Popular Post Cigar Surgeon Posted March 29, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted March 29, 2017 Havana 2017 I just recently returned from another trip to Havana, my first since 2015. Having been down to Havana multiple times in the past, it’s always interesting to reflect on any changes I’ve experienced in the city. Mental note: don’t do a 7 day cigar trip to Nicaragua and then roll right into a Cuba cigar trip. The positive takeaway is that I already had my ‘Cuban head’ on before I landed in Havana. In the past we’ve always flown through Varadero for a multitude of reasons. The problem with Varadero is that it’s filled with tourists and as a result everything becomes painfully slow. You can bank on taking an hour and a half to get through customs, retrieving your luggage, and the point at which your bus leaves to Havana. Then you get delays from all the various hotels they stop at on the way to Havana. This year some of us flew through Varadero and some of us flew through Havana, for me it was my first experience. Things have improved significantly in Varadero with our group arriving almost exactly on time factoring in the bus ride. They commented that their luggage beat them passing through customs. Impressive. The experience in Havana was similar. Customs went rapidly with a minimum of delay. Baggage came out almost immediately, and from tarmac to taxi it was approximately 35 minutes. Eliminating the almost 7 hours of bus travel from the trip makes the overall trip far less exhausting. CADECA experience In all the times I’ve travelled to Havana, we have always had multiple members of the group ‘taxed’ when changing money. That ‘tax’ either comes in the form of one of your Canadian bills mysteriously disappearing, or some of your CUC not being in the pile. This has lead to us being extremely clinical about changing money. After several money changes, both at the Havana airport and at hotels, I am happy to report that not a single member of our group was ‘taxed’ a single CUC. Prices are up & down, service a mixed bag Hotel pricing is at a level that surpasses premium hotels in Las Vegas. The rack rate at the Nacional is at $375 USD per night, and the Parque Central was $750 USD per night. Now Cuba being Cuba, it’s very possible that most of these rooms are being bundled for tour packages so they have no need to offer reasonable rates outside of those packages. Service at the hotels is at an all time low. The typical Cuba pace of things has reached flat out disinterest at some points. Problems that would typically be resolved by the end of the day drag on several days. People at the business centers are annoyed to even talk to you. Service at the restaurants is at an all time high. Food out 15 minutes after ordering? Mojitos replenished at the tables in less than 5? I’m not sure what is driving this but at times it’s a welcome change not to wait 55 minutes for your food, and 25 minutes for a new set of drinks. Scams are down. Are they gone? In past trips you could always bank on having at least one restaurant experience where extra appetizers or drinks inexplicably show up on your bill. You’d always have a handful of cabs overcharge you for rides. In 2015 my cab scam experience reached an all time high where you’d have to confirm the price being quoted applied to the total ride and not individual occupants. I’m very pleased to report that we did not run into a single restaurant bill issue, and we had several interactions where cab drivers undercut us on price, and refused to accept more. The Americans are here The flood gates have opened to Havana, but the number of American travelers has reduced somewhat. I can’t speak to whether that being a result of the luster of Havana now rubbing off, or prices skyrocketing, but gone are the massive crowds downtown and in various LCDHs. All the Americans we ran into were friendly, respectful, and engaged in great conversation. There were more than a few people who were trying out cigars for the first time, and the questions and interactions were entertaining. I’m confident the some elevators in Cuba are not rated for a group of Americans. I mean that in all sincerity, as many of the people who we ran into were easily 150 – 200% our size and weight. Construction Construction on the El Capitolio building has progressed nicely, with renovations and construction projects being present all over Havana. The speed at which some of these builds are progressing is much faster than the typical Cuban pace. It will be interesting to check in next year to see if it continues. Habanos quality Big ring gauge cigars are here to stay, and it’s clearly the direction Cuban cigars will be going towards in the future. From 65+ ring gauge custom rolls, to EL / LE product arriving at 58+ ring gauge, small ring gauge is out and big ring gauge is in. I am completely disappointed at this shift. I feel I can say that objectively Cuba has had the best small ring gauge and small vitola cigars in the world, for some time. Larger ring gauge product is going to be a tough market in places like Canada and Australia where a combination of taxes and experienced Cuban cigar smokers are going to drive many customers away. There does seem to be greater care and focus on the quality of cigar in terms of the construction and consistency of blends. We definitely sampled some Edicion Limitada cigars that clearly need more age, but regular production stock was smoking very well. Footnote There has been a lot of debate about whether to freeze cigars brought back from Cuba. I’ve known for some time that product not marked for export is not frozen or fumigated. A person who I know and trust implicitly tested a set of cigars rolled from the same tobacco leaf. One cigar was subjected to the freezing process, while the other was not. Both cigars were smoked blind to determine if there was any impact to construction, or flavor. Freezing had no detectable impact. I learned a new cigar party trick. We observed significant background police presence all throughout the city. You could not walk more than two blocks without spotting a uniformed officer. We also observed, with great entertainment, an encounter with two locals which resulted in police on scene in under 10 seconds. The entire exchange was handled in typical Cuban ‘manyana’ fashion. I was able to enjoy some truly exceptional cigars that I no doubt would have never had if I wasn’t on the trip. 33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puros Y Vino Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Great writeup! It feels like I was almost there. As a side story to the "Americans". While in Partagas, we were interrupted by a New Yorker looking for some advice on how to light up his cigar. He had an RyJ Cedros No 2. Had asked us if he should cut both ends. And we actually instructed him to remove the cedar wrapped around the cigar before lighting it. John set him straight and got him on his way. Being the consummate Canadians, we did this all without a snicker or eye roll, figuring this guy was really new to this and wanted to experience the finer things of Cuban life. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cigar Surgeon Posted March 29, 2017 Author Share Posted March 29, 2017 1 minute ago, bundwallah said: Great writeup! It feels like I was almost there. As a side story to the "Americans". While in Partagas, we were interrupted by a New Yorker looking for some advice on how to light up his cigar. He had an RyJ Cedros No 2. Had asked us if he should cut both ends. And we actually instructed him to remove the cedar wrapped around the cigar before lighting it. John set him straight and got him on his way. Being the consummate Canadians, we did this all without a snicker or eye roll, figuring this guy was really new to this and wanted to experience the finer things of Cuban life. One does have to wonder how the shop staff are doing with the major influx of new cigar smokers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irratebass Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Excellent write up John boy! OK, what the deal with the party trick? Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cigar Surgeon Posted March 29, 2017 Author Share Posted March 29, 2017 5 minutes ago, irratebass said: Excellent write up John boy! OK, what the deal with the party trick? Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk You have to channel the spirit of Robaina! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torsion Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 As per @bundwallah post, I thank you for this write up - takes me straight back there! I too have been working on my write up but it's taken way too long and I should look at doing a lite version Cheers @Avrus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1LegLance Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Great write up and I would agree with all of it from our trip in early March. Can you list the resturants you went to if you remember. I will be going back this fall or next spring with some buddies who love good food and while I remember a couple of great place I went, I am always looking for more. Thanks for posting 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puros Y Vino Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 37 minutes ago, 1LegLance said: Great write up and I would agree with all of it from our trip in early March. Can you list the resturants you went to if you remember. I will be going back this fall or next spring with some buddies who love good food and while I remember a couple of great place I went, I am always looking for more. Thanks for posting I was with John on this trip. We had most of our meal at either El Aljibe or La Terraza with the odd Cubano sandwich at the Hotel Nacional. It's hard to go wrong at either place. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habana Mike Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 I definitely recognize the food from La Terazza. Octopus, lobster, lamb shank - we had the same! Nice write-up 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1LegLance Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Good to know... We really enjoyed La Cathadral over by Melia Cohiba on 8 and off Linea and also really like El Zajan (sp?) which was near the Police Fort in Habana Vieja. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Presidente Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Superb write-up 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helix Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Great stuff . Reynaldo loves to roll the big rings lately . Thanks . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigcars Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 5 hours ago, bundwallah said: Great writeup! It feels like I was almost there. As a side story to the "Americans". While in Partagas, we were interrupted by a New Yorker looking for some advice on how to light up his cigar. He had an RyJ Cedros No 2. Had asked us if he should cut both ends. And we actually instructed him to remove the cedar wrapped around the cigar before lighting it. John set him straight and got him on his way. Being the consummate Canadians, we did this all without a snicker or eye roll, figuring this guy was really new to this and wanted to experience the finer things of Cuban life. Wow, good thing you all were there for this New Yorker. Because I've seen so many astounding things people are untrained for I take nothing for granted. Whenever I offered Fonsecas (Cuban ones) to people, I always just disregarded possibly insulting their intelligence and would say to them, "You know to take the white wrapper off before you smoke it, don't you?" And so far, I've never had any negative huffs or puffs or bristles of "WWELLL!!!" from anybody yet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrusso14 Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Well done. Sounds like you had a good time. Care to elaborate on the exceptional cigars you had when you were down there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clutch5150 Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Wow great write-up. Darn we just missed each other as we just came back on the 24th! The first day we got there on the 18th was PACKED downtown Havana with 2 cruise ships anchored! It settled down mid-week. Only ONE obnoxious American we experienced in our favorite bar and grill (KiloMeter Zero) who actually complained to one of the band members as to why their breaks were so long. He came back to his table and blurted out "guess they don't like to make money in here".... Thanks for the report! Edit. Also thanks for the large ring gauge trend. When I was talking with Carlos Robaina, he stated he's hearing there's going to be a Behike 60! We shall see, 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dicko Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Thank you for sharing your story and photos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LLC Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Great writeup! It feels like I was almost there. Ax2 Great write up John. Good times. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cigar Surgeon Posted March 30, 2017 Author Share Posted March 30, 2017 5 hours ago, El Presidente said: Superb write-up Thank you Rob! High praise 2 hours ago, jrusso14 said: Well done. Sounds like you had a good time. Care to elaborate on the exceptional cigars you had when you were down there? Most of them I can't talk about (super secret squirrel sauce). The regular product stuff was smoking well, most of the other stuff I smoked I brought with me because I was more hunting for gems than buying to smoke while down there. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nino Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 John, good to see ( and hear "mi amor cubano" in the background ) that you'all are still loyal to that lil' cigar place .... I am happy you had some good cigars there ... Read you stayed at Hotel Colina - right across the street from it is an old white mansion that has a great rum selection, Cubapasion. Check it out next time - I guess that is the best thing Hotel Colina has to offer http://flyingcigar.de/startseite/belgians-in-havana-nr-2-emrah-and-cuba-pasion/#prettyPhoto[8702]/9/http://flyingcigar.de/startseite/belgians-in-havana-nr-2-emrah-and-cuba-pasion/ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cigar Surgeon Posted March 30, 2017 Author Share Posted March 30, 2017 2 hours ago, nino said: Read you stayed at Hotel Colina - right across the street from it is an old white mansion that has a great rum selection, Cubapasion. Check it out next time - I guess that is the best thing Hotel Colina has to offer http://flyingcigar.de/startseite/belgians-in-havana-nr-2-emrah-and-cuba-pasion/#prettyPhoto[8702]/9/http://flyingcigar.de/startseite/belgians-in-havana-nr-2-emrah-and-cuba-pasion/ Hey Nino! Yes the Colina will be the source of many stories shared with mojitos in the future. Thanks for the heads up on the Cubapasion, we will definitely have to check it out. I think we're looking to see if we can gather people for November. Always love your write ups btw. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChanceSchmerr Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Great write up, "Jhon"! (did you ever get your jar mishap sorted?) Loved reading it, felt like I was back in Havana again. You certainly did it right! My awesome experience in November haunts me, and I hope to go back sooner rather than later - we'll see how if my wallet and "the needs of the service" actually allow me to go before the decade is out! La Terraza's Octopus and Lamb Leg - I could eat nothing else for a week in Havana and be absolutely satisfied. Remarkable food! Cheers @Avrus! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a2vr6 Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Another highly enjoyable trip with the boys, and some mind blowing cigars we've had the good fortune to try. On top of it all, I got to find my "Dante's". Too bad I ran out of space... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cigar Surgeon Posted March 30, 2017 Author Share Posted March 30, 2017 21 minutes ago, ChanceSchmerr said: Great write up, "Jhon"! (did you ever get your jar mishap sorted?) Not yet, hopefully by November. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LLC Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 John, good to see ( and hear "mi amor cubano" in the background ) that you'all are still loyal to that lil' cigar place .... I am happy you had some good cigars there ... Read you stayed at Hotel Colina - right across the street from it is an old white mansion that has a great rum selection, Cubapasion. Check it out next time - I guess that is the best thing Hotel Colina has to offer Great information Nino. A couple of times in the afternoon while sitting on the patio at the Colina having a cigar and waiting for the group to gather I was thinking two things:1. That white mansion looks interesting. 2. It has lots of shade on the patio. Instead of crossing the street we roasted in the sun or made a mad dash for it if a table in the corner with shade opened up at The Colina. Next time I will cross the street. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 20 hours ago, Avrus said: Hey Nino! Yes the Colina will be the source of many stories shared with mojitos in the future. Thanks for the heads up on the Cubapasion, we will definitely have to check it out. I think we're looking to see if we can gather people for November. Always love your write ups btw. If you're staying at the Colina again, try to visit the Napoleon Museum if you have 2 cuc and and hour to spare. It's 200 yards away. It's an unbelievable collection in what was once somebody's house. Possibly my favourite house in the world. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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