Henry “Kiki” Berger, who spent years in the Cuban tobacco business before heading up his current cigar company, Tabacalera Esteli, in Nicaragua, is in favor of some kind of official authentication system for tobacco’s origin to prevent disreputable companies from deceiving consumers. “If there is any Cuban pre-embargo tobacco out there today, then I don’t exist,” he states unflinchingly. “There’s just no such thing. If there was any tobacco here from Cuba, it was gone during the Boom. [To claim otherwise] is just lying to the consumer.” As far as cigarmakers claiming the covert use of illicit Cuban leaf in their blends, pre-Embargo and otherwise? “Cuba doesn’t sell tobacco outside of Cuba anymore; they only sell cigars.”

“That tobacco would be dead,” Borhani states incredulously, referring to pre-embargo leaf. “If you don’t roll it into a cigar, tobacco will continue fermenting; heat continues developing in the bales. Tobacco stored for 50 years would be old enough to deteriorate in your hands.”

Best advice is to be suspicious of any cigar not verifiably made in Cuba prior to the embargo (and these do exist; though they are rare, quite expensive, and spotted occasionally at high-end auctions). Rule of thumb is that good cigars, kept in a properly humidified atmosphere, can age for decades, just like good wine. Raw tobacco leaf, even properly maintained, has a much shorter shelf life.

8) JFK ORDERED A HUGE SHIPMENT OF CUBAN CIGARS THE NIGHT BEFORE HE SIGNED THE EMBARGO ON CUBA
As most devotees of cigar history know, President John F. Kennedy - while not a fan of Fidel Castro - was a great lover of Cuban cigars. And, according to many contemporary sources, Kennedy dispatched his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, to acquire as many of the president’s favorite cigars as he could before the landmark legislation was signed. Hence, Salinger was able to get his hands on 1,200 H. Upmann Petit Coronas, Kennedy’s favorite regular smoke. Tragically, he would not live long enough to enjoy all of those cigars, meeting his death at the hands of an assassin’s bullets in Dallas the following year. What many people don’t know - and what would probably drive them nuts - is that Kennedy actually attempted to have cigars exempted from the embargo! Richard Goodwin, a White House assistant to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, revealed in a 2000 New York Times article that in early 1962 JFK told him, “We tried to exempt cigars, but the cigar manufacturers in Tampa objected. I guess we’re out of luck.” Indeed - as an entire generation of cigar enthusiasts eager to sample the island’s output remains out of luck today.

9) WEB GEM: THE SAGA OF THE CIGAR-FIRE-INSURANCE SCAM
If you’ve been on any of the various cigar message boards, you’ve probably encountered this one: man buys an expensive box of Cubans, insures it for $100 grand, smokes all the cigars, then makes a claim to the insurer that the cigars were all destroyed in a series of a small fires. Having no recourse, the company pays the claim, then countersues the shifty cigar collector for fraud, charging him with separate counts of arson…and wins!

We’ve found no evidence that this is anything other than one of those notorious urban legends…albeit an entertaining one. In fact, the tall tale has grown to such mythic proportions that country-western singer Brad Paisley made it into a song (entitled simply, “Cigar Song”) on his 2003 album Mud on the Tires.

10) WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CIGAR COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE?
Depends on whether you’re talking length or girth (ring gauge). According to Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars (an invaluable source of information for retailers and cigar mag editors alike), the U.S.-sold cigar measuring the longest from head to foot is Puros Indios’s famous Chief. It’s 18 inches long, and at a ring gauge of 66, fairly respectable in the thickness department too.

There is a longer one out there, however, but only available to U.S. smokers if they’re vacationing south of the border. Santa Clara cigars in Mexico still makes the Magnum, a monster at 19 inches by 52 ring gauge. Only its lack of a distributor in the States keeps it from our top spot.

If you’re looking for the fattest, you’ve got to look toward Nicaragua, and the ambitious, talented, and somewhat sadistic cigar makers of Tabacalera Perdomo. Their Cuban Parejo Galaxia actually weighs in at a Brandoesque 100 ring gauge, as well as a 10-inch length. The Galaxia even manages to make Perdomo’s other infamous big boy, the aptly named Inmenso (6 x 70) look like a dwarf.

11) HOW ABOUT THE SMALLEST?
Last year, Davidoff captured the distinction of producing the smallest hand-rolled cigar, introducing the diminutive Exquisito (3 3/8 x 22 ring gauge). If you don’t mind the machine-made stuff, there are a number that are even more lilliputian: Al-Capones, Joya del Reys, and Schimmelpennicks at a length of 2 3/4” and Villigers, Dannemanns, and Henri Wintermanns at 2 7/8”.

12) RED AUERBACH: CHAMPION OF THE VICTORY CIGAR
To us, the idea of lighting up a cigar after a milestone accomplishment such as a sports championship is just common sense. But it took legendary Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach to make it the tradition it remains today.

Bostonians are justly proud of Auerbach’s record of nine NBA championship titles in 10 years (and total of 16), and his renowned habit of lighting up a cigar when a game’s victory was well in hand. Many are probably unaware that Auerbach’s cigar tradition actually began not with the storied Beantown franchise but during his earlier tenure with the NBA’s long-defunct Washington Capitals. It wasn’t until the glory days with the Celtics, however - when Auerbach coached such legends as Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, and Sam Jones - that the coach had occasion to celebrate such triumphs on a larger stage. Today, coaches, players, and managers emulate the practice on a regular basis, as Florida Marlins manager Jack McKeon did last October when his team beat the favored New York Yankees in the World Series.