Smoke Inn Blog Smoke Inn Cigar Talk
Well, it’s July 4th and I’m out here smoking a cigar that I may have actually made myself! It’s a 5.5 inch Por Larranaga with a 38 ring and I guess they were made right around the Winter of 2000 or 2001.
I was at the Altadis factory in La Romana, and Jose Seijas (the plant manager, now passed away—as are most of the people I knew in the industry) asked me if I wanted to try making some cigars to take back with me and I said “uh… yeah, sure”.
Years earlier I had tried my hand at cigar rolling in Cofradia, Honduras, and created 3 or 4 finished cigars that looked like a cross between an NFL football and a Kosher Salami. The reason I said at the outset that I may have actually made the cigar I was smoking myself is because it took me about a half hour to make each cigar that day, and I got bored and let one of the factory workers make the last 20 or 21 cigars in the box. I think that luckily, today I was smoking one of the cigars the factory worker made because it had a perfect draw and was just such a pleasure to smoke.
I really never gave it much thought before, but how can the people who roll the cigars keep from getting bored to death doing the same thing over and over, day after day, week after week, and year after year? I would throw myself off a cliff rather than do that. So, all of us really need to appreciate what these workers do. And it’s not just the rollers, it’s the bunchers, the leaf strippers, and all the people who handle the tobaccos that go into your cigars SEVERAL HUNDRED TIMES before they are rolled into their final form, then aged, sorted, banded, and boxed. And you guys all think that they’re too expensive… they’re not. Believe me, none of you could do what these people do no matter how much you were offered to do it.
Let’s face it, these days (and I have no actual figures to quote to prove what I say) maybe half, or at least a large percentage of what you pay for a cigar is the result of multiple layers of taxation. There’s no one to oppose taxing the product when it’s imported into the country (and of course you can add Mr. Trumps Tariff to the bill) and then this total is then taxed again at various different and often nauseating levels at State and Local levels which are then multiplied by the sales tax rate in individual states, counties, and cities. It’s just freakin’ nauseating.
Well, sorry to be such a downer on July 4th but it’s very hot and humid today, and all the old timers out here on the porch are fading away.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Smoke Inn, its employees, or its affiliates.
