Perhaps I was just unlucky, but I did not smoke a single great cigar in Montreal. I was told by the proprietor of LCDH that Canada gets the "tier two" stock (rich European countries get tier one and Mexico and South America get tier three, according to the proprietor). Also, Havana House has begun freezing stock to Canada. I know there has been much discussion here about whether frozen stock tastes different, but I thought all the new cigars I smoked were somewhat muted. For the record I smoked: Upmann Mag 46 (one burned poorly, the other had little flavor), San Cristobal La Fuerza (needs time), MC2 (did not taste like one and if I hadn't bought it at LCDH I would have said fake), Partagas D4 2001 Limitada (overwhelming taste of caramel), RyJ robusto 2001 Limitada.
I did meet some friendly guys at LCDH and saw a lot of people smoking cigars in general.
That's an interesting story about different selections of cigars going to different countries. I'd certainly like to hear more on that. Can you ellaborate what he meant by the tier system?
I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with some of your smokes.
number 9 ... number 9 ... number 9 ... number 9 ...
I'm not sure exactly what he meant by the tier system. His answer was in response to a direct question I asked him about the quality of Cubans shipped to Canada. Frankly, I was surprised by his answer, because I did not think there was a distinction... He said England and Switzerland got the best cigars. Canada and the Middle East got the second best. And Mexico and South America the worst. He also did not know what "tier" Hong Kong or Australia/NZ fell into, and I'm not sure where Spain ranked. This came from the manager of LCDH Montreal.
Thanks, it will be interesting to hear from posters that have visited factories and so forth, too.
Concerning the Freezing - That's a load of cigars going out for distribution. So that would require a lot of freezer space and overhead to operate. Again, something I'd like to hear about since I didn't think Habano S.A. did that.
number 9 ... number 9 ... number 9 ... number 9 ...
With respect to the freezing, he told me that Havana House started freezing all cigars shipped to Canada about a year ago. They are not frozen for a long period. It is apparantly some technical innovation that zaps the beetles before they hatch. And I'm not sure if they're frozen in Cuba or Canada...
Apparantly, the country to which the cigars are exported makes the decision whether or not to freeze.
the notion of "tiering" stock so that one country gets better than the next is not the case. The cigars leave the factories sealed and are distributed to Habanos warehouses, where they are allocated to vendors worldwide, including vendors in Cuba. Interestingly, the vendors in Cuba are often the LAST to get the highly sought after and newly released cigars. Sometimes, there are spot checks where the cigars are inspected, but the notion that there are different grades of cigar production is just a load. There are as many re-inspected cigars going to England as there are going to Mexico, Canada or Hong Kong. No preferential treatment. However, that being said, some vendors in England, for example, claim to have their own inspection process, and if a cigar isn't up to their standards, it is sent back. What happens to those cigars? They go elsewhere. But it's not by choice or intention that the Cubans have preferred customers to whom go the supposed cream of the crop. There is a luck of the draw in that regard as to who gets what. But come on...they're ALL good...or so they say. Or all bad, as I say...Cuban cigars suck!
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER! VIVE CPD!
Posts: 10308 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
Thanks for that clarification Harpbook. I had Habano S.A. in the back of my mind and it didn't seem feasible for them to freeze everything. The Canadian importer doing so is feasible. They could easily pass the added expense on to their customers.
number 9 ... number 9 ... number 9 ... number 9 ...
I would agree that our allocation is not great - mostly mid range cigars is all I see here in Ottawa. Perhaps our criminal taxes are to blame. I was not aware that HH freezes all cigars so thanks for the heads up.
For example I was pointed to three packs of MC 2 rather than the boxes. It happened that the three pack quality (or smokability) was better at that place and time. You dig?
And why did you not contact the guys in Montreal?
QM Quality does not occur by chance. It is the result of intelligent activities.
Posts: 8033 | Location: Cigar land | Registered: March 10, 2003
