Big Cigars by Frank Seltzer
Partagas worker
Ok I gotta admit I do not like the big ring gauge cigars…but I cannot help but notice more and more people are coming out with the big honkers. Back way before the Cigar Boom, about the biggest stick you could find was a Robusto at 50. Since the boom, well the ring gauges keep getting bigger. As I have mentioned before part of it is because some smokers believe the myth that the bigger the ring gauge the cooler the smoke. That is a total myth. A small panatela can smoke just as cool as monster IF the cigar is well made. You probably have seen the picture on the left of the woman in the Partagas factory in Cuba who loved big cigars…her reason? she could smoke one a day so she made it the biggest one possible.
But this trend for enormous cigars is not really new. The big sticks have been around for a loooong time. The big daddy and one of the first huge cigars I ever saw was the Casa Blanca Jeroboam, which comes in at a whopping 10” x 66. That puppy is big. A little later, came the half Jeroboam, which is only 5 inches long but still either one will take a long time to smoke.
In 2006, Sam Leccia came up with the idea for the Nub that is a short fat cigar (4” x 60). It took off and continues to be made by Oliva. The La Gloria Serie R came in with shortly thereafter with the Number 6 at 5.875 x 60.
So until relatively recently, the 60-ring gauge cigar was an anomaly. Today, however, we have over 12 pages of 60 ring gauge cigars from which to pick!
Then last year, Ernie Perez Carrillo brought out the Inch—a 64-ring gauge. Jaime Garcia has his Reserva Especial Super Gordo which measures 5.75” x 66. Tropical Tobacco/ Casa Fernandez brought out a 70 ring gauge in the JFR series and Asylum— one of Christian Eiroa’s new brands – also came out with a 7” x 70. Well that is a big cigar but it is not the biggest one the Asylum boys are making.
According to Christian and sales manager Tom Lazuka, next month, Asylum 13 will be shipping an enormous 6” x 80 cigar. Yup it is about an inch and a quarter in diameter. That is HUGE. The retail price for the cigar will be $9.
Biggest Cigar
El Gigante
But if you think an 80 ring gauge is big, how about cigar with a 1,920 ring gauge? The cigar measures 18’ x 1920 (or just under 3 feet). Its nickname is El Gigante and was made by George Rico and Gran Habano for the IPCPR trade show in New Orleans in 2010. The cigar used 1600 pounds of tobacco and weighed 2500 pounds with its special trailer. (It certainly would not fit in any other cigar case.) The cigar is smokable, though you would have to wonder how, and is a Gran Habano Corojo Number 5 blend rolled in the Gran Habano factory in Honduras and then bought up for the show. Since then, the cigar had been in the Gran Habano humidor and more recently (like last September) Rico put it in his Calle Ocho factory and shop, G.R. Tabacaleras Unidas. It was certainly a conversation piece. And apparently someone HAD to have it. Rico was contacted a couple of weeks ago and the cigar was sold to a private collector for $185,000. The buyer is undisclosed but he is supposed to be famous and lives overseas. Wonder how you declare this baby on a Custom’s form…but it is only ONE cigar.
