Cigar of 1993

[Eville]

According to whom?

[ggiese]

Your son was born at an incredibly interesting time in cigar history. 1993 was toward the beginning of the first "cigar boom". The popularity of cigars took off and the industry struggled to keep up with demand. It got to the point that cigar factories were fighting over scraps of tobacco just to keep up with demand. Factories even resorted to using tobacco that was normally just turned back into the ground after the growing season. These were interesting times...

The other thing that happened during that time period. Like the Yukon gold rush - folks rushed down to the Latin American countries to get into the cigar business. New brands were coming out at an incredible rate. Everyone wanted to get cigars out into the market. Some were good - most were mediocre or terrible. And - I quite frankly think you'd be hard pressed to find many of those boutique cigar companies in existence today. It was so bad at the end of that cigar boom there was a terrible crash. The end of the cigar boom literally sucked the life out of many of the economies in most of those countries. So impactful was that crash that to this day - companies wanting to set up cigar factories in many of those same Latin American find locals extremely distrustful.

There are some great choices - and a pretty wide selection (to Eville's point):

General Cigar company was probably the largest company to have survived that boom and still is in existence. They handle such notable non-Cuban brands as Cohiba, Montecristo, Partagas, Romeo y Juliet, etc. They also continue to produce one of the most popular cigars (then and now) in the Macanudo.

Davidoff has been around forever - and have been one of the "premium" brands through it all. They're pricey, but very worth it.

Arturo Fuente has not only survived the crash, but also have managed to be one of the companies that has been very involved in restoring relations in the Dominican Republic (they have a charitable foundation that greatly assists the DR).

And - last but not least - Padron made good during the cigar boom and continues to make some of the best cigars currently being produced.

Does your son have any preferences? Can you share what he typically likes to smoke?

[ggiese]

What might make a great gift, though - Cigar Afficianado was in it's second year of publication. eBay has quite a few 1993 copies available:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...All-Categories

There's only 4 issues to collect - and they appear fairly resonably priced. It would be a fascinating read for him.

Good luck!