Cigars

Four months, two weddings, three continents... This travel blog will follow our trip across China and Central Asia, as we make our way from Hong Kong through the south-western provinces and Tibet, up to the Silk Road and into the 'stans; across to ...

... Padrón was a mainstay and this time I opted for 1926 Natural. CAO flavors were popular too. The food was bold as the cigars with full-flavored Carribean food. The evening was great and I am already looking forward to the next meeting in June. The week ...

... it became clear after a few hours in Cuba that everyone wants to flog you some fine (hand rolled with Banana leaves) black market cigars and funny enough, everyone knows someone who works in the factory. A few days in Havana and you soon realise it`s not ...

... cabaret launched in 1939 and has been performing fantastic caribbean influences cabarets ever since then. On entrance men are presented with cigars while women are given carnations and you are able to enjoy a dinner or simply your free rum cocktails the ...

... that off to the cigar factory, but this being Cuba, it was shut to tours as all the people were distracting the workers from making cigars. So, what to do? Coffee and a re-think. As we were sipping our coffee a vintage pink something or other drew up at ...

... was the Tabacalera de Garcia cigar factory, the world's biggest.   They employ 4,700 workers, and produce 1 to 1.2 million cigars every week.  TdeG was established in 1971 when Fidel Castro took over Cuba, and the US embargo ceased trade with ...

... bit of sugar, ice, and Havana Club Rum Blanco. He took us through the farm and demonstrated how to roll a cigar. We smoked cigars as they do traditionally, with honey coated on the cigar's end that goes into your mouth (this makes smoking much better for ...

... outer leave cover & cutting, several stages of quality control, sticking labels on the boxes, adding brand stickers to the cigars and then the final matching of colours/lengths, packaging and final quality check. there has gotta be some major RSI ...

... popular place for freed slaves to live.  What was once a busy factory now houses a crew of about 20 women rolling cigars.  We were shown how various tobacco leaves were selected for what type of cigar and then how they were rolled, then ...

WW and I drove across western NC.  Got to a town called Statesville and went into J&R Cigars, billed as the World's largest cigar store.  They ain't lying.  BIg ol' CHurchills for $3 (or less). We camped at Lake Norman, land donated to ...

... we would come back from the beach or wandering the countryside to a home-cooked meal, shots of extremely strong rum and homemade cigars.  Mariano, the head of the house, was a master cigar maker as he was only to keen to demonstrate.  The ...

... thing to watch out for was once you had been befriended by a Cuban was that they would inevitably be trying to sell you cigars or worse a 15 year old prostitute. Playa Del Carmen After my side trip to Cuba i returned to Mexico for some beach time ...

... with yurt camps and random animals.  The sky at night was amazing and you could see the whole milky way.  We ended an international evening by drinking kyrgyz vodka and cognac with our French friends smoking Cuban cigars.    ...

... pretty hills to me, really) and learn the fascinating complex art of cigar-making, from the fermentation of the tobacco leaves to the rolling by hand of the cigars and finally the rigourous quality control tests. I couldn't resist buying one, any ...

Map of Cuba    [PHOTO_ . Havana International Airport [PHOT . . . . . . . . . Nacional Hotel sign   . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     We stayed at the Nacional Hotel this time.  It has a history with mafia, movie stars, and ...

... a very lengthy process. We were told that about 80% of the tobacco grown in Cuba is from Pinar del Rio province. All the cigars made at this factory were hand-rolled. Inside the factory-cum-museum we were not allowed bags or cameras, so you just have to ...