WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD

WITH CHANGING CULTURAL ATTITUDES AND GLOBAL SHORTAGES OF CUBAN CIGARS, EUROPEAN SMOKERS ARE TURNING TO TOBACCO FROM OTHER COUNTRIES  

- GREGORY MOTTOLA

Ever since the embargo on Cuba outlawed the sale of Cuban cigars in the United States, the division of cigar sales has been fairly straightforward: cigar lovers in the United States smoke non-Cuban cigars and the rest of the world smokes predomi-

nantly Havanas. The signing of the embargo in 1962 left American smokers with no choice in the matter, and international cigar enthusiasts born and raised on Cuban cigars saw no reason to try anything different. And that’s how the story has more or less been for the better part of the last 50 years. But today, the story is changing.

Non-Cuban cigar companies have been more aggressive in selling their cigars outside of the United States, and recent shortages of Cuban cigars have persuaded the world to light up smokes from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and other countries that aren’t normally part of the European repertoire. Walk into a cigar shop in London, Madrid, Paris or Berlin and you are quite likely to see non-Cuban cigars, something that would have been unthinkable not so long ago. Younger cigar fans play a role in this story as well. They aren’t as rigidly faithful to Cuban cigars and are willing to light up something new.

Known outside of America (perhaps pejoratively at one point) as “New World cigars,” non-Cuban smokes are starting to get some global attention. Attitudes toward non-Cuban cigars have shifted, especially in Europe, and cigarmakers big and small are more than willing to satisfy the growing international curiosity.