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Originally posted by tippexx
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Sounds about typical of everywhere Ryan. Hector Luis Prieto, Production Department does not agree with Jose Antonio Candia, PR Department. (Ex).Jose doesn't work for Habanos anymore, he left in early 2011. In his case, I've never known him to take a position on something about which he was not willing to change his mind.
He simply had not heard the notion that stress would make for a better tobacco plant.
While surprised to hear Hector say it, he accepted what he said as true right away. He had no reason not to and Hector had no reason to lie about it.
Hector has worked on that farm all his life as have his family, all the way back to the 1890s.
What Hector says make sense. What I had been trying to get out of him was what makes Cuban tobacco different to tobacco from other countries.
Experience and seeds can and have been exported, climate can be very closely approximated, that leaves soil.
Habanos, being Habanos, will of course say that the soil their cigars comes from is some of the best in the world. And, in a way, they're right. It's a lot less clumsy to say "the best soil" than "precisely the right kind of 'bad' soil".
Soil can be improved and conditioned. But it's hard to make soil "bad", or at least just the right type of "bad", if that makes sense.
Pinar del Rio has very sandy soil, not volcanic, and that goes down for metres, allowing for very good drainage, so it's easy to induce water stress in the plants by starving them of water for just the right amount of time.
Look at the plants in the second video. They are mature plants, the harvest had already started on the second (Libre de Pie) leaves but the plants are barely more than 3-4 feet tall.
Look at a mature Dominican tobacco field, the plants are over 6 feet tall, using the same seed variety.
Perro, el Perro
TrippleXXX! 
If memory serves me, back in the late nineties when the so-called cigar boom was in full swing, the quality of the Puro* went downhill because Cuba was rusing it's leaf to maket to "catch the wave," so to speak. At the same time, however, there were a lot of "boutique" NCs popping up and producing a lot of cigars ...some quite good, but most not so much. And the prices were ridiculous. But during the proceeding decades, the Cuban expats who left Cuba in the 50's and 60's and relocated their farms in other countries were refining their growing techniques to a point where they were producing some very nice sticks. So by the time the boom was coming to a close and the decline in the Cuban puro quality continued, the interest in NCs grew and many folks, like me, found there were some decent NC sticks available. So when compared to the declining puro, many of the NC brands/sticks could hold their own quite nicely against the finest puros produced at the time. 
"Courious Georges" will want to try these puros that have gown to Mythical Status in the 50+ years the USA has been puro dry. But when these unrealistic expectations are crushed and plummet to earth, possibly accelerated by the alleged decline in quality of the puro, these "Curious Georges" will vacate the market, because of the high puro price and the availability of reasonably priced NCs, and leave it to those 
yankees who are already there. USA! USA! USA! 
who haven't figured it out...or just don't care, the term "puro(s)" as used by the familia Coro refers to Cuban Cigars 
don TJ and the 
Coros
Hey el P! Take it easy on the lad. Remember what happened to Ray Gay when HE was 15? 
Chico and the 
Boy.
butterednutz.
Bag Boy just finished off the last of 'em.
TJ's fine puros for some time.
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