Is the mystique of a Cuban cigar all smoke?
DECEMBER 19, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY JOHN PETRICK
STAFF WRITER |
WIRE SERVICE
Ridgewood cigar salesman Gary Kolesaire thinks he knows what it is about Cuban cigars and rum that Americans find so alluring, so romantic, so sexy. It’s not their exquisitely cultivated flavors, made for the sophisticated palate and deeply rooted in cultural tradition.
It’s that they’re illegal.
“We always want the forbidden fruit. There’s your demand,” said Kolesaire, co-owner of The Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood.
Enzo Lentini, maitre d’ at Grissini restaurant in Englewood Cliffs, agreed. “The rum is basically all the same, if you are talking about the distilling process,” he said. “Everything is great and wonderful – until it’s made legal. The fact that they are prohibited is what makes it so coveted.”
Local tobacco and liquor procurers on Thursday seemed cynical — or, at best, cautiously optimistic — in the wake of recent news that the United States and Cuba were reestablishing diplomatic relations.
President Obama intends to open an embassy in Havana and loosen travel and trade restrictions. At least initially, American visitors to Cuba still won’t be able to bring back more than $100 of Cuban rum or tobacco for personal use. Not everyone will be allowed to travel to the Caribbean island, either, as generalized tourism is still banned.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/politics/cuban-cigars-cut-down-to-size-1.1169683
Obama is doing for Cuba what Reagan did for the Berlin Wall.
Why aren’t conservatives celebrating the triumph of democracy this time?
because Obama surrendered to Cuba ,Reagan won , as for who is celebrating and who is not , time will tell
It has absolutely nothing to do with democracy. While I do agree that it’s time this 50 year old embargo ended, it’s ending has nothing to do with a triumph of democracy. I hope that a new relationship will help exiled Cubans get their properties back. The basic justification for continuing this embargo is pretty hard to argue considering that we have open diplomatic and trading relations with countries that openly hate us and have far worse human rights records than Cuba.
There’s equally good, if not better cigars, that come out of places like Nicaragua and the DR. It might surprise many to know that a number of Cuban cigar makers that fled Cuba following the revolution, took tobacco seeds with them and ended up in these two countries.
How about Cuba returning Joan Chesimard the cop killer before we normalize relations?
We’ve had, and still have, wanted murderers in such countries as France that we can’t get back.
Just a matter of time before we see a Starbucks store down Playa de Verguenza boulevard….
I can’t wait for the first US lawyer to file suit for causing cancer against Cuban cigar makers.
They want the revenue from US sales, and they will then have to face the same music in the courts that US tobacco makers have.
And how would this be any different from cigar makers in other countries, none of which appear to have experienced this legal challenge?