The State of Cuban Cigars (Today) February 2016

                   What I'm really meaning to say is the state of Cuban Cigars in the stores today and by that I'm saying are the current releases of regular production cigars any good. There has been a crisis in the Cuban Tobacco industry with some unusual weather patterns reeking havoc on several of the last few harvests in Cuba. It's been denied and nobody really knows where exactly the truth lies but I have to say that I was surprised over a few boxes of cigars that I received this week from a friend who traveled to Varadero. He knows nothing about cigars but was able to read my rather lengthy list. He didn't deviate from the easy & picked up some of the more common of the smoker's favourites all except one with 2015 box dates (the other was 2014). It didn't matter, I was happy that he did me the favour, however, he didn't open the boxes before buying them. I was a little nervous before opening them but to my surprise each box contained outstanding looking cigars all with beautiful wrappers. I smoked one of the Half Upmanns and although it was pretty good, it was wet and needs a little time to climatize to our environment. They're all in the freezer right now but you can be sure I'll be trying them one by one when they're ready to smoke.
                    As far as what's available in general in the stores, the 2015 Edicion Limitadas were not available yet. As far as everything else goes, it's getting more and more difficult to find cigars with a little age on them, even just a hand full of years. You'll find the usual pedestrian stuff like what was brought back for me but people are always telling me there's nothing there that interests them. In 6 weeks I'll be back again and we'll see where things are at in Havana.