From: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140711075321-57979696-trends-in-cigar-strength
Trends in Cigar Strength
All, here is an article on strength trends in cigars.
http://otherkinbar.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/strength-trends-in-cigar-smoking/ - my photo happened to make it in that article even none of our 4 brands are mentioned!
I will comment on that subject here:
In the late 90's and early 2000's, there was a push for all cigars to become more heavy and strong. Many of those cigars were cigars like Ashton VSG or Padrón, and the onslaught of wannabes that came out later. Partagas released the "fire in your mouth" Partagas Black which was simply dyed black. Cohiba has the red dot which in my opinion was also a total failure. For some reason this generally lead people to the slightly inaccurate idea that strength should be associated with darker color.
Strength is generally determined by breed, and leaf location on the plant. My factory once experimented with a strange crossbreed (at the time of writing I forget the name... something like cs52....) and we eventually had a few names for that cigar. We called it things like "leg breaker", "brain bleeder", etc. When I got my first few sticks handed to me in a ziplock the smell was entirely new. It was pungent, and reminded me of an ammonia pop a doctor might give you if you are about to pass out. I took my first one to a dinner. I ate a massive Italian meal, and lit up just as I started in on desert. After I finished I had jelly legs, and had to hold the staircase railing as I walked down the stairs to leave. (The stories that accompany that cigar, accosting various friends' masculinity because they smoked it while drinking in bars have become legendary.)
In most cases, we generally blend higher cuts referred to as Ligero into the cigar at varying quantities. Since filler of a cigar can easily be up to 5 varieties of either breed, cut, color strength etc, there are a lot of options for blending strength. I have made two "Ultra Ligero" versions of twonon maduro cigars in our PROPIO brand of cigars, called Veneno and Leon. This was in direct response to clients complimenting the taste of those two cigars, but asking for more strength. We also have the well-known Don Cervantes Tres Maduro, which despite having maduro wrapper, binder and maduro in the filler, has yet to be considered strong by almost anyone. I did blend ligero in this cigar, but the age of the ligero is about 20+ years old, and has significantly mellowed with age, leaving a rich sweetness that has left this cigar a real winner.
That being said, Cain and others have made cigar blends with higher percentage rates of ligero to determine strength and they are also not maduro.
As always enjoy what you smoke, and share your thoughts.
Trends in Cigar Strength
All, here is an article on strength trends in cigars.
http://otherkinbar.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/strength-trends-in-cigar-smoking/ - my photo happened to make it in that article even none of our 4 brands are mentioned!
I will comment on that subject here:
In the late 90's and early 2000's, there was a push for all cigars to become more heavy and strong. Many of those cigars were cigars like Ashton VSG or Padrón, and the onslaught of wannabes that came out later. Partagas released the "fire in your mouth" Partagas Black which was simply dyed black. Cohiba has the red dot which in my opinion was also a total failure. For some reason this generally lead people to the slightly inaccurate idea that strength should be associated with darker color.
Strength is generally determined by breed, and leaf location on the plant. My factory once experimented with a strange crossbreed (at the time of writing I forget the name... something like cs52....) and we eventually had a few names for that cigar. We called it things like "leg breaker", "brain bleeder", etc. When I got my first few sticks handed to me in a ziplock the smell was entirely new. It was pungent, and reminded me of an ammonia pop a doctor might give you if you are about to pass out. I took my first one to a dinner. I ate a massive Italian meal, and lit up just as I started in on desert. After I finished I had jelly legs, and had to hold the staircase railing as I walked down the stairs to leave. (The stories that accompany that cigar, accosting various friends' masculinity because they smoked it while drinking in bars have become legendary.)
In most cases, we generally blend higher cuts referred to as Ligero into the cigar at varying quantities. Since filler of a cigar can easily be up to 5 varieties of either breed, cut, color strength etc, there are a lot of options for blending strength. I have made two "Ultra Ligero" versions of twonon maduro cigars in our PROPIO brand of cigars, called Veneno and Leon. This was in direct response to clients complimenting the taste of those two cigars, but asking for more strength. We also have the well-known Don Cervantes Tres Maduro, which despite having maduro wrapper, binder and maduro in the filler, has yet to be considered strong by almost anyone. I did blend ligero in this cigar, but the age of the ligero is about 20+ years old, and has significantly mellowed with age, leaving a rich sweetness that has left this cigar a real winner.
That being said, Cain and others have made cigar blends with higher percentage rates of ligero to determine strength and they are also not maduro.
As always enjoy what you smoke, and share your thoughts.
eace: