Cuban Cigars
A visit to Havana is not complete without investigating the production of one of the island’s most-famed exports… The Cuban cigar. Tobacco has been grown on the island since the 16th century and two thirds of cigars produced are still hand-rolled by skilled workers in Havana. Probably the best cigars in the world are made from tobacco grown in the region of Pinar del Río which enjoys a unique microclimate and soil conditions. Three main factories in Havana offer tours: Partagas, La Corona and Romeo y Julieta. Visitors are advised not to buy cigars in the street as these are usually rolled banana leaves fashioned into cigar look-alikes...
In a tradition begun well before the days of radio and television, workers in certain factories are still read to by a ‘lector’ from Cuban newspapers and the world's classical literature. There is a romantic legend (probably unfounded) about the naming of the famous Monte Cristo brand at the H. Upmann factory where the lector had the custom of reading the works of Alexandre Dumas to the workers who asked the factory owner to produce a cigar as a homage in reference to The Count of Monte Cristo.
Cigars and politics became inextricably intertwined when the US trade embargo against Cuba came into force in 1962. Apparently JFK stocked up on Havanas before he signed the executive order which put the embargo into effect… More than forty years later it remains illegal for Americans to purchase or import Cuban cigars!