Thanks for posting, Dan.
Why care?
FX Smith's Sons is one of the last surviving manufacturers of genuine American-style cigars. [I had never heard of them, until Webmost introduced their name on the FTT forum some years ago.] These use Pennsylvania and Connecticut broadleaf varieties, and sometimes a smattering of imported leaf. I've always found them enjoyable. (Much more so, prior to the gigantic tax hike on cigars!) They are all machine-made.
One of my favorite American cigars was, for decades, the Muniemaker brand, sold by a Connecticut company, which has since gone out of business. BUT...FX Smith's Sons manufactured those cigars that were sold under the Connecticut Cigars Muniemaker label. AND...they continue to manufacture them, though under the Tuscacora name (which appears to be misspelled as "Tusc
orora" on the website--maybe that's intentional).
Though it's not readily apparent from the website (time to spruce up the listings), many of these are sold in
boxes of 50 cigars. So, for example, the Tuscarora Straight (5.25" x 46, natural wrapper) [
https://fxsmithssonscigars.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=81&products_id=265 ], at $69.80 per box, comes out to about $1.40 per cigar. That's not bad, at today's prices. Their oscuro-wrapped cigars are also a delightful smoke.
It's worth a look, if you want to explore the true taste of traditional American cigars. Yes, they are machine made, and are short filler, and use a reconstituted tobacco sheet binder. But the wrapper is tasty natural leaf, the draw is excellent, and I find them enjoyable. Besides, if you smoke a cigar in breezy conditions, you really want a short filler cigar, since they are less likely to burn down the side. (The cigar frontmark,
cazadores, which means "hunters", were intended specifically for outdoor smoking. So, all short-filler cigars might be considered cazadores. The Spanish term,
fumas, designates cigars that the torcedors roll for themselves, to take home with them. These are also traditionally made with short filler.)
With regard to the silly "short-filler vs. long-filler" debate: My home-rolled short filler cigars smoke as well as my long-filler cigars. Commercial hand-rolled short-filler cigars tend to have unpredictable draw. I believe that hand-rollers who use a cigar mold to make a short-filler cigar have less control of the final draw (density of packing), compared to rolling it free-hand, since their goal is
size and shape, rather than density.
By contrast,
machine-made short-filler cigar production is carefully calibrated to use the exact quantity of short-filler for the size and shape. What? I'm saying that machine-made short-filler cigars have a better and more consistent draw than factory-produced, hand-rolled short-filler cigars (when the torcedors use a mold). When you roll your own short-filler cigars free-hand, your fingers learn to feel the density of whatever you're rolling--so they can draw perfectly. No squishy or rock-hard sticks. The machine-mades do it by calibration.
[Just as a side-note, so-called "Cuban sandwich" cigars are short filler cigars with an added piece of long filler leaf. You get the same thing by using all short-filler in a double binder.]
Bob
Full Disclosure: I receive no compensation or kickback from FX Smith's Sons. I do, however experience nostalgia over the loss of Marsh Wheeling, National Cigar, and Muniemaker Connecticut Cigars, and others. They're gone forever. [
Nostalgia: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.]