Cuban Cigars, Ready or Not, Here They Come……. I Think…

f_02Since John F. Kennedy signed the Cuban Embargo in 1962, nine straight U.S. presidents have come and gone, with so much talk of lifting it. Now we have the most liberal president in the history of mankind, and the question isn’t “if” the embargo will end, the only question is “when.” Okay, this is only my personal opinion, but it sure seems to be a popular opinion of many.

Many a cigar fan wants this embargo that is approaching half a century to end for selfish reasons. If you love your smokes from Havana, then you are excited about the availability of real-deal Monte #2’s, Hoyo DC’s, Bolivar Gigantes, and Partagas Serie D Robustos becoming a reality at a cigar shop near you.

castro2If you are a pro-Castro Cuban, you want this to come to an end so you can visit your homeland and family again. If you are anti-Castro and your family came over in the Mariel Boat Lifts, then you are for the embargo and want the U.S. government to continue to squeeze Fidel’s cajone’s until he is as dead as a doornail.

Habanos_logo_fullAs you can see, there’s a lot of mixed sentiment here. Now some of you reading don’t give a rat’s ash about Cuban smokes and are happy as a clam with your sticks from Honduras, Nicaragua, and the DR. But some of us really do enjoy the hell out of the cigars named two paragraphs above and would love to have them readily available to enjoy. But the question is: At what cost?

There are many that believe the cost of Cuban made sticks will double because immediate demand will be off the charts. And don’t kid yourself, demand for legitimate Habanos products will be utterly insane when they are readily available in America.

eitan-simanor-close-up-of-limited-edition-cigars-in-a-box-cohiba-havana-cuba-west-indies-central-america“There’s no way you can serve Europe and the US if Cuban cigars became big in the US,” Swedish Match Chief Financial Officer, Lars Dahlgren, who declined to say when the ban might be lifted.  “If consumers would demand the same quality of cigars, prices would skyrocket.”

It’s hard to say what pricing will be, but I personally think it will cause a kind of mini-boom here in the U.S. But the smoke Nazi’s will see this coming and raise taxes higher and fight to stop the Cuban invasion, but it won’t matter. People will want their Habanas and that’s gonna piss off a lot of Hidebeast and Pelosi supporters.

Now the interesting thing is, if prices go thru the roof in the U.S., that will again cause people to purchase them via mail order from outside of the country, but now it will be LEGAL to do so. So, to combat this, I’m sure the government will place some insane tariff on imported Cuban smokes and that’ll take care of that brief loophole.

At first, most people will go ga-ga and buy Cuban smokes at a crazy clip and smokes from the other countries will take an initial hit. But if the prices for Cubanos are ridiculously high, within a couple of months we’ll all go back to our favorite domesticated brands.

ABell03I think the thing that hits me the most is that it will no longer be considered an act of treason to purchase a real-deal stick from the Island 90 miles south of Miami. Travel will open up to Castroland and they are just going to love the U.S. dollar down there. And, you’ll see a boatload (poor choice of words?) of Cuban players in Major League Baseball. Wow, almost 50 years of talking about this and it looks as if it’s really going to happen in our lifetime. I remember Lew Rothman telling me that when the embargo was first put in place, all of the cigar companies completely believed that it wouldn’t last more than a few weeks. Well, a few weeks became a few months and it started a frenzy in the industry.

Well, I say get ready for a new frenzy in the industry, as handmade premium Cuban cigars are about to make their long awaited U.S. return…

… I think.

Tommy Z

JR Cigars Blog With the Zman

Embargo

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