Simon B's Encyclopedia of Cuban Cigars C: Clear Havana's & C.C.'s

[Simon Bolivar]

I feel these two Non Habanos groups are worthy of an honourable mention.
For Newbies, C.C.'s stand for Custom Cuban's, also known as Farm Rolled. It's important to distinguish these from Cuban fakes, which are pretending to be something they are not, e.g. Cohiba or Montecristo. Cuban tobacco farmers have always been allowed to keep a small portion of their harvest for personal use, some of this they will roll & sell to tourists, either on the farm or through outlets like the Hotel Condevillia, who employed their own rollers, making vitols unavailable from Habonos, often rather large formats, which seem so popular currently.

Some will be aged leaf before being rolled but will have been very recently rolled. At the Robina finca they wrap them in newspaper to absorb some of the moisture & suggest you wait a few days to smoke. I smoked mine after a few months & it was an excellent smoke. I bought 10 from a farm we passed whilst horse riding & kept some of these a couple of yrs. Again good smokes but don't expect any complexity. Compelexity comes from blending & they will be using, whatever they grow. Robina will tell oyu they grow the whole tobacco for VR cigars but their crop is only used as the wrappers, as this is what Alejandro specialised in. Some visiting C.A.'s spend their time finding & buying theis type of cigars as you can't get them outside of Cuba & of course historically Habanos was easily obtainable in the shops at home.

C.H. or Clear Havana's are different again. In the 60's & early 70's there were tax advantages to importing Cuban leaf & then rolling them in UK, Spain or Canada. Some were machine mades, some hand rolled. It had the advantage of creating employment in these countries but petered out by late 70's.

I have smoked quite alot of these, as they can with collections I bought or found at auction. They make good out door/ fishing cigars, again no complexity but interesting & decent enough smokes.


Below are a few examples of each, the C.C.'s are bought at Condevillia, feel free to add your own pic's below.
Bought half a dozen of each of these sizes. Enjoyed the Salomones best. Note ragged foot, which is quite popular amongst Custom Rollers, to differentiate from commercial or fake cigars.

CigarCollection.2011.03.04.CC.SAM_2658.jpg
A C.C. PC & Julieta No2.
CC.RX.Conde.2011.11.02.SAM_3244.jpg CC.Churchill.2017.03.20_131934.jpg
C.C. Laguito No1

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Massimo Laguito No6 (Behike 56 copy). A very decent smoke for e15!
CC.Lag.No6.2017.11.08.IMG_5114.jpg
Smoking one with the guys from the Maersk Curlew, crew change day. Waiting for flights home from Aberdeen Airport.

C.C. PC. Also smoked at Aberdeen Airport, that first beer & cigar after a 3wk trip, are always the best.
CC.PC.Farmers.2011.03.26 014.jpg
CC.PC.2015.08.04.SAM_7524.jpg
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C.C. Salomones
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C.H. Alegre Monach Medium Corona, lovely presentation padded pack,
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CH.AM.2018.03.02.IMG_6478.jpg
Spanish C.H. Edward VII
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C.H. Borenda 1960's.
CigarCollection.2014.11.11.CA.039.jpg

5974 C.H. Ivanhoe Sublimes, an unusual presentation, in a cardboard sleeve box x4.1960's
Ca.SAM_5974.jpg
CA.SAM_5975.jpg

C.H. Creamavana Cornitas 1960's.

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Vintage advert for Marcella cigars.
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Marcella Queen size pack x3 tubes. 1970's.
Smoked these 3 with friends, & were able to smoke inside, always best for vintage or Pre Rev cigars as flav's will be lighter & more etherial (usually, they can surprise you however, thinking of Boli CX).
CH.Marcella.Monotubes.2014.12.17.SAM_5973.jpg
CH.Marcella.Monotube.2015.02.21.SAM_6421.jpg


C.H. el Reno 1960's.
CH.ElReno.2014.12.17.SAM_6021.jpg
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C.H. Sumovana 50 cab of Whiffs, like Cafe Creames
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CH.Sumavana.2014.12.17.SAM_5986.jpg
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Smoking a C.H. whiff, as a starter.
CH.Sumavana.2016.04.29.IMG_1398A.a.jpg
Enjoying a C.H. Sumavana, in my boat, fishing in the Netherlands.
CH.Sumavana.2016.07.08..jpg

[liles]

Never heard of Clear Havanas before! Very interesting & great pictures

[Simon Bolivar]

Never heard of Clear Havanas before! Very interesting & great pictures

Thanks, glad you learnt something new. They are still about, they come up on Cgars auction site & aren't so expensive, worth trying if a few sticks come up or buying a box & splitting.

[JordanSuth]

Do you know what the story is with the non cuban (fake) Montecristos and Cohibas? Interesting stuff above though.

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[Hookmaker]

Do you know what the story is with the non cuban (fake) Montecristos and Cohibas? Interesting stuff above though.

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So there's obviously fakes of most Cubans and not only Cohibas and MC's. Most are produced in Asia and mainly China, and we're talking millions.
Then there's the various Cuban marcas like Cohiba and Montecristo sold in the US mainly. These are NC's produced by one or two of the larger tobacco distributors ie Altadis. These say they “own” the trademarks which they've purchased from some of the families/owners of the original trademarks from when these families fled Cuba at the time of the revolution.
There's been a trademark war going on for decades around these and even today these still persist.
However, Cohiba is a post revolution marca, so there is no pre-rev trademark, - it's all about disrupting the Cuban trade and the US government could care less about what exile Cubans in Miami are doing in this context. A US NC Cohiba however is FAR from a real Cohiba, where the latter is superior in every way.


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[JordanSuth]

So there's obviously fakes of most Cubans and not only Cohibas and MC's. Most are produced in Asia and mainly China, and we're talking millions.
Then there's the various Cuban marcas like Cohiba and Montecristo sold in the US mainly. These are NC's produced by one or two of the larger tobacco distributors ie Altadis. These say they “own” the trademarks which they've purchased from some of the families/owners of the original trademarks from when these families fled Cuba at the time of the revolution.
There's been a trademark war going on for decades around these and even today these still persist.
However, Cohiba is a post revolution marca, so there is no pre-rev trademark, - it's all about disrupting the Cuban trade and the US government could care less about what exile Cubans in Miami are doing in this context. A US NC Cohiba however is FAR from a real Cohiba, where the latter is superior in every way.


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Thanks. I bought a NC Monte in the Caribbean last year knowing it wasn't the proper cuban but it was cheap and thought I'd give it a go. Smoked it on Sunday and definitely no comparison.

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