humidor include the Ave Maria (Crusader), the Torano 1916 Cameroon, and the Fonseca Arana. The Fonseca runs a mere $35 a bundle of 20, but is in no way an inferior smoke to the other two, which run a buck twenty a box.

But we're getting off track. We are talking about American cigars here. What with OSHA, minimum wage, cost of living, overtime, health insurance, and all the rest, I don't see how you going to get a hand rolled pampered twelve buck gem. But you can get a darn good smoke made by machine. And you will pay less.

Fancy bands are nice. But they don't smoke worth a damn.

I have to disagree at least with the bolded statement.

[ggiese]

JC Newman machine rolls their "Factory Throwouts" in Miami from tobacco left over from their Latin American hand rolling factories. Same ingredients, just not whole leaves. If you can get past the "throwouts" name, they are some tasty smokes. Twenty three bucks gets you a bundle of twenty.

The question is: What are you really after? Good smoke or a decadent experience? It's like pups -- Do you need to impress yourself with the pedigree and price of your pampered pug, or are you content with a boon flop eared companion? When I was a kid, we got our pups from a neighbor, sired by a fence jumper. Only papers they ever had were newspapers over the snout to house train them. Loved them all the same. Got some darn good dogs that way. Old Duke could share my ice cream any day. More money does not always equal more better. You need to uncouple price from pleasure.

Yes, even among the imported hand rolled premiums. The cigars I buy by the box to always keep stocked in my humidor include the Ave Maria (Crusader), the Torano 1916 Cameroon, and the Fonseca Arana. The Fonseca runs a mere $35 a bundle of 20, but is in no way an inferior smoke to the other two, which run a buck twenty a box.

But we're getting off track. We are talking about American cigars here. What with OSHA, minimum wage, cost of living, overtime, health insurance, and all the rest, I don't see how you going to get a hand rolled pampered twelve buck gem. But you can get a darn good smoke made by machine. And you will pay less.

Fancy bands are nice. But they don't smoke worth a damn.

Are you saying that people are unnecessarily paying a premium for a "fancy band" cigar?

If I want a car - the paper is full of 'em. If I want a dog - the local shelter is full of 'em. If I want a cigar - my shop is full of 'em. Wine that comes in a box tastes like wine and will get you as drunk as those fancy-scmancy $200 a bottle wines. Does that necessarily mean one car is not better than another if both drive straight and true? Ford is the same as Lamborgini? Timex is the same as Rolex?

I investigated a complaint from a guy who bought a diamond ring from eBay. The seller advertised a 1 carat diamond well below normal retail for a 1 carat diamond. When the buyer received it, he was completely displeased the diamond was full of inclusions and fractures - it looked like "frozen spit". He thought he was being "ripped off". The diamond was truly worth the advertised price - and it was a legitimate diamond. Following your logic - what would be the problem, right?

[kevin7]

Factory throwouts are fucking vile shitsticks,Ive smoked a few and they taste like smoking wrapping paper or a Carlton 120

[ggiese]

Factory throwouts are fucking vile shitsticks,Ive smoked a few and they taste like smoking wrapping paper or a Carlton 120

Exactly my point, Kevin. If your purpose in smoking a cigar is to generate smoke - what difference does it make what the hell is inside that cigar. It might as well be straw, right?

I can see someone making an "intelligent" argument that machine made cigars "smoke" just like a premium made hand made cigar. However, there can be no intelligent argument that the experience is the same...

[badwhale]

Exactly my point, Kevin. If your purpose in smoking a cigar is to generate smoke - what difference does it make what the hell is inside that cigar. It might as well be straw, right?

I can see someone making an "intelligent" argument that machine made cigars "smoke" just like a premium made hand made cigar. However, there can be no intelligent argument that the experience is the same...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I was a Boy Scout. We tried rolling up plain old oak leaves by the fire, and trying to smoke them. I also remember distinctly trying to roll - roll your own tobacco in plain paper and trying to smoke it.

Ah, those days are long past.

[TheGreekTitan]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I was a Boy Scout. We tried rolling up plain old oak leaves by the fire, and trying to smoke them. I also remember distinctly trying to roll - roll your own tobacco in plain paper and trying to smoke it.

Ah, those days are long past.

My cousin and I actually smoked a spent firecracker pre teen and apparently pre brains. At the time it was great! I don't plan on doing that ever again. Funny what a little knowledge and experience will get you.

[CptnBlues63]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I was a Boy Scout. We tried rolling up plain old oak leaves by the fire, and trying to smoke them. I also remember distinctly trying to roll - roll your own tobacco in plain paper and trying to smoke it.

Ah, those days are long past.

Back when I was like 10 while out at the lake, my brother talked me into smoking a piece of dried up reed (you know, the tall green water plants that are about finger size in diameter and grow several feet taller than the water level - usually along the shore). I wouldn't do it unless he did, so we found a dried one laying up on the shore and made ourselves cigarettes out of them and lit up.

I also remember running out of papers once upon a time and rolling a cigarette with newspaper. It was harsh as hell, but when you're an addict, you do what you have to.....