Posted: 10:56 AM ET, 10/22/09Cuban customs really gets to me. It’s not that the agents at Jose Martí Airport in La Habana are particularly unpleasant, or even aggressive, but they make me nervous. I begin getting edgy a few days before I have to leave the island, and by the time I get to the airport, my right eye is already twitching. Read more
Posted: 12:03 PM ET, 10/16/09Sometimes I get the idea that people think Cubans are not very savvy with their marketing and product development and that they spend most of their time just sitting around, reading the national newspaper, Gramma, and contemplating life. They think that the Cuban cigar industry is in some sort of time warp. Read more
Posted: 10:17 AM ET, 10/15/09What happened to New York? When I was a kid growing up in Connecticut, New York City was always the big, mysterious place with a little Wild West thrown in. It had a reckless side, a rebellious side and a seedy side. Cabbies drove like crazy, you could find things here that were available nowhere else, and it was very common to see people wearing all kinds of crazy outfits. Read more
Posted: 09:40 AM ET, 10/14/09People in the Cuban cigar industry were not pleased with recent reports in the foreign press on the reduction of this year’s tobacco plantings. Among others, Reuters reported that the plantings of tobacco on the island was being cut by 30 percent, which would mean a 16 percent reduction in the tobacco harvest. Read more
Posted: 08:23 PM ET, 10/12/09It’s good to be back in Havana. It’s been too long. I haven’t been back since early March, but I am right back into the smoke.
I had an interesting meeting with the new head of marketing for Habanos S.A., the global distribution and marketing organization for Cuban cigars. Read more
Posted: 02:52 PM ET, 10/07/09I met the most interesting man in the world the other day. No, I'm not talking about Jack Bettridge—it was Jonathan Goldsmith, the actor who portrays The Most Interesting Man in the World in ads for Dos Equis beer.
They’re great ads, and you’ve likely seen them. Read more
Posted: 10:13 AM ET, 09/28/09I smoked one of the greatest cigars ever produced on earth last night: the Dunhill Cabinetta. The robusto was produced in 1989 and was one of the last Dunhills to be made on the island before the Cubans dumped the British company and Davidoff.
I have written about this before, but the Cubans wanted to control all their trademarks, or brands; so they told Dunhilll and Davidoff that they would no longer make their smokes. Read more
Posted: 09:20 AM ET, 09/22/09I have a drippy sinus this morning and my head doesn't fell all that well. I am a bit clammy and I can't breathe perfectly well. If I was passing through the airport, a health official might stop me. They might think it is swine flu, or some strange respiratory bug. Read more
Posted: 02:52 PM ET, 09/16/09I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon yesterday that paired a selection of Glenmorangie single-malt Scotches, as well as the Ardbeg Uigeadail, with a slew of food, which included a shrimp dish, chicken, pâté de foie gras, a selection of excellent tomatoes and even French fries. Read more
Posted: 03:43 PM ET, 09/11/09I cleaned out some filing cabinets right after Labor Day, an ongoing personal effort to get up to speed on an organization system called Getting Things Done, or to those in the know: GTD. Sure enough, one of the things that can happen when you start cleaning up what in my case amounted to a geological kind of storage system…the further down you dig, the further you go back in time…you find good stuff. Read more
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