While Fidel Castro hasn't smoked a cigar in
over a decade, it's safe to say that most of his countrymen are still inveterate smokers.
And many a Cuban smoker has been known to enjoy the best Dominican cigars as well as the
best Cuban cigars.
In the Spring 1993 issue of Cigar
Aficionado magazine, for example, Francisco Padron, director of Cuba's export sales
organization known as Cubatabaco, discussed the difference between a Dominican cigar and a
Cuban cigar with the magazine's publisher, Marvin R. Shanken.
"It's a different thing," said Padron. "It is not a Cuban cigar but it is
very good...They know how to make cigars."
Ernesto Perez Carillo, the Cuban cigar
maker and owner of La Gloria Cubana, the famous Cuban brand now based in Miami, agrees
with Padron. "Dominican cigars have come into their own," Carillo explained.
"So it's all a question of personal tastes. The Cuban cigars are stronger, fuller
bodied. The Dominican cigars are smoother, milder. And there are a lot of Dominican cigars
I like."
Yet another well-known Cuban-born cigar man
now in Florida, Oscar Boruchin of Mike's Cigars, had this to say about Cuban cigar
smokers:
"In Cuba, their favorite cigar is a Partagas made in Cuba. And in America, their
favorite cigar is a Partagas made in the Dominican Republic"
"