Casa Cuevas Habano
Owner: Luรญs Cuevas
This Habano and the Maduro both have Pennsylvania Broadleaf in the filler blend. What does that do for the blend?
If you look at the blends in the filler, theyโre identical for the Habano and Maduro. The wrapper makes a huge difference. We tried putting a Connecticut wrapper on that blend and it didnโt work. With the Habano it did.
What the Pennsylvania does, to answer your question, is it comes close to what the Nicaraguan tobacco does in terms of strength, spice, fullness. And itโs a nice alternative to Nicaraguan. It gave the blend a little bit of depth.
Do you have pairing recommendations for this cigar?
Any alcoholic beverage that has a little bit of spice to it. Iโve found that there are certain bourbons that have a bit of spice to them. It goes well with those. Certain scotches as well. I donโt like peat and Iโve never smoked one with a peaty Scotch, but I have done a lot of single malts. It goes very well with coffee, particularly Cuban coffee.
Believe it or not, Coca-Cola goes really well with it. And itโs an odd thing, I know, because itโs sweet as hell, but it just tastes really good with it.
What are some of the things that youโve learned about smokers and their palates from actually hitting the road and seeing them face to face?
I think consumers are very, very open to trying new things. Maybe the price point has something to do with it. I think if we were peddling a cigar thatโs $20, $30, maybe theyโd be more reluctant to do it, but I think consumers have a tendency to try new things. You meet consumers and ask โWhat do you normally smoke?โ and then you can recommend something in our line thatโll fit that bill. Iโve also noticed that some stores attract waves of the same smokers. So there are stores that sell a lot of the Habano and others wonโt for whatever reason. I donโt know why it is. Same thing with sizes. Itโs really weird.
I’ve also learned that cigar smokers are friendly, inquisitive, and willing to try new things. You get your occasional โI only smoke such-and-such brandโ but thereโs a lot of good cigars out there. Itโs like drinking only one beer or wine or Scotch or whatever. Itโs nice to have variety. As long as you give smokers something good, youโre fine. Because theyโll flat out tell you, โThis is crap!โ Luckily we havenโt had that response yet.
People have gotten geekier. Itโs not just about status. Same way as craft beer, right? People know what theyโre doing.
And like craft beer, I think people are more exacting, right? They know what they want. And especially when you say, โWhat do you normally smoke?โ Youโre gonna wait around and theyโre going to come back to you because youโre at an event or something and you want real feedback. Right? You better be able to hold up your end of the bargain.
Do you have any stand out interesting characters youโve met while doing all that?
There was this one store in Arizonaโฆ Iโm a second amendment guy, but over there everybodyโs got a gun.
We sat down one day with a gentleman. Heโs a Vietnam vet, big guy. Heโs had all sorts of surgeries. So heโs got a cane. So aside from taking out a gun and showing us the gun and then he was talking to the other guy, youโre just taking out guns and guns are out everywhere, right? But the cane had a stun gun at the end of it. He stood up and he lit up that thing and I was like, โThis is like something out of a movie.โ
