For the growers...what makes Cuban tobacco so unique?

[Gdaddy]

When the topic of Cuban cigars comes up I always get the same answer when asked what makes CC's taste unique. "It's the soil" is always the answer. It's a "volcanic soil". I struggle with this answer. Certainly there must be the same soil on nearby countries that Cuba was, at one time, connected to. The weather isn't a factor either. Heck, I can almost hit a golf ball over to the Dominican Republic using a 6 iron. (OK, maybe a 5 iron).

Ok... let's say Cuba was, for some reason, blessed with a certain special soil. My understanding is that tobacco depletes the soil very quickly. Harvesting tobacco year after year strips the soil of nutrients. These tobacco farms in Cuba have been growing tobacco for a loooong time in the same fields. I understand they replenish and fertilize each year but it would seem reasonable to conclude that what ever special 'volcanic soil' nutrients that gave CC's their unique flavor are long gone, used up, kaput. Unless there is some unknown flavor enhancer emanating from the Earths core constantly rejuvenating these special nutrients (only to Cuba of course). As if the Earth has a creamy nougat center (like a Milky way candy bar) and a little of the nougat leaks out only in Cuba. What else could it be?

Another variable is the seed used. Cuban seed has been used for years but apparently that alone isn't enough to produce a Cuban flavored plant.

Sooo... what could it be that makes this tobacco so unique? I'm not a grower but I would imagine the tobacco plant can pick up flavors from the nutrients added to the soil each year when they replenish it. One thing I have always picked up from good CC is a barn yard character or a horse crappiness. (I do like it...giddy up.) Is it possible the character of the tobacco comes from manure that they use? Have some of the growers in other countries switched to chemicals for ease of use and gotten away from using manure?

There was also a video posted here by Rainmax where they're standing in Robaina's field in Cuba and the woman says (@ the 2:24 mark) they add organic fertilizers. Horse manure mixed with peanuts (or peanut seeds). She says that peanuts supply the oil to the tobacco.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY1yp00l8P0&feature=youtu.be

The only other variable I can think of would be 'Petuning' (which we discussed in the past) or an enhancement sprayed on the leaf prior to fermentation. This is also a possibility.

Again, I'm not a farmer but I have a difficult time believing it's the special "volcanic soil" responsible for producing this most unique tobacco flavor.

One other possibility is that the tobacco has been successfully replicated elsewhere. The very unpopular opinion from Dave Garafolo's trip to Cuba was that other cigar manufactures have not only replicated the unique character BUT have actually surpassed the Cuban quality. Padron, once from Cuba, is one name mentioned.

Opinions???

 

[deluxestogie]

Please don't repeat what I'm about to write. It will draw a lot of guffaws. It's just my raw opinion, based only on my very own personal and private experience.

The rocky layers of specific soils do add something to the plants that grow in soils derived from those layers. A good example is the slate that underlies the vineyards of the Mosel River in Germany, giving a distinctive "slatiness" to light Mosel wines. Those rock layers will continue to contribute their characteristics for eons. This is totally aside from the N:K and trace elements required for adequate growth.

BUT...this is the raw opinion part...I believe that a good part of what I identify as the unique "Cuban taste" of Cuban cigars is the selection of tobacco varieties. While I'm sure that their taste varies from one soil to the next, I have identified several varieties that give me a flat-out Cuban cigar flavor.

• Jitterbugdude's Vuelta Abajo
• Knucklehead's Criollo (Cuba)
• Knucklehead's Coroja (Cuba)

Blending these as filler, in a mild wrapper, makes a Cuban cigar. [In a PM to Knucklehead, I said, "That's too provocative to say in a post, but it's true. Damn, they are good."] Well, now I've said it.

I will add one more recent revelation.

• Hacienda del Cura, from the Canary Islands

Initially, I was totally unimpressed with Hacienda del Cura. But now, 8 months after kilning, it has taken on the dry, earthy character that adds something I associate with my imagined Cuban cigar taste and aroma. Now, I wish I had grown more than the paltry number of plants that I put in during the 2014 season.

So...guffaw away. I'm content.

I suspect that the "rich, volcanic soils" of Central America alter the flavors of what is grown there. In my own tobacco beds, I have never added chemical fertilizers, but use only well composted cow manure (Black Kow) that has no barnyard aroma--none.

I intend to plant these 4 varieties in 2016, to determine if this notion is true, or if it is just a bunch of uncomposted manure.

Bob

 

[DIY Pete]

I like Cuban cigars a lot but I also really like Dominican cigars. I will defer to the growers like Bob as to speculating on the why parts of your question but part of it has to be perceived or expected taste qualities. People get excited about smoking a Cuban Cigar, it's an event. Once they can get past that "event" factor some of the shine goes away and they are just smoking a cigar, most are good some suck.

Bob,
I will gladly trade you some of your "Bob Cubans" for some of my real ones anytime. I'm pretty sure I will be getting the better end of that trade.
Pete

 

[Raodwarior]

OK "Now on soap box" consider this the disclaimer

Having been fortunate enough to make a few trips to the forbidden isle here are my observations on why the different taste/flavor of Cuban tobacco.

Most of the farms in Cuba are small family plots, there really is no government run commercial grow operation that I saw in Cuba. These farmers a mostly poor they can not afford chemical fertilizers or pesticides, so the use bat guano and animal waste to fertilize their fields. they also use the stems and waste to form a liquid pesticide for the plants. most use crop rotation over the years to keep the ground from becoming fallow. What I saw was most likely the most organic growing of tobacco that I have ever experienced.

Then they sell their crop at the government rate which BTW is extremely undervalued to what we are use to but they have no choice. The fermentation and sorting is done at government owned factories and then bailed for blending and aging. It is then rolled into what we know as a Habana.

It is my opinion based on smoking these cigars almost exclusively for 10 yrs before I opened my store that it is more to the WAY the tobacco is grown and fertilized contributes to the taste then the region that it is grow in.

Now this is only my opinion based on visits to the farms and speaking with the farmers and someone else's opinion my vary.

 

[juan carlos]

as a Canadian. i have always had access to Cuban.

I'm with DIY Pete, it's an event. the anticipation helps a lot.

my preference, with the whole table open, has been Doms for over 3 decades.

on edit: my WLT blends are now the preference, doubt i could be as satisfied with a commercial blend now.

 

[deluxestogie]

...it is more to the WAY the tobacco is grown and fertilized contributes to the taste then the region that it is grow in.

I agree with that, so far as it goes. Since I've grown the many cigar varieties that I've planted using the same method and soil and fertilizer for all of them, I will still stand by my assertion that the specific tobacco varieties that finish as Cuban-like tobacco are unique.

Having smoked many Cuban cigars over the decades, it's not an "event" for me. I was, unfortunately, spoiled by my first box of Davidoff Havanas, back in the early 1970. Zino Davidoff is now dead, and there are no longer any Davidoff Havanas made. (I bought my last box of them at his Geneva store in the early 1980s.) I consider them to be the best cigars ever made on planet Earth. That's the taste and aroma that was approached by the blend of varieties discussed in my previous post. Olfactory memories last a lifetime.

Bob

 

[Hasse SWE]

Bob ain't the name Davidoff still living? I have never smoke one but I have a friend how have some Dovidoff. And I think the sell em in Swedens bigger city's even today..

 

[Planter]

Like in wine, subtle effects of soil and (micro-) climate may make the difference. I doubt that the organoleptic properties of manure fertilizer translate 1:1 into the final smoke (I fortunately can't detect any urine in plants I emergency-fertilized with wee).
Still, I got a barnyard character (which I like) in a batch of "Rot Front" tobacco AFTER a second fermentation. I tried a Toscano-style fermentation (hot and wet) on it 2 years ago (with so-so results), forgot about it, took it out a month ago, it still wasn't great. So I gave it another 2 weeks of kilning, starting with a low temperature. After that it was notably better, but the big surprise came after another 2 weeks of rest (slowly drying). Now it's alkaline but honey-sweet at the same time, and the barnyardness reminded me immediately on a Cuban Partagas. It also has a distinct cedar wood note, although it never was kept in the humidor.
I have no idea if I could replicate that, or if it was just a stroke of good luck. I suspect that the low temperature phase at the beginning of the second fermentation has something to do with it. Perhaps the trick is to run curing and fermentation just along the edge of rot (?) I will try the same with some Corojo with the same history, and see what comes out.
Has anybody smoked a cigar rolled by a Cuban who's growing and fermenting himself? Would be curious to know if that aroma is also there, or if it comes from processing in the big factories.