Alan Wong's Restaurant, Hawaii

Mervyn Rothstein
Posted: December 1, 2009

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Which leads us back to those Hawaiian cigars.

The brand is Island Prince, manufactured by the Kauai Cigar Co. The tobacco is grown, logically enough, on the island of Kauai. The owners of the Blair Estate coffee farm, in business for more than a decade, decided to invest in tobacco growing. They say in their brochure that they grow using Cuban seeds then harvest and cure the tobacco on the island. It is then sent to Nicaragua where it is fermented for four to six weeks, handrolled and shipped back to Kauai.

The cigars, which come in light and dark varieties, are said to be made from 100 percent Kauai filler. The Light is made with a Connecticut-seed wrapper grown in Ecuador; it's a medium-bodied smoke. The dark (my preference), more full-bodied and complex, has Maduro leaf wrapper from Habano 2000 seed grown in Nicaragua. Both come in 50-ring, 5 3/4-inch, 46-ring, 4 1/2 inch, and 52-ring, 6 1/8 inch sizes. Prices at Alan Wong range from $15 to $40 for the larger size.

So after a really fine Hawaiian meal, you can pick a cigar from a very uncommon source: Hawaii. As you smoke it, you can summon up remembrance of repast past.

Alan Wong's
1857 South King Street
Honolulu, HI 96826
(808) 949-2526
www.alanwongs.com

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