Blast From the Past
sightunseen
Posts: 2,130 ✭✭
Found this archived WSJ article about cigars during the boom on Google. I found this to be a fascinating glimpse into the attitudes and mentality regarding cigars during that time. Interestingly, they mentioned a brand called Morro Castle. Pretty sure this was not related to AJ's brand. I wonder what happened to the company...
Cigar Shortage Draws New Brands Into Market
By Amal Kumar Naj
10/03/1996
The Wall Street Journal
Page B1
(Copyright (c) 1996, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
At Barney's Smoke Shop in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., a battle between old-line and nouveau cigar brands is playing itself out.
Cigars are hot these days, and the venerable names -- Dunhill, Fuente, Fonseca, Macanudo -- sell out quickly. To fill its shelves, Barney's has started stocking a raft of newcomers. "Right now, the worst thing in this market is to have empty shelves," says Robert Frisch, the shop's owner. "You can't sell from empty shelves."
The old-guard makers claim that their cigars use higher-quality, aged tobacco, but many customers don't seem to know the difference. That's giving a boost to some 50 new companies, which have rushed into the market in the past year, offering more than a hundred new brands. Many use tobacco that has been aged less than two years but still charge high prices.
"I have had many cigars from the so-called establishment -- and I don't like them," says Kevin Doyle, president of newcomer Caribbean Cigar Co., which uses a blend of new tobacco from a variety of regions. His Signature brand recently won rave ratings in a blind taste test in Cigar Aficionado magazine. "It throws the claim -- that new cigars don't taste as good as the old -- out the window," he says.
For now, demand is so strong that all the cigars on the market are finding takers. The Cigar Association of America, a trade group, estimates that three billion cigars will be sold this year, up 30% from 2.3 billion in 1994. The high-priced segment, which includes a few of the newcomers, is growing even faster: Hand-rolled premium cigars, selling for $3 to $20 apiece, will account for 257 million units this year, almost double the level of two years ago.
The surge in cigars' popularity caught old-line makers by surprise, and most were unwilling to abandon their old methods or use unaged tobacco to meet demand. So far, they have benefited from the product shortage, which has let them double or even triple their prices.
Several top brands are using creative approaches to capitalize on the crunch and to promote their brand names. M&N Cigar Mfg. Inc. of Tampa, Fla., one of the biggest old-guard cigar companies, makes a new Diamond Crown cigar line with aged tobacco and a specially fermented, five-year-old wrapper. It is also the exclusive importer of the Opus X cigar from Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia. To give both brands more cachet, it sells Opus X only on the East Coast and Diamond Crown only on the West Coast. Retailers are told they may sell only two of the cigars to each customer.
Down the line, though, the inability of the old-line brands to fill a big portion of their orders could hurt. "The new competitors are building brand loyalty with the new smokers, who don't know what a good cigar tastes like," says Eric Newman, M&N's president. "We are losing customers that we might need one day when the current craze subsides."
There are more immediate problems. Some 30 new companies have signed up suppliers in the Dominican Republic, the prime source of premium cigar tobacco outside Cuba. That has helped boost tobacco prices there fourfold in three years.
The new companies have also raided the old-line companies for veteran cigar rollers by offering more pay. "It's causing a lot of problems for us. It takes two to three years to teach the skills required to roll a fine cigar," says Carlos Fuente, whose family-owned Dominican company, Tabacalera A. Fuente, supplies tobacco and makes cigars.
In this market, tiny makers can thrive. Carlos Flores, whose self-named company in Hoboken, N.J., has introduced two new brands since last year, says he has a backlog of orders for "over half a million cigars" and now sells through 400 stores across the nation. "As long as you develop good-tasting cigars, you don't have to worry," he says.
Some retailers shun the nouveau cigars. "The young cigars are raw. They don't burn well. They don't taste good," says Bruce Goldstein, the owner of Arnold's, a large cigar store in midtown Manhattan that has an easier time getting old-line cigars because of its long-term relationships with suppliers. He has accepted only six new brands for sale in the past year, turning away 60 contenders.
But the shortage of such top brands as Davidoff of Geneva's Avo and Zeon, Fuente's Opus X and Ashton, Macanudo Partagas, La Gloria Cubana and M&N's Diamond Crown has led Barney's Mr. Frisch to take on 15 new brands in the past two months. They have names like Carrington (made with tobacco from the Dominican Republic), Evelio (Honduran), Madrigal (Mexico) and Don Pepe (Brazil).
Even some experienced cigar smokers have resorted to the new brands. "Some of them aren't worth the price, but what do you do when you can't find what you like?" asks Orlando Plaza, a drug-prevention counselor.
Cigar manufacturers expect good times to continue for another three to four years, until the current crop of tobacco fillers and wrappers is aged and ready. Once supply lines fill up, few in the industry doubt that many of the newcomers -- and perhaps a few veterans -- will fall by the wayside.
"People don't realize that these aren't normal times for the cigar industry. My grandfather made and lost his fortune three times in his lifetime," says Eric Newman of M&N Cigar. A decade ago he could count 30 cigar plants from the rooftop of his three-story red-brick factory in Tampa. "Today I can count only three." As for the current craze, he adds: "Sooner or later this will blow away." The trick will be to be one of the survivors.
--- Yumuri $5-$6.50
Manufactured by Brown Leaf Co.
1.5-year-old tobacco grown from Cuban seed, U.S. or Indonesian wrapper
Opus X $10-$20
Manufactured by Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia
Five- to nine-year-old tobacco, spicy wrapper
Most sought after non-Cuban cigar today, limit two per customer
---
Can Smokers Tell the Difference? As new, lower-quality brands try to cash in on a shortage of premium cigars, can smokers really tell the difference? Maybe not. Our informal panel blind-tested newcomer labels and a high-quality brand, Diamond Crown, which sells for as much as $20 a cigar. Diamond Crown actually rated lower than some of the rookies on a scale of one to 10. The panelists: George Brightman, a cigar expert at Cigar Aficionado magazine; Eric Widing, a New York art dealer who prefers Cuban smokes; and a cigar neophyte, Charles Sellman, a business student at Columbia University.
BRAND COST TOBACCO AGE AVERAGE
PER CIGAR (YEARS) RATING
Morro Castle $2.95-$6.75 1 8.0
Don Pepe $1.10-$4 2 7.5
Diamond Crown $10-$20 3 to 5 7.3
Flor de Gonzalez $4-$7 less than 1 6.3
Yumuri $5-$6.50 1.5 6.3
Morro Castle
BRIGHTMAN: "Slightly peppery. A delicate cigar with finesse. Right on the money."
WIDING: "I wouldn't buy it. . . . The taste was delicate but didn't have the body."
SELLMAN: "It was sturdy and sweet."
Don Pepe
BRIGHTMAN: "Green and sour in the mouth."
WIDING: "My kind of cigar: spicy and has body. I liked the way it burned."
SELLMAN: "Bolder and sharper."
Diamond Crown
BRIGHTMAN: "Developed some irregularities but straightened itself up. Short and dry finish, a factor of youth."
WIDING: "Well made, first harsh but improved a lot. Flavors are interesting and complex."
SELLMAN: "So-so."
Flor de Gonzalez
BRIGHTMAN: "Tight draw, sour and raw."
WIDING: "Lightweight."
SELLMAN: "Uneven construction. It smoked easily but didn't feel like a cigar."
Yumuri
BRIGHTMAN: "Hot and harsh."
WIDING: "Minor leaguer."
SELLMAN: "Vacuous."
Cigar Shortage Draws New Brands Into Market
By Amal Kumar Naj
10/03/1996
The Wall Street Journal
Page B1
(Copyright (c) 1996, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
At Barney's Smoke Shop in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., a battle between old-line and nouveau cigar brands is playing itself out.
Cigars are hot these days, and the venerable names -- Dunhill, Fuente, Fonseca, Macanudo -- sell out quickly. To fill its shelves, Barney's has started stocking a raft of newcomers. "Right now, the worst thing in this market is to have empty shelves," says Robert Frisch, the shop's owner. "You can't sell from empty shelves."
The old-guard makers claim that their cigars use higher-quality, aged tobacco, but many customers don't seem to know the difference. That's giving a boost to some 50 new companies, which have rushed into the market in the past year, offering more than a hundred new brands. Many use tobacco that has been aged less than two years but still charge high prices.
"I have had many cigars from the so-called establishment -- and I don't like them," says Kevin Doyle, president of newcomer Caribbean Cigar Co., which uses a blend of new tobacco from a variety of regions. His Signature brand recently won rave ratings in a blind taste test in Cigar Aficionado magazine. "It throws the claim -- that new cigars don't taste as good as the old -- out the window," he says.
For now, demand is so strong that all the cigars on the market are finding takers. The Cigar Association of America, a trade group, estimates that three billion cigars will be sold this year, up 30% from 2.3 billion in 1994. The high-priced segment, which includes a few of the newcomers, is growing even faster: Hand-rolled premium cigars, selling for $3 to $20 apiece, will account for 257 million units this year, almost double the level of two years ago.
The surge in cigars' popularity caught old-line makers by surprise, and most were unwilling to abandon their old methods or use unaged tobacco to meet demand. So far, they have benefited from the product shortage, which has let them double or even triple their prices.
Several top brands are using creative approaches to capitalize on the crunch and to promote their brand names. M&N Cigar Mfg. Inc. of Tampa, Fla., one of the biggest old-guard cigar companies, makes a new Diamond Crown cigar line with aged tobacco and a specially fermented, five-year-old wrapper. It is also the exclusive importer of the Opus X cigar from Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia. To give both brands more cachet, it sells Opus X only on the East Coast and Diamond Crown only on the West Coast. Retailers are told they may sell only two of the cigars to each customer.
Down the line, though, the inability of the old-line brands to fill a big portion of their orders could hurt. "The new competitors are building brand loyalty with the new smokers, who don't know what a good cigar tastes like," says Eric Newman, M&N's president. "We are losing customers that we might need one day when the current craze subsides."
There are more immediate problems. Some 30 new companies have signed up suppliers in the Dominican Republic, the prime source of premium cigar tobacco outside Cuba. That has helped boost tobacco prices there fourfold in three years.
The new companies have also raided the old-line companies for veteran cigar rollers by offering more pay. "It's causing a lot of problems for us. It takes two to three years to teach the skills required to roll a fine cigar," says Carlos Fuente, whose family-owned Dominican company, Tabacalera A. Fuente, supplies tobacco and makes cigars.
In this market, tiny makers can thrive. Carlos Flores, whose self-named company in Hoboken, N.J., has introduced two new brands since last year, says he has a backlog of orders for "over half a million cigars" and now sells through 400 stores across the nation. "As long as you develop good-tasting cigars, you don't have to worry," he says.
Some retailers shun the nouveau cigars. "The young cigars are raw. They don't burn well. They don't taste good," says Bruce Goldstein, the owner of Arnold's, a large cigar store in midtown Manhattan that has an easier time getting old-line cigars because of its long-term relationships with suppliers. He has accepted only six new brands for sale in the past year, turning away 60 contenders.
But the shortage of such top brands as Davidoff of Geneva's Avo and Zeon, Fuente's Opus X and Ashton, Macanudo Partagas, La Gloria Cubana and M&N's Diamond Crown has led Barney's Mr. Frisch to take on 15 new brands in the past two months. They have names like Carrington (made with tobacco from the Dominican Republic), Evelio (Honduran), Madrigal (Mexico) and Don Pepe (Brazil).
Even some experienced cigar smokers have resorted to the new brands. "Some of them aren't worth the price, but what do you do when you can't find what you like?" asks Orlando Plaza, a drug-prevention counselor.
Cigar manufacturers expect good times to continue for another three to four years, until the current crop of tobacco fillers and wrappers is aged and ready. Once supply lines fill up, few in the industry doubt that many of the newcomers -- and perhaps a few veterans -- will fall by the wayside.
"People don't realize that these aren't normal times for the cigar industry. My grandfather made and lost his fortune three times in his lifetime," says Eric Newman of M&N Cigar. A decade ago he could count 30 cigar plants from the rooftop of his three-story red-brick factory in Tampa. "Today I can count only three." As for the current craze, he adds: "Sooner or later this will blow away." The trick will be to be one of the survivors.
--- Yumuri $5-$6.50
Manufactured by Brown Leaf Co.
1.5-year-old tobacco grown from Cuban seed, U.S. or Indonesian wrapper
Opus X $10-$20
Manufactured by Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia
Five- to nine-year-old tobacco, spicy wrapper
Most sought after non-Cuban cigar today, limit two per customer
---
Can Smokers Tell the Difference? As new, lower-quality brands try to cash in on a shortage of premium cigars, can smokers really tell the difference? Maybe not. Our informal panel blind-tested newcomer labels and a high-quality brand, Diamond Crown, which sells for as much as $20 a cigar. Diamond Crown actually rated lower than some of the rookies on a scale of one to 10. The panelists: George Brightman, a cigar expert at Cigar Aficionado magazine; Eric Widing, a New York art dealer who prefers Cuban smokes; and a cigar neophyte, Charles Sellman, a business student at Columbia University.
BRAND COST TOBACCO AGE AVERAGE
PER CIGAR (YEARS) RATING
Morro Castle $2.95-$6.75 1 8.0
Don Pepe $1.10-$4 2 7.5
Diamond Crown $10-$20 3 to 5 7.3
Flor de Gonzalez $4-$7 less than 1 6.3
Yumuri $5-$6.50 1.5 6.3
Morro Castle
BRIGHTMAN: "Slightly peppery. A delicate cigar with finesse. Right on the money."
WIDING: "I wouldn't buy it. . . . The taste was delicate but didn't have the body."
SELLMAN: "It was sturdy and sweet."
Don Pepe
BRIGHTMAN: "Green and sour in the mouth."
WIDING: "My kind of cigar: spicy and has body. I liked the way it burned."
SELLMAN: "Bolder and sharper."
Diamond Crown
BRIGHTMAN: "Developed some irregularities but straightened itself up. Short and dry finish, a factor of youth."
WIDING: "Well made, first harsh but improved a lot. Flavors are interesting and complex."
SELLMAN: "So-so."
Flor de Gonzalez
BRIGHTMAN: "Tight draw, sour and raw."
WIDING: "Lightweight."
SELLMAN: "Uneven construction. It smoked easily but didn't feel like a cigar."
Yumuri
BRIGHTMAN: "Hot and harsh."
WIDING: "Minor leaguer."
SELLMAN: "Vacuous."
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Comments
Cool article. Doesn't surprise me that Morro Castle is a name that has been used before, as the Morro Castle is a landmark in Havana.