“Cuba Today: People and Society—Havana and the Countryside” (#20610)
September 28-October 6, 2015
On The Road With The Road Scholars
Politics aside, mention Cuba and two items come to mind: cigars and rum. No right-minded tour of Havana would be complete without visiting a rum and cigar emporium. As of January 2015, American tourists can bring back $400 worth of merchandise, which may include up to $100 worth of tobacco and alcohol products, for personal use only.
Fellow Road Scholars and I put a dent in the allocation Wednesday September 30. Cheers erupted in the bus when our fearless tour leader Carole Cloonan announced the stop.
I made two friends very happy when I picked up a few Montecristo and Cohiba Robusto cigars, requests made about ten seconds after learning I was heading for Havana. The Cohiba style was created in 1966 and is a favorite of Fidel’s.
Cuban cigars are hand rolled, have dozens of lengths, shapes, and ring sizes (the width of the cigar). Cigars also have a distinctive colorful paper band that is wrapped around each one with the logo of the cigar. Cuba's climate and soil make it ideal for growing tobacco leaves perfect for rolling into cigars and packing inside them. I’m way over my head when my cigar-smoking pal waxes on about the three components of cigars – the wrapper, binder and filler.
Columbus saw Cuban Indians smoking a form of cigars way back in 1492. Factories in Cuba began hand-rolling cigars in the late 1800s.
How did the Montecristo cigar get its name? Our Cuban tour guide Yohandra (“Jo”) explains. “In the old days, in order to keep the cigar makers engaged, the company hired someone to read to them while they rolled cigars. One of the stories being read was ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ and that is how that cigar got its name. Same thing with the Romeo and Juliet cigar.”
While it was rare to see anyone smoking a cigar (or even cigarettes) in Havana, every lunch and dinner we had was accompanied with a couple rounds of mojitos – Cuban white rum, sugar cane juice, lime juice, sparkling water, and mint…instant gratification.
Accounts that it was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite concoction at La Floridita in Havana are probably apocryphal. It doesn’t make a shot glass of difference to tourists who have flocked to La Floridita for an icy mojito or daiquiri and a photo opp with the bust of Papa in the corner seat at the bar.
Cuba in perspective: Cuba is the 136th largest export economy in the world. In 2013, Cuba exported $2.43B and imported $6.72B, resulting in a negative trade balance of $4.29B. The top exports of Cuba are Raw Sugar ($419M), Refined Petroleum ($356M), Rolled Tobacco ($306M). Habanos S.A. owns the trademarks of every brand of Cuban-made cigars and cigarettes in the countries they are exported to. The only nation to which Habanos S.A. doesn't sell cigars is the United States, which has had a trade embargo against Cuba since 1962. Before the revolution, Cuba was a one-crop economy, and 90 percent of the country's raw sugar and tobacco exports was exported to the US. There was no trickle down benefit to the populace.
Hard to say how Cuba will manage exporting cigars and rum to the United States if and when the embargo is lifted. Not hard to say that the best place to sample either one is in Havana.
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Decisions, decisions, decisions...a toast to our newly acquired mementos.
Dazzling stock pile of cigars of all kinds.
The "rings" for cigars were formerly printed on lithography presses like this ancient machine at El Taller Experimental de Gráfica in Havana. http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2015/11/cuba-chronicles-el-taller-experimental-de-grafica.html
La Floridita...a visit here is on the top ten places to visit in Havana for tourists from all over the world. We were the only Americans in the place. After a couple of mojitos or daiquiris everybody is in the mood to celebrate and world peace seems possible. And the little band just inside the door is a fabulous mood setter.
Note the book and eyeglasses on the counter and the photo of another famous Cuban on the wall. Also note the DAIQUIRI on the bar.
Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer who is said to have invented the rum based daiquiri during the Spanish-American War, is buried in this cemetery in Havana. After getting seated on the bus after our visit to the emporium, our tour guide Yohandra ("Jo") passes around a pint of fine white rum. It's empty by the time it gets back to the front of the bus – a record says tour leader Carole Cloonan. I think that was a compliment.
Cuba's reputation with rum is complex and dark. In the 1930s, the Mafia took control of the rum business. When Al Capone visited Havana, he camped out in two floors of the Hotel Sevilla Biltmore (photo above), owned by other mob bosses. The mafia's influence in Havana politics ceased after January 1, 1959 when the Revolution triumphed.
The Art Deco Bacardi building was completed in 1930 and was the largest building in Havana at the time.
The battle for control of Cuban rum production continues to this day. Bacardi and Havana Club were the two biggest rum makers in Cuba and friendly competitors when Fidel Castro took control. Castro regime confiscated the Bacardi family’s Cuban assets in October 1960.
Bacardi now makes Havana Club rum in Puerto Rico and sells it in 19 states. Because of the U.S.-Cuba trade embargo, Pernod Ricard of France, maker of Havana Club rum of Cuba has not been able to sell its rum in the U.S. but markets the product in Cuba and elsewhere. If and when the embargo is lifted, Pernod Ricard will sell its rum to U. S. customers under the name "Havanista".
French drinks giant Pernod Ricard is poised to sell its Cuban-made rum in the United States once a 53-year-old trade embargo is lifted, going head-to-head with Cuban-founded Bacardi which dominates the world's biggest market.
Pernod's Havana Club will have to change its name to "Havanista" for U.S. customers, because Bacardi International, now Bermuda-based after its founders fled the communist island in the 1960s, has the U.S. rights to the "Havana Club" name.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
PT –
It is a constant delight that your chronicles keep arriving and we are able to continue to re-live our wonderful trip. I know you had your recorder, but I simply cannot believe how much detail you retained, even with the loss of your notes. I will be sad when we come to the end of the trip (again). Well, I suppose I will just have to go back and read them all again then.
Posted by: Megan Bates | April 06, 2016 at 03:40 PM
Love the updates. And have great memories of all the places we visited. Keep them coming. Thanks.
Posted by: Jay (Victor) Grant | April 09, 2016 at 11:59 PM