I've Smoked Cuban Cigars for 20 Years. Here's the Truth.

I've been collecting Cuban cigars for twenty years. About seventy percent of my four thousand cigars are Cuban. I'm the last person who should be making this argument. But the argument needs to be made. In 1855 alone, Cuba exported 360 million Havana cigars. Today they're struggling to hit 60 million. That's not a decline. That's a collapse. And yet the myth — that Cuban cigars represent the pinnacle of premium tobacco — has never been more expensive to believe. This video covers three things that happened after 1959 that the myth doesn't account for. The people left. The seed left. And Cuba stopped moving forward. Three weeks ago I smoked a Cohiba Siglo VI Gran Reserva Cosecha 2003. That cigar trades at $1,000 a stick. It was very good. I wouldn't pay $100 for it. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CHAPTERS 0:00 — The myth and the price 0:45 — What Cuba actually was at its peak 4:00 — The diaspora — the people left, and they took the seed 6:40 — Cuba stopped moving — three compounding problems 7:45 — The price of the myth — the D4 story 8:40 — The $1,000 cigar 9:20 — The close — My Father The Judge and Old Grand-Dad 114 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CIGARS MENTIONED Partagas D4 — the benchmark Cuban My Father The Judge — Cigar of the Year, Cigar Aficionado 2024 Cohiba Siglo VI Gran Reserva Cosecha 2003 H. Upmann Magnum 46 Paul Garmirian Soirée Warped Cloudhopper MBombay Mora ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── SOURCES Richard Carleton Hacker, The Ultimate Cigar Book, 4th Edition, p. 5 Habanos S.A. Annual Reports (1996–2024) Industry Reports and Trade Data