I have no doubt that commercial non-Cuban cigars have, since the late 1990s, been blended with stronger and stronger leaf combinations. They, and the Cuban cigars have also become progressively fatter. I'll take a wild guess and say that with the skyrocketed cost per cigar (mostly due to taxes), the average cigar smoker smokes fewer cigars. So cigars that I would consider outrageously strong have become the norm.
In Zino Davidoff's 1969 book,
The Connoisseur's Book of the Cigar, he list the most common cigar sizes being produced in Cuba at that time:
- Small Corona
- Demi-tasse
- Small Panetela
- Panatela
- Demi-Corona
- Little Corona
- Corona
- Lonsdale
- Double Corona
There were, of course, other shapes and sizes being made, but this list accounts for the vast majority of the Cuban cigars sold
at that time. Another significant difference from today is the wrapper.
Claro, which is a light, golden brown, has now faded from the lexicon, and is often incorrectly considered a term for the double-claro, or candela (green) wrapper.
Of the non-Cuban cigars, Hoyo de Monterrey used to make a
Spanish Claro demi-tasse, sold in a box of 50. It's gone. Hoyo Excalibur used to offer a size VI, which was a petite corona. It's gone. In fact, the lighter-wrapped, original Excalibur cigars are vanishing from the market. Petite coronas in general are going off the market. So, the market says, "give me bigger and darker."
I will easily concede that preferences in taste and aroma (and for that matter, size) are an individual thing. Nicotine content and its
relative physiologic impact is not. While some folks are certainly more sensitive to the effects of nicotine, each cigar smoker is able to judge the relative nicotine load of one cigar vs another. As a smoker of 5-ish cigars a day, I have found that every Cuban cigar in recent memory has slammed me.
Like a discussion of religion, a debate about something as treasured as Cuban cigars is not likely to persuade anyone of a differing opinion. But this is my experience with them.
My suggestion for the WLT customer who longed for a smooth and creamy Cuban-like filler would offer a medium to full bodied filler that is not too harsh or too potent. Maybe that would be a disappointment.
Bob