2302 Street 146 Mariano Havana
Cuba
The massive room at the Pabexpo in the chic Havana neighborhood of Siboney was already thick with smoke within the first 30 minutes of the gala dinner on Friday during the 10th annual Festival del Habano.
The thousand or so participants were either smoking the Trinidad Reyes handed out at the door by a line of gorgeous Cuban women, or their own stash. I fired up the Reyes and it was delicate and satisfying, as usual. The room was filled with everyone who loves cigars, from merchants to collectors. And they came from just about everywhere in the world where cigars are sold. I noticed a few Americans also. Plus, a number of key ministers were there, including Ricardo Alarcon, the president of the National Assembly. There was no sign of the Castro brothers. In fact, a Castro hasn't been seen at the event for a number of years now. The humidors sold for charity at an auction at the event are no long signed by Fidel Castro. Nonetheless, there was plenty of entertainment and lots of fun at the event. Check out my video. It was almost worth the ticket price of $550 for the cigars alone. There was a nice sampler pack of 10 cigars in a laminated box at each seat. And then there were four other cigars to smoke during the meal including the Trinidad Reyes, San Cristobal Mercaderes, Hoyo de Monterey Epicure No. 2, and Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios. I smoked everything but the Epi. The San Cristobal was very light, almost tasteless, but the rest were excellent. In fact, I love the Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios. The best cigar of the night, however, was the 150th Anniversary Partagas Robusto. What a cigar!! It showed amazing aromas and flavors of dried roses, cedar and light spices.
The palate was full, fresh and super long. It touches every tastebud on my palate. I scored it 97 points, non blind. I also took a puff off a buddy's 1992 Flor de Cano Diademas, a Churchill that replaced the Davidoff Dom Perignon for a few years after the DP was discontinued. Great smoke too with more of a nutty, mahogany, almost smoked almond character. 99 points, non blind. Sharing cigars and cameraderie is really what the Gala Dinner is all about. "The dinner is fine, but I wouldn't go if I wasn't with all of you at the table tonight," said one of my best friends at the dinner. Nonetheless, Friday night's gala dinner may have been the best ever. The food was very, very good by Cuban standards with the main course of roasted lobster perfectly cooked for such a large group.
The Woman Behind Cohiba
Cuba's First Female Cigar Factory Manager, Emilia Tamayo, Is Making Changes at El Laguito, Maker of Cohibas
by James Suckling
Beaming with confidence, Emilia Tamayo is more than pleased about being named Cuba's first female cigar factory manager. Not only does she believe her achievement means much to the advancement of women in Cuba, but she also expects to improve the quality of the cigars from her factory, El Laguito, home of Cohiba.
A handsome, jovial woman, the 46-year-old mother of one became the director of Havana's most famous factory early last year, after working as an administrator there since 1975. Her husband, Jorge Tizon Delgado, also works at the factory, in leaf processing. "We are making better cigars now," Tamayo says proudly, sitting in her bright office one warm fall afternoon in Miramar, a suburb of Havana. "The mood of the workers was down a bit for a few years. Now the spirit is better. They are making more cigars and we have helped the workers understand the necessity for quality."
Looking at her office, the changes are more than evident. Freshly painted and bright with lovely paintings and drawings on the walls, the once dark and dank office has undergone a metamorphosis. There's a positive ambiance everywhere in the factory, from the fresh coat of paint to the smiles on the workers' faces. "I have initiated lots of new things here," she says with a slightly triumphant smile. "But if you mean this office and the new paint in the factory, well, don't forget that I am a woman and I like my surroundings to be beautiful."
The El Laguito factory has been producing Cohiba cigars since the late 1960s (it began in 1961 as a cigar rolling school). The sprawling neoclassical building has long since stood for the best in fine hand-rolled Havana cigars. It's no wonder that the late doyen of cigars, Zino Davidoff, insisted that El Laguito be the source for his own cigars for nearly two decades. He was so enamored with the place that he went as far as saying that it was "the Davidoff factory" in most of his promotional literature.
Although the now retired Eduardo Rivera Irizarri, El Laguito director during the 1960s, was instrumental in developing Cohiba, Avelino Lara, 74, was always credited for nurturing the El Laguito factory to its showpiece status. Lara was the director of El Laguito for more than two decades, and his knowledge of tobacco and cigar rolling is legendary in the industry. Until his retirement last year, he set the tone for the brand, proclaiming that "Cohiba is the selection of the selection." His assistant director, Rafael Guerra, who left the factory last year, was also important in promoting the factory in recent years.
"Lara is a great man, and I don't have his knowledge of tobacco or cigars, but I have got other managerial skills," Tamayo says reassuringly. "I am a bit younger than Lara, and obviously I have got a different level of energy, vitality."
Three sizes of cigars have always been made at the factory. They are the long, elegant cigars Cohiba and Davidoff built their reputations on. The workers call them the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, but they are better known as the Lancero (38 ring gauge by 7.5"), Corona Especial (38 by 6") and Panatela (26 by 4.5"). Another slender cigar was introduced about 10 years ago, the Exquisito (36 by 5"), which remains Tamayo's favorite of the four. "I smoke two a day, one after lunch and the other after dinner," she says.
A limited amount of the Montecristo Especial and Montecristo Especial No. 2--the same sizes as the Lancero and Corona Especial, respectively--is also made at El Laguito, as well as the legendary Trinidad. The latter is the most sought-after cigar from Havana today, reserved for diplomatic gifts--although this may change, according to sources at Habanos S.A., the world distributor for premium Havana cigars. In the past, only a few dozen boxes of Trinidad (100 cigars in each) have been produced at the factory each month. Its cedar box now has a newly designed gold label with three intertwined "T" s.
With about 85 rollers, El Laguito annually produces around 2 million cigars. Another 1 to 1.5 million Cohibas--the Robusto (50 by 5") and the Esplendidos (47 by 7")--are produced each year outside of El Laguito, principally at the H. Upmann, Partagas and La Corona factories. Another 1 million Cohibas in the Siglo range (five sizes--40 by 4", 42 by 5", 42 by 6", 46 by 6" and 43 by 6 3/4") are made at La Corona factory. They are all supposedly made under the supervision of technicians from El Laguito, who also supply the tobacco for the blends to each factory.
The Cohiba humidor, which sold for a record 270,000 euros.
Unfortunately, in recent years the quality of Cohiba has not been up to par in many cases. Particularly bad have been the Lanceros, which have often been tightly rolled and difficult to smoke. Tamayo says she has improved the situation through more stringent quality controls at the factory. Workers who roll Lanceros are now checked several times a day to make sure their cigars are not over a specified weight. This assures that the cigars have not been overfilled, which makes them heavy and often difficult to draw.
Counterfeits are another problem with Lanceros, says Tamayo, but it is something she has little control over. "These phony cigars are made in mass and it has really affected the prestige of the brand," she says. "This is what has affected the quality of Lanceros the most. But some of the blame lies on the consumer. A person who knows cigars must know that you can't buy a box of Lanceros for $5 or $10. That's like a Christian Dior dress which costs $1,000 selling for $10. You know something is wrong."
Another problem with Cohiba has been the inconsistency in the Robustos and Esplendidos. The latter have sometimes been rolled too tightly and the former have shown minor differences in flavor and style according to where they have been produced. Tamayo agrees to some degree with these observations, and she plans to take total control of the production of all Esplendidos and Robustos. "Perhaps it is slightly petulant to say, but I think that we can do better [with these larger cigars]," she says firmly. "It's logical. It makes sense. This is the home of Cohiba and Cohiba is mine."
Tamayo planned to train a handful of rollers at El Laguito beginning last December to roll the large cigars. In addition, she hopes in the near future to build an annex to the factory that would be used exclusively for the production of Esplendidos and Robustos. "I have lots of ideas for my factory," she says. "I want it to be all the things I have dreamed about. I would even like to have a small tobacco plantation here and a curing barn for tourists to come and visit and to better understand the process of cigar production."
The new Cohiba maduro debuted at the festival.
Another major change at El Laguito has been the introduction of male cigar rollers. Since the beginning, the factory was reserved for women. In fact, the government used it as an example of how women had moved into work areas traditionally dominated by men. "But the women in my factory wanted to work with men," she says. "Also, the men wanted to make Cohiba. I don't see much difference between men and women in rolling. They both can make excellent cigars."
With such innovations, are there any other traditions Tamayo plans to change at El Laguito? "The ones that need to be changed," she says. "Life always needs to be changed."
Even with all the innovations, apparently her personal life hasn't changed much. She and her husband of 25 years, Jorge Tizon Delgado, 54, have always had the same arrangement, both at home and at the office. "My husband is used to being directed at the office and at home," she says with a laugh. "I guess some things never change after all."
The band on the Cohiba 30th Anniversary Double Robusto
The other day, before lunch, I had visited El Laguito -- the Cohiba factory -- in hopes of getting a sneak preview of the three new Cohiba maduros, a new line of dark colored smokes made with five-year-old wrappers. One of the managers of the factory described them as "chocolate." I saw a number of rollers at the factory producing the dark smokes. They looked phenomenal. They were also color sorting the Mágicos size, and the difference between a normal Cohiba wrapper and the maduro was impressive. The normal one almost looked like a light Connecticut-shade wrapper compared to the maduro. Nonetheless, don't expect them to look like those black smokes you see from other countries. They are mostly dark brown in color.
A rare glimpse inside the El Laguito factory.
Apparently 12 rollers of the 100 or so at El Laguito are rolling the cigars. Two of the three vitolas, or shapes, are made at El Laguito with the other one at the Partagas factory. Cuba intends to debut the three sizes during this year's cigar festival in Havana in a few weeks. Everyone will see how they are then, but I have a feeling that no one will be disappointed
El Laguito A name that stands for quality
"El Laguito" - a name that evokes shining eyes and ecstasy amongst aficionados. No other cigar factory in Cuba is so exclusive. This Cuban cigar sanctuary, home to the world-famous Cohiba brand, has its home in Havana's Miramar district with its magnificent villas and residences, today mostly occupied by consulates, business representations and government offices. El Laguito is an extraordinary cigar factory in many respects.
On a small hill in the heart of the diplomatic quarter bearing the same name, surrounded by high and sumptuous palm trees, stands an imposing house in the Italian style with yellow walls, red roof tiles and a monumental marble stairway - El Laguito. The splendid building once belonged to the Marquis of Pinar del Rio. After the revolution in 1959, it was first a school for torcedores, and then, in 1967, it became the realm of a team of around a hundred tobacco workers. As appropriate for this aristocratic background, it is here that the best and most expensive tobacco varieties in Cuba are rolled into cigars that are amongst the best in the world. "Here, before your very eyes, is the new history of Cuba," explains Emilia Tamayo, the cheerful 50-year-old head of the legendary cigar factory. "It is the Cohiba brand, rolled from the best tobacco leaves, that has made our factory so famous." Legend has it that El Laguito was turned into a tobacco factory when the great revolutionary Che Guevara suggested the creation of a post-revolution cigar which, naturally, was to be better than anything that had been produced before. This is alleged to have been the origin of that ultimate in cigars, the Cohiba, used until the 1980s exclusively as a gift for foreign dignitaries, government visitors and diplomats. Another legend says that at the beginning of the 1960s one of Fidel Castro's bodyguards was given a few bundles of extremely good cigars by a cigar maker of his acquaintance, and that the Comandante also found them very much to his taste. The cigar maker, Eduardo Rivera, is said to have been instructed to roll cigars for Castro under strictest security in the seclusion of precisely this Italianate palace. Be that as it may, the cigars, only made generally available to aficionados in 1982, have officially been manufactured here since 1968. Alongside the building and the brand, the heads of the business have also gone down in history: Eduardo Rivera Irizarri was the first director of El Laguito during the 1960s and the man in charge of the development of the Cohiba. His successor, Avelino Lara, director for more than two decades, turned Laguitointo the show-piece factory it is today. His knowledge about tobacco and his rolling techniques are already a legend in the industry. By the time he retired in 1994, he had determined the brand's slogan, "Cohiba is the selection of the selection." Emilia Tamayo, today's boss, has been in the business since 1975. Having been employed in a variety of administrative positions before finally becoming Director Lara's successor in 1995, she knows the factory like the back of her hand. As soon as the visitor has passed the entrance gate, he (or she) finds himself in an exotic world of countless fragrances and aromas. It begins with the luxuriant plants and flowers of the tropical gardens that surround the palace and its adjoining storage and grading buildings. Only delegations and the chosen few are allowed to visit this show-piece factory - unlike the other Habano manufacturers, production here is not to be disturbed by tourist visits. A particular feature of El Laguito that immediately catches the eye is the breakdown of the working process in spatial terms. A palace is anything but a factory, and as a result the individual production stages are broken down not according to function but according to the rooms. Up the stairs, round the corner or down the stairs again … Behind the main building are the warehouses and a small hall where the tobacco leaves are humidified and then, in what is known as the "rezagado", the central stems are removed on the mulattos' thighs and pre-sorted according to size and colour. Already here the visitor can enjoy a foretaste of the oily fragrances of the freshly humidified tobacco leaves. The atmosphere, by the way, is somewhat cosy, with the workers surrounded by flowers or their personal souvenirs, or indeed fetishes of the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria, one or two smoking a cigar, while from time to time the whole team starts up to sing a Bolero. At the back of the hall, the tobacco leaves are unpacked from the bales wrapped in banana leaves and humidified to make them elastic and supple for the next processing stages. This "sacudida de gavilla" or casing was, until a few months ago, traditionally done by hand. We are shown an innovation at El Laguito - the tobacco leaves are humidified by machine, and hence much faster and more thoroughly, in a glass box developed jointly with a Dutch team. But let us return to the main building and the seductive tobacco fragrances of the freshly rolled cigars. Around an imposing stairway with colourfully decorated glass windows is a group of four rooms containing the cigar rollers, a mixed bunch of people but dominated by young cinnamon to chocolate-coloured women wearing the traditional Cohiba colours of black and yellow.
A state-owned "familybusiness"
Next to the stairs in the entrance hall of the main building, surrounded by banners and awards, sits the reader, practically an institution in Cuba. Using an ancient microphone system, an older black woman with thick glasses is reading editorials from the Communist Party newspaper Granma to the employees, followed by chapters from the Three Musketeers. She is watched over by a huge painting of Comrade Celia Sánchez, the grand dame of the revolution and Fidel Castro's personal friend. It was allegedly at her initiative that the torcedor school was founded. Celia is said to have convinced the Maximo Lider that women should also be trained in this profession - a profession that before the revolution had been an entirely male domain. The wives and the female family members of Fidel's bodyguards and his leading companeros are supposed to have been the first to learn this profession, thereby ensuring an excellent supply of skilled labour for the future. Incidentally, men have only been employed as torcedores in El Laguito since 1994. El Laguito was regarded not only as the stockpile for Fidel and the narrow circle of his cigar-smoking fellow-revolutionaries, but also as the best school for cigar rollers in Cuba. Beneath the palms, in an outbuilding, the torcedores still today learn their profession, acquiring their skills over a period of nine months. But the cigars they make, checked thoroughly by their instructors for any errors, are not for sale, and are only intended for internal use. The factory workers are allowed to recommend family members who can start here as apprentice torcedores. El Laguito seems to be a very family business in many other ways, too: Jorge Tizon Delgado, Tamayo's husband, is responsible for the technology for the tobacco leaves. The extended Laguito family includes not only the Tamayos but also the production manager and his wife and son as well as other (married) couples and even grandchildren - a development that, according to the director, leads to an improvement of quality and working morale.
The cigars
Thee types of cigars have always been rolled at Laguito, the long elegant Cohibas that delighted Fidel in his younger years. Here in the factory they are simply known as No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, while the market knows them under the names Lancero (38/7.5"), Corona Especial (38/6") and Panatela (26/4.5"). The Exquisito (36/5"), another vitola as they are known in Cuba, was launched in 1985. These original four vitolas were later joined by the Robusto and the Espléndido and the Cohiba Siglo line (1 to 6). They all bear the name Cohiba, but are made in different factories inside and outside Cuba. The exclusive Trinidad, named after Cuba's most attractive colonial town, replaced the Cohiba as the protocol cigar in 1986. Reserved exclusively for diplomatic gifts, only a few boxes of this brand are produced each month. It has been available to aficionados since 1998, and each year roughly 300,000 Trinidads are rolled for the market. Although El Laguito is regarded as the cradle of the Cohiba, the factory with its roughly 100 employees is much too small to be able to produce all 12 vitolas that today make up the Cohiba brand. At present, El Laguito also rolls the latest Cohiba, the Robusto 3, as well as the new Trinidad. In addition, special productions are rolled for particular occasions and limited editions such as the Cohiba Gran Corona for the humidors that are auctioned at the Festival Internacional del Habano, i.e. particularly collectors' items. Ideally, the entire Cohiba line would be produced in El Laguito, and according to the director the plans are already complete but will not (yet) be implemented in the next few years: "The building is just too small and we cannot simply make changes to this historical monument." In addition, there is a further obstacle, the lack of highly qualified cigar makers.
The greatest commitment: Quality
"El Laguito gets only the very best," says Tamayo, "the best leaves from the selected Fincas. The roughly 85 torcedores make around 2 million cigars here each year.
On the path to perfection
The quality controls were also improved by the introduction of the air-draw testers. Six machines have for around one year been checking the hand-rolled cigars for draw quality. The test is done on random samples before the vitolas are given the wrapper, in order to prevent the loss of this valuable leaf if there are any quality defects as a result of cigars being rolled too tightly. This semi-automatic quality inspection with draw test machines (draw-masters), introduced by the co-proprietor Altadis, was a milestone in Habano manufacture, which seemed to be managing without machines as it had for centuries. El Laguito was not always the highly inspected and quality-conscious production plant it is now. The great Zino Davidoff used Laguito for 20 years from 1969 for his No. 1 and No. 2, as well as for the Ambassadrice. He loved the place so much that he called El Laguito the "Davidoff factory" in his advertising publications. Production rose to 1 million Davidoffs out of a total of 3 million cigars each year. There was then a dispute between Davidoff and Cubatabaco about the quality being supplied. At the peak of the dispute, under the eyes of the French TV media, the connoisseur burnt over 130,000 Cuban-made cigars in protest. Finally, poor workmanship (as well as alleged black market sales) led to a split in 1991. Davidoff switched to the neighbour-ing Dominican Republic, and although there was repeated speculation about his return to Cuba, it never happened. Incidentally, Laguito might have been Davidoff's most popular production centre but was not the only one in Cuba: La Corona in Havana was another, and suffered the same fate. The Cubans prefer not to be reminded of these times - "we are doing everything we can to ensure that quality problems are a thing of the past."
Uniforms for the royal visit
When the King of Spain, on the occasion of his visit to the Cumbre Iberoamericana (Latin American Summit) in 1999, expressed the desire to visit a tobacco factory, it went without saying that it was to El Laguito that he was invited. And as a mark of respect to the visitor, the government gave the workers working clothes - uniforms in the colours of the trademark they were producing, a yellow shirt and black skirt or trousers, an achievement that has had no equal in any other Cuban cigar factory. In the meantime, there is even a limited edition of the working clothes, in grey and black. After the visit by King Juan Carlos of Spain, there's only one wish that still needs fulfilling, says the director: "A visit by Fidel, our Maximo Lider." El laguito Behind the Scenes ECCJ correspondent Manuel Isla interviews Norma Fernández Sastre, who rolled cigars for Fidel Castro Norma Fernández Sastre has been working at El Laguito for 37 years. When she was 17 years old, she chose the profession more or less by chance; after all, no one in her family had any connection to the tobacco industry. But she was recruited by the Federación de Mujeres Cubanas, an organization pulling strongly for women cigar rollers. This was at a time when women were permitted mainly to work in shops; at the most, they put bands on the cigars. Cigar rolling was done strictly by men. "In the beginning, I didn´t know anything," Sastre says. "But eventually, I became a very good roller, I suppose. Then, I was allowed to make the Lanceros for Fidel Castro. I am very proud of this. When I was chosen to do this, it was the greatest moment in my career. I have never met him personally, nor spoken with him, but I have the satisfaction of knowing that he has never criticised my Lanceros." Not only did Sastre make the Lanceros for the president, but also for foreign politicians and others, as gifts of the Cuban state. "I always liked to make Lanceros the most, because they are long and, at the same time, very thin," Sastre explains. "A lot of care must be taken in making them. As a roller, I normally made 100 Lanceros per day." When asked what makes a good cigar roller, Sastre says simply: "Love for the work." Something that she seems to have in abundance. Because of her excellent performance, Sastre was named head of a product workshop, and today works as a quality controller.
http://whatgetsmehot.posterous.com/el-laguito-cohiba-fabrica-puro El Laguito: Cohiba Fabrica Puro Address: 2302 Street 146 Mariano Havana Cuba El Laguito: Cohiba Fabrica Puro The massive room at the Pabexpo in the chic Havana neighborhood of Siboney was already thic ... Dogmeat