Vamos a Nicaragua

Vamos a Nicaragua 15 a 19 febrero y se alojará durante tres días completos. Haremos un recorrido por una plantación de tabaco de trabajo, los graneros de secado, y la fábrica de laminación de cigarros. Si a usted le gustaría venir con nosotros, háznoslo saber y haremos todos los arreglos.

I don’t know how good my Spanish is. I may have just invited you to spend a weekend at my sister’s house, along with her two ex-husbands, four kids, six dogs, and God-knows-who-or-what-else.

Actually, the first paragraph was an announcement of our upcoming trip to Nicaragua, in February of 2012. As sponsors of this trip, Piano Fuerte Cigars will provide you with accommodations, food, drink, and tours for three full days at a working tobacco plantation and cigar factory. Talk about a different kind of vacation! If you can provide for your own airfare, everything else is covered. And, I’m fairly certain that the sponsors will be able to find a cantina or two, to help pass the time between tours.

Does anyone, besides me, remember the I Love Lucy episode where she was visiting husband Ricky’s relatives in Cuba, and she visited a cigar factory? The one where she rolled a three foot cigar? That could be you. If you come along, you’ll get a cigar rolling lesson, and you, too, could end up with a yard-long stogie.

Tell your relatives that you don’t want any gifts this holiday season, (unless it's cigars). Tell them, instead, to give you a gift certificate that can be put toward your airfare to Nicaragua.

Esperamos que usted venga.

Do You Have Any Cuban Cigars?

Do you have any Cuban cigars?

Hardly a week passes that someone doesn’t ask that question in our store. Some folks ask it, with an implied wink, hoping that they can surreptitiously purchase a stick or two of the illegal golden fleece of the U.S. cigar world. Others ask that question, completely ignorant of the embargo against Cuban imports of any kind, including stogies. All of them ask it because of the mystique surrounding Cuban cigars. Maybe Castro compounded that mystique, both by being an avid cigar smoker and by pissing off the U.S. so totally that we no longer buy anything produced in Cuba. No matter what, there is an immediate mental callisthenic that most people perform when they hear the words Cuban cigars; those words conjure up mystery, romance, smoking excellence, and dreams of an expedition into unknown worlds of pleasure. There’s just something about Cuban cigars that draws our interest, whether we’re cigar smokers or not.

Some of the other common references to Cuban cigars are:

“A friend of mine had some Cubans and he gave me one. It tasted terrible. What’s the big deal with Cubans?”

“A friend of mine had some Cubans and he gave me one. It tasted fantastic. What’s the big deal with Cubans?

“A friend of mine had some Cubans and he wouldn’t give me one. Should I un-friend him?

“I’m going on a cruise next month, and we’ll be stopping where I can buy Cuban cigars. What should I look for?

“How can I tell a counterfeit from a real Cuban cigar?”

The biggest deal is, indeed, whether or not you’re buying a counterfeit Cuban cigar when you make a purchase outside of this country. There are some obvious do’s and don’t’s about buying Cuban cigars.

Before buying…

Do: Read about cigars…all cigars. Learn about how and where cigars are produced. Learn about the countries, conditions, factories, and people that produce cigars. Become familiar with brands, shapes, sizes, blends, fillers, binders, wrappers…everything that goes into cigar production.

Learn about and ask about brands of Cuban cigars BESIDES Cohiba, Bolivar, or Montecristo. Those are the most commonly asked for and counterfeited Cuban cigars. Other brands, arguably just as good, are less likely to be counterfeited.

Smoke lots of different kinds of cigars. Learn the differences in taste, appearance, and packaging.

Ask a lot of questions. Ask cigar shop owners. Ask other cigar smokers.

Pay attention to what other people are smoking, asking, saying, and buying.

Gain confidence in your ability to know what a good cigar is…and what it is not.

Don’t: Don’t believe everything you read and hear. Cigar smokers are like any other aficionado. There is a heck of a lot of personal bias in any one person’s opinion.

Don’t keep a closed mind. Be open to all the bits of information you’re sure to collect about cigars.

Don’t let your own ignorance stop you from learning all you can. You won’t learn more if you don’t dig for information and ask questions.

When buying:

Do: Ask a lot of questions. Don’t be afraid to make the seller explain his product(s) to you. If you make a purchase, you’ll have paid for that information, so it should be as good as possible.

Examine individual cigars and boxes thoroughly. If you learned about seals, stamps, and labels, examine cigar packaging for all of those things. Make sure that all the words on the packaging and labels are spelled correctly and that the ink doesn’t smudge or run when you move your finger over it. (Sad, but true, many vacationers have returned with Cuban cigars with the words Habana or Cohiba misspelled.

Comparison-shop before you buy. Don’t be afraid to go from shop to shop, getting the best price.

Use common sense. If a deal seems too good to be true, it IS…not probably….certainly. In the world of Cuban cigars, there really is no such thing as a free lunch. The best you can hope for is a slight price savings along with a reasonable assurance that you actually got what you wanted.

Make your purchase from a retail tobacconist…someone who’s, hopefully, licensed to sell you what you’re looking for. Remember, if you’re on vacation, on a cruise, at a resort, the retailer knows that he/she is NEVER EVER EVER going to see you again. Someone who is less than ethical or honest may take advantage of that. Take out personal insurance by shopping at a place that is as reputable as possible.

Don’t: Don’t buy cigars, any cigars, from someone other than a licensed tobacconist. Cigars purchased from the trunk of a parked car have disaster written on the labels next to the brand name. Cigars purchased from street vendors of any kind are just as likely to be counterfeit as those purchased from the guy in the parked car.

Don’t buy cigars, Cuban or otherwise, if your intuition hints that something just isn’t right.

Don’t buy more Cuban cigars than you know you can legally bring back into the U.S. through Customs. It would be shame to leave your Cubans in the hands of Customs…even though we all know they would destroy them as per the law…heh heh.

Don’t buy Cuban cigars from the very first place you shop. Do some comparison shopping and get the best price. There’s a lot of competition.

Don’t try to speak a foreign language that you don’t know. You’ll only embarrass yourself, besides trying to order a box of Godzilla Corollas.

Don’t second guess yourself after you’ve bought a box of Cubans. Be satisfied that you did your homework, and enjoy those stogies.

One last do: Go to http://www.cigarnexus.com/counsel/counterfeit/ and read The Ultimate Counterfeit Cigar Primer. It’s worth the read.

Your Cigar Lighter

Got something a little nicer than a Bic? Get a gift that you don't quite know what to do with now that you own it?

Butane lighters, if you're going to use a lighter, are preferred among cigar smokers to get your stick going. Why? They provide a lot of heat that's focused and they stay lit as long as you like, so that you can light your cigar without burning your fingers, as with matches, (even stick matches). That said, you still want a butane lighter that is a "jet" type, rather than a Bic-type. Jet-type butane lighters mix air with the escaping butane to produce a small, intense blue flame not unlike the larger blue flame you might be familiar with in a propane torch. The jet-type butane lighters are preferable to a Bic-type of flame, because they are hotter and more direct. Bic type lighters have a cooler, wavering flame that is more suited to lighting cigarettes than a cigar.

Butane, jet lighters usually have one, two, or three jets that are good for lighting cigars. Any of them are suitable for lighting cigars, or in the case of the 3-jet models, for sweat soldering copper pipe in your garage. Because all of them burn evenly you can light your cigar evenly without burning partly up the side of your cigar. They're also pretty much wind-proof.

When you light a fresh stick, hold it in one hand, your butane lighter in the other, and heat just the end of your cigar, making circular motions with the flame until the entire head of the cigar is evenly heated and charred. Then, put your cigar in your mouth, and repeat the process with the flame pointed at the end of the cigar while you gently draw and fully ignite the tobacco. Be certain that your lighter's flame adjustment is set low enough so that you don't light your lips, nose, or moustache should the flame momentarily shoot past the end of the cigar. Once you're satisfied that your cigar is burning evenly, remove it from between your lips, inspect the end, and gently blow on the glowing "cherry" to make sure it's lit evenly around the end of the cigar.

Another advantage to a jet-type butane lighter is if your cigar happens to burn unevenly, (it happens), it's very easy to "even it up" with a butane lighter...much easier than with a match or a Bic-type lighter.

Filling your butane lighter: Hold the lighter upside down, and insert the nozzle of the can of butane fuel into the little bitty hole in the bottom of the lighter. Press against the spring in the fill hole of the lighter and hold for about 2-3 seconds. Make sure no gas is "hissing" out around the nozzle while you do this. Repeat this once or twice, and your lighter should be completely filled. The cold butane may prevent your lighter from igniting the first couple of times you try it once it's filled, so let your lighter rest for a few seconds, to warm up again, and it should light just fine.

Trouble shooting your lighter: If your lighter won't light, and you KNOW it's full of fuel, try the following:
- Make sure it's "sparking" when you try to light it.
- Clean the jets with an old tooth brush.
- "Bleed" the fuel that's in the lighter and refill it. Holding the lighter right-side up, press on the spring-loaded fill hole with a small tipped instrument of some kind. Keep pressing until it stops hissing at you.
- Refill your lighter with properly refined butane fuel. No, butane is not just butane. There are different grades. We've found in the shop that Xikar butane has less chance of eventually clogging the jets of your lighter.
- If your lighter still won't light, all is not lost. Depending on your lighter, it MAY have a warranty. Xikar lighters come with an unconditional warranty. Even if you didn't buy it from us, bring your Xikar lighter to us and we'll send it back to the company for you. They WILL fix or replace it.