The other day, DeluxeStogie posted on another thread that
"Cigars are just about the only hand-crafted items I know of which are regularly judged not by their artisanal quality, but by their resemblance to a mass-produced, industrial commodity."
There's so much truth in that, isn't there? It really got me to thinking: If machine made is what people want, then why don't they just go buy machine made cigars? It don't make no sense. Like taking the belt off your pants and then holding them up with your hand. If you want to hold your pants up, why did you take your belt off, kid? But that's what they do these days. I have my own theories, involving Thorsten Veblen, and all that. But it still don't make sense. Machinery makes everything else we use. Why not cigars?
Don and I got to talking on the phone the other day about this 150 year old cigar factory that I have been building a web store for at fxsmithssons.com . They make their cigars with machinery. Don suggested I post about them here.
FX Smith's Sons has been rolling cigars in Pennsylvania since before the Civil War. Five generations of Smiths. They started out with a handful of women rolling by hand in the basement of old man Smith's general store. Gettysburg is just ten miles away. Before the big battle, both sides rode over to buy smokes at Smith's place, and that's when the business took off. Over a century ago they mechanized. That was the big triumph of the nineteenth century, was machines to do the drudgery that people used to sweat at; and do a way better job of it, too. They still run those century old machines today, cause that steel was made in America to last forever. At their peak, FX Smiths were cranking out six million cigars a year. Six million. Even with machines, it's still women who do the work today, cause their sweet hands have a more delicate feel for the leaf.
You always get a perfect consistency, a perfect burn, predictable construction. That's what machines do.
My favorite is their Smithdale Maduro. Everyone I give one of these cigars to seems to like them a lot. All natural tobacco grown by the Amish in Pennsylvania. The maduro wrapper is cured by a family secret five day process that Smith won't tell you what it is. They taste like toasted black bread. Delicious. A neat little box pressed perfecto. You can get a box of fifty of these for sixty bucks. It would cost a lot less if they weren't taxed to death by the nanny state.
This last Fall, a buddy and I took a motorcycle camping trip to Moonshine Illinois. On the way, we naturally stopped to visit with a couple FairTrade forum brothers. The week before, I had sent a package with some Smithdales to Southern Planter to try. We all met up on BigBonner's porch to smoke and drink and swap lies.
Southern Planter told me sittin there: "I smoked one of your Smithdales on the way over here, and it filled me with regret."
I was surprised. I said: "Why?"
Southern Planter said: "For every time in my life I ever spent twenty dollars on a cigar which was no better than this."
____________________
Anybody goes to fxsmithssons.com and places an order there, mention FairTrade forum in your order comments and I'll make sure they shoot you out some freebies. I dunno what yet. Maybe a fiver of White Orchid, which is another of my faves from there.Maybe a shirt or sumpin.
"Cigars are just about the only hand-crafted items I know of which are regularly judged not by their artisanal quality, but by their resemblance to a mass-produced, industrial commodity."
There's so much truth in that, isn't there? It really got me to thinking: If machine made is what people want, then why don't they just go buy machine made cigars? It don't make no sense. Like taking the belt off your pants and then holding them up with your hand. If you want to hold your pants up, why did you take your belt off, kid? But that's what they do these days. I have my own theories, involving Thorsten Veblen, and all that. But it still don't make sense. Machinery makes everything else we use. Why not cigars?
Don and I got to talking on the phone the other day about this 150 year old cigar factory that I have been building a web store for at fxsmithssons.com . They make their cigars with machinery. Don suggested I post about them here.
FX Smith's Sons has been rolling cigars in Pennsylvania since before the Civil War. Five generations of Smiths. They started out with a handful of women rolling by hand in the basement of old man Smith's general store. Gettysburg is just ten miles away. Before the big battle, both sides rode over to buy smokes at Smith's place, and that's when the business took off. Over a century ago they mechanized. That was the big triumph of the nineteenth century, was machines to do the drudgery that people used to sweat at; and do a way better job of it, too. They still run those century old machines today, cause that steel was made in America to last forever. At their peak, FX Smiths were cranking out six million cigars a year. Six million. Even with machines, it's still women who do the work today, cause their sweet hands have a more delicate feel for the leaf.
You always get a perfect consistency, a perfect burn, predictable construction. That's what machines do.
My favorite is their Smithdale Maduro. Everyone I give one of these cigars to seems to like them a lot. All natural tobacco grown by the Amish in Pennsylvania. The maduro wrapper is cured by a family secret five day process that Smith won't tell you what it is. They taste like toasted black bread. Delicious. A neat little box pressed perfecto. You can get a box of fifty of these for sixty bucks. It would cost a lot less if they weren't taxed to death by the nanny state.
This last Fall, a buddy and I took a motorcycle camping trip to Moonshine Illinois. On the way, we naturally stopped to visit with a couple FairTrade forum brothers. The week before, I had sent a package with some Smithdales to Southern Planter to try. We all met up on BigBonner's porch to smoke and drink and swap lies.
Southern Planter told me sittin there: "I smoked one of your Smithdales on the way over here, and it filled me with regret."
I was surprised. I said: "Why?"
Southern Planter said: "For every time in my life I ever spent twenty dollars on a cigar which was no better than this."
____________________
Anybody goes to fxsmithssons.com and places an order there, mention FairTrade forum in your order comments and I'll make sure they shoot you out some freebies. I dunno what yet. Maybe a fiver of White Orchid, which is another of my faves from there.Maybe a shirt or sumpin.
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