Cubans

[basil]

Oh, Ted... Linky...

Fascinating material - thanks for link.

This is what I thought, that presently-used seed often has a Cuban pedigree. The guy taking credit for the development of these seeds says:

"My specialty was the development and improvement of genetically superior seed strains . . ."

and:

"During my consulting career, I collected a cache of genetically pure seeds ... 47 varieties in all. These seeds are the foundation for our present crops."

- John Vogel

What is troubling about this site though is using language designed to mislead the reader into thinking that their crop seed is actually pre-embargo.

Statements like:

"These almost-forgotten pre-Castro seeds exist nowhere else in the world."

and,

"Microphotograph of two Pinar del Rio seeds, before germination ... 16,000 seeds per gram, with 97% germination." (97% is agriculture industry standard and I'll bet you a Lusitania Vogel's crop seeds are not 60 years old),

made on the web site, lead the reader to believe that these seeds are some kind of holy grail, and that authentic Cuban cigars and/or something that duplicates the Cuban taste can somehow be produced from these seeds.

What tells me Vogel is selling snake oil is that he discounts virtually all other factors - geographic, soil, curing, harvest cycle, you name it, and says that seed/genetics is all. It would be wrong-headed for anyone to say this. Vogel, as an agronomist, is telling a bald-faced lie.

While I have no reason to doubt that a lot of time and energy went into r&d, producing and developing the cigars sold on this site, the bottom line is that all this site is intended to do is sell cigars, which are Costa Rican cigars, and not Cuban, regardless of where the seed stock came from 6 decades ago.

caveat emptor