Havana 142

[mwaller]

I'm currently growing Havana 142 in addition to Corojo 99, Criollo 98, Little Dutch, Vuelta Abajo, and Florida Sumatra. Of all the varieties in my garden, Havana 142 has the thinnest and smoothest leaf.
Does this variety make a good wrapper? It is apparently classified as a binder variety, so I would assume it would have some decent elasticity.
What is the best use for Havana 142?

 

[Hasse SWE]

Sorry to say that I can't tell but Havana 142 seed often sells as a excellent cigar binder or component in cigarett/pipe tobacco blend. I can tell that it have pretty long history (created 1916 but released 1923). It's a Wisconsin type, it's a cross between Havana#38 and a variant of Wisconsin seedleaf (a variant that also have the name Broadleaf) the correct name of this parents is "page's Comstock". I have never growing Havana#142 myself but I have been reading alot of it (and know some Swedish guys that have made cigars with Havana#142 as wrapper but I don't know anything about the results)..Hope Bob or someone else can help you..

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Use it in anything. Flavor is burley with a hint of something exotic.

 

[mwaller]

Interesting. I had assumed it was a Cuban variety, but is sounds more like something developed in the US. Correct?

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Yes, when you go back far enough there is question about the origins, but by now it's certainly it's own variety. Developed in Wisconsin if I'm remembering right.

Edit, yeah hasse is correct. As to the Havana in the name it won't taste like vuelta, corojo, criollo etc. I've said it before I don't know why there are so many numbered Havana varieties, maybe that was the American cigar taste back in the day, but it won't resemble the cigar flavor you're used to from Honduras DR, Nicaragua etc. It's good though and it's a chameleon, like I said above it can be used in anything, pipe, cigar, cigarette, smokeless. Bigbonner sells it if you want to play around with it while your plants are still growing

 

[deluxestogie]

This is all that I've found on Havana 142.

https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/aj/abstracts/50/11/AJ0500110712?access=0&view=pdf

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

I've found one more reference to Havana 142.

https://books.google.com/books?id=F...VAhXHTCYKHbzwCpkQ6AEIPTAD#v=onepage&q&f=false

Bob

 

[Hasse SWE]

Interesting. I had assumed it was a Cuban variety, but is sounds more like something developed in the US. Correct?

As you can see Havana#142 ain't a "Cuban variant" but to be honest a large number of "Havana" ain't from Cuba, I have been growing some of of the variants that have been made out of Havana#142 and many of them shall be so similar to Havana#142 that I have decided to not grow just that variant. But most of the Variants I have been growing ain't any thing I recommend to use alone, they have really neutral taste but in tobacco mixes they make magic. So if I was you I would not look to much on the "normally use" if you have a elastic and nice leaf just trying them as wrapper on your cigar.It's seems to me that you have variants that can make some really good cigars. But remember that I never done a cigar myself..

 

[Hasse SWE]

Nice of you Bob I most say that this link can also be really interesting to read: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89098836687;view=1up;seq=24;skin=mobile

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Awesome find hasse!

 

[mwaller]

Great info, guys! I don't know anything about the Wisconsin tobacco industry. Was this mostly cigarette tobacco, or...?

 

[BarG]

I grew some Havana 142 several years ago. I found it to be a fairly mild tobacco. Be carefull not to leave the leaves in the sun to long after priming.

 

[deluxestogie]

Great info, guys! I don't know anything about the Wisconsin tobacco industry. Was this mostly cigarette tobacco, or...?

The Wisconsin varieties that I've grown have all been cigar leaf. A quick search turns up the following sample of the history of tobacco in Wisconsin.

...1885 in Madison.

At that time, Wisconsin was a leading tobacco growing state with some 16,000 acres grown by about 4,000 farmers. mainly in Rock and Dane counties.

http://host.madison.com/ct/business...cle_f71712d2-11ab-11df-a36f-001cc4c03286.html

1931: Wisconsin tobacco production covers 38,386 acres in 22 counties for a harvest of 76 million pounds; price plummets.

1933-38: Agricultural Adjustment Act set federal standards for growing and selling tobacco, inaugurates price support system.

1938: Tobacco cultivated on 8,310 acres in Dane County, out of 18,400 statewide.

1939: Wisconsin's tobacco crop is valued at $3,669,000 (roughly $56 million in 2009 dollars).

1941: Lancaster Leaf founded.

1952: A paper published in the journal Land Economics, by the University of Wisconsin Press, reports that tobacco is the primary cash crop for 5,500 farmers in Wisconsin, and 7.5% of the total agricultural income in Dane County is from this source. The state haul is about $8 million (roughly $64 million in 2009 dollars).

https://isthmus.com/news/cover-story/tobacco-in-wisconsin-a-timeline/

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Edgerton was the center of the tobacco industry in southern Wisconsin. At one time, there were as many as 52 tobacco warehouses dotting the streets of Edgerton.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgerton,_Wisconsin

Today, Wisconsin grows a substantial part of the
nation's cigar leaf: over 20.5 million pounds in 1959, pro-
duced in some 20 counties on tracts ranging from one-
half to 10 or 12 acres. This production, about half of the
national total in its category, is represented by two types
of leaf, classified as Southern Wisconsin and Northern
Wisconsin. (A small portion of the latter is grown in
Minnesota. ) The official designation for the types grown
in the Wisconsin- Minnesota area is "cigar-binder leaf."
Its class name does not, however, indicate the uses to
which manufacturers put it. It has long been used for
non-binder purposes.

http://www.archive.org/stream/tobaccohistoryse06toba/tobaccohistoryse06toba_djvu.txt

Bob

 

[BigBonner]

Great info, guys! I don't know anything about the Wisconsin tobacco industry. Was this mostly cigarette tobacco, or...?

I know they used to grow for Red man chew and for cigars .

I have a lot of Havana in two different varieties . One is Lonnies Havana That is rough and is good in cigarettes .

 

[TigerTom]

Sorry to revive an old thread. This is that point where an illusion is broken.

I'm a fan of Tabernacle cigars. They seem to be well crafted, well balanced cigars with deeper flavors than a lot of what's on the market.

One blend they have is the "Havana Seed CT #142." It's a tasty blend so I wanted to learn more about it. I looked it up and found this article:

Foundation Cigar Co Announces Tabernacle Havana Seed CT #142 - Cigar Journal

Nicholas Melillo's Foundation Cigar Company will introduce a new blend at the 2018 IPCPR trade show: Tabernacle Havana Seed CT #142.

www.cigarjournal.com

The story seemed familiar, so I looked up Havana 142 and found this thread.

Seems Nick Melillo is taking credit for something that occurred 100 years ago.

Sad times.

 

[deluxestogie]

I know nothing about Nick Melillo or his cigars, but he may be doing some minor "grower's selection" of Havana 142 that may or may not warrant a new designation.

I did something similar with the Piloto Cubano PR (seed directly from Puerto Rico). The first crop of it exhibited a lot of variation, so I selected seed from a plant with notably broader leaves. When I grew them the following season, all the plants from that seed were huge (over 7-8 feet), with very large and broad leaves, and were much more consistent in size and conformation. I now call it "Piloto Cubano PR Broad". It seems to be a unique and stable sub-variety. I've planted that again this year, to see what I've ended up with.

Bob

 

[TigerTom]

It's possible, but this quote from Melillo doesn't seem to indicate that:

“I’ve been working with particular farmers in the valley since 2014 to help optimize the plant’s overall health while maintaining the seeds unbelievable flavor characteristics. The culmination of these efforts involved combining the seed with Havana Seed #38 and Havana Seed #1207, also known asPage-Comstock-The end result is Havana #142.”

It's a bit cryptic, but he seems to be saying that Havana 142 is a culmination of his efforts, and combining 38 and Page's Comstock was something he did.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Wow.. so the guy is independently doing the exact same thing 100 years later? What a genius!...

 

[RandyL]

I know nothing about Nick Melillo or his cigars, but he may be doing some minor "grower's selection" of Havana 142 that may or may not warrant a new designation.

I did something similar with the Piloto Cubano PR (seed directly from Puerto Rico). The first crop of it exhibited a lot of variation, so I selected seed from a plant with notably broader leaves. When I grew them the following season, all the plants from that seed were huge (over 7-8 feet), with very large and broad leaves, and were much more consistent in size and conformation. I now call it "Piloto Cubano PR Broad". It seems to be a unique and stable sub-variety. I've planted that again this year, to see what I've ended up with.

Bob

I was at a cigar shop event earlier this year and Nick was talking about this leaf and your growers selection comment is basically what he described they did. Nick knows a lot about tobacco and the history behind it. His family was originally from the Windsor valley in CT. He was the main buyer and a blender for Drew Estate before starting his own company a couple years back. His knowledge of tobacco was overwhelming. I learned so much about it in the hour I heard him talk. The cigars he puts out are top notch and he has a long, bright future ahead of him. All the praise he has gotten the last few years is very well deserved.

 

[TigerTom]

I was at a cigar shop event earlier this year and Nick was talking about this leaf and your growers selection comment is basically what he described they did. Nick knows a lot about tobacco and the history behind it. His family was originally from the Windsor valley in CT. He was the main buyer and a blender for Drew Estate before starting his own company a couple years back. His knowledge of tobacco was overwhelming. I learned so much about it in the hour I heard him talk. The cigars he puts out are top notch and he has a long, bright future ahead of him. All the praise he has gotten the last few years is very well deserved.

That's good to know. Thank you for posting that. It clarifies the history a bit. That same quote appears in several places on the web and it gives a bit of a false impression.

And I agree. His cigars are excellent. I hope to be enjoying them for years to come.