“I see a red door and I want it painted black / No colors anymore I want them to turn black.”
Everyone’s probably familiar with that lyric from the Stones’ “Paint it Black,” right? This afternoon, I was swapping ‘tweets’ (I really like Twitter but could they not have come up with a better verb?) with Charlie Minato of ‘The Cigar Feed.’ Our good-natured exchange about wrapper colors made me think of that lyric and further made me ponder the seemingly undying (no pun intended) trend towards pitch-BLACK cigars.
I’ve talked to retailers, manufacturers, and consumers and their feedback seems to all add up to something along the lines of, “Today’s cigar smokers want pitch-black wrappers; the darker the better.” WHEN did this happen and WHEN will it end???!
Going back some 16 or so years ago when I first fell in love with premium cigars, I recall doing my homework and reading several books on the topic. I recall the sections on color classifications…”Claro, Claro Claro, Colorado Claro, Maduro, and Oscuro.” I also recall the photo examples of each classification that accompanied each description–funny, none of those cigars looked like Goth-black-fingernail polish.
Nearly all of the cigars I fell in love with back then all looked beautiful and natural–attractive, sumptuous brown tones….Cuban cigars like Montecristo, Bolivar, Partagas, H. Upmann; and non-Cubans like Fuente, Padron, Davidoff, and La Gloria Cubana. Visually, they were seductive–and aromatically, they reeked of leather, earth and cedar. I still recall the very moment I walked into my first retail tobacconist’s humidor back in 1994. It was Uptown’s Smoke Shop here in Nashville. I was completely hooked when that aromatic-cocktail of tobacco and Spanish Cedar hit my nostrils; it was love at first sight (and smell).
Fast forward to the present. I walk into a humidor, or look at a cigar magazine, and so many of the cigars have a ‘midnight-black’ appearance. And the ‘color‘ is so uniform and consistent–almost (dare I say) “artificially” so. Tobacco just does not have that flawless-perfect-black tone by nature. Some may say, “Yeah, but what about Maduro cigars?” For starters, “Maduro” is NOT a wrapper–it is a color classification. By definition Maduro is “brownish-to-dark-brown.” Not black. And not all Broadleaf (often used in Maduro lines) is black, either.
In my book, the best Broadleaf cigars out there stay true to that original classification. Two that come to mind are La Riqueza and the forthcoming EP Carrillo Core Line Maduro. To me, here are two cigar makers that utilize Broadleaf NOT to rope consumers in with a “it’s-so-dark-its-gotta-be-full-and-great” appearance, but rather, to produce a cigar that highlights the slightly-sweet-rich flavor that is Broadleaf wrapper. The wrapper color on these cigars are akin to a nice espresso with a small shot of cream–not “coffee-black-no-sugar.”
For me it comes down to this analogy: The best cigars are like the most beautiful women. The most beautiful women are naturally beautiful; no botox, no facelifts, no implants–REAL and NATURAL beauty. The most beautiful women age with grace, and they improve with age. So it is with cigars. The ones that stand out above all others are natural (no shortcuts) and, they too, improve with age.
So as we here at Crowned Heads have begun to make headway towards sample blends, I can promise you this much. We will respect the artistry that is cigar-making. We will not take any short-cuts. And you will not be able to take any of our cigars to Home Depot in order to color-match your next gallon of Dutch Boy “Midnight Coal.”
Great post! I hate smoking a dark stick and then later finding it left more than Taste on your lips. Keep them real an natural!
I agree 100%. Nature tobacco in what ever color classification is something to behold and enjoy for it’s purity. Yes making premium handmade cigars is an art form but that doesn’t mean you have to paint it. 🙂
Jon,
I agree with you completely! A cigar that hasn’t been homogenized is definitely more desirable. I also hate the bitter taste that some colored wrappers give off when smoking them.
Love the blog…. and your “tweets”. I agree, I will not smoke something that is completely black, or from a company that constantly puts out a new “blend” or “product” every month. How can they control the product or the blend…they can’t! I love the aging process of cigars, much like wine. There is something that gets me when I think about how long a cigar has aged. How much patience that goes into planting, growing, harvesting, and then the skill to let the tobacco age and mature for years. You can’t take shortcuts and achieve great quality. Keep up the good work and stay patient, we will wait in anticipation for a product that will define Crowned Heads!
Painted wrappers are a big turnoff for me. There is one in particular out there these days that is practically black in every sample I’ve ever seen live, but the makers are on Twitter insisting that they never dye the leaves. The nasty brown stains on my fingers and the sourness on my taste buds beg to differ! Then I saw a newer sample that someone Tweeted (there’s that verb again) a picture of, and it is significantly lighter than every other one I’ve seen. Could it be the maker had enough negative feedback and decided to stop dying? Maybe…but I still think they dyed them in the beginning and they have denied doing so.
For the record, “Maduro” is Spanish for “ripe” and it means a leaf that has undergone a longer, hotter fermentation process. This results in a sweeter leaf than otherwise would occur and not all leaves are good candidates for the process. Real maduros might be barely darker than a natural Habano wrapper color or might be a fairly dark brown, but will almost never be uniform in color or close to what you might call “Oscuro.” Good call on skipping the Home Depot run and keeping CH all natural, Jon.
As always Jon, your blog’s prove the true integrity of Crowned Heads and the people who are the architects of this company. I applaud each of you. Fake is fake, keep it real and you will foster trust in your consumers. I know for me, if I trust someone, I will stand by them to the end. Good luck brother.
Thanks for the knowledge, Jon. Nice read.
“The best cigars are like the most beautiful women. The most beautiful women are naturally beautiful” – I absolutely agree. I am turned off by dyed cigars. The natural colors of a wrapper showcases the cigar just perfectly.
On behalf of everyone here at Crowned Heads, I just wanna thank you all for your positive reinforcement, and encouraging comments.
We will continue to stay on the path we’ve committed to, and we promise we will not compromise.
Stay tuned.
I find it funny that an industry that prides itself on tradition and artisan hand-crafting of natural products would reach for a paintbrush at the end of the manufacturing process. That being said, it’s a marketing ploy that works, at least on people who are more concerned with how a cigar looks than how it tastes. I’ve seen people walk into a shop and ask for the biggest, darkest cigar they have. Not a lot of repeat business from those people, but apparently it’s an important demographic to some.
I think we can look forward to cigars returning to normal sizes when fountain drink cups return to sizes under a gallon and hamburgers can once again fit in your mouth. If I may make a sweeping generalization (it is the internet, it’s expected, right?) we’re big, fat people and we like big, fat food and big, fat cigars. I think the demand for larger ring gauges has always been with us, which is why the lancero trend didn’t last long. I just hope that when the 64 ring gauge smokes come out, they’re kind enough to make those as figurados, or provide us with cigar holders so they’ll fit in our mouths.
The sad irony is, bigger clearly isn’t better. 99% of the time, a cigar’s blend is poorest in these large sizes. People looking for more out their smoke would be better served by a traditionally sized churchill. Make mine a lancero or a petite corona. (I too like cigars like I like my women, natural, and under 50.)
What about the anejo? That is a broadleaf wrapper billed as maduro and is pretty darn black. I love that wrapper!
I agree!