Smoked one of the Illusione Culebras at Vin's MassMafia herf last week. I didn't get the Illusione flavor, but it was my 3rd or 4th cigar of the herf, so I don't think it was a reliable tasting.
BlackIrish
[Reply]
Originally Posted by Footbag:
There are two theories on origin. The first, and best IMO, is that in the rollers in the factories were allowed to smoke 3 cigars a day. . .The second theory on origin is that it was purely a marketing gimmick. Yeah... the first is a lot better right?
While a good sounding story, FWIW Min Ron NEE writes, "The inventor of this story simply overlooked the fact that any cigar rollers could twist the cigars they made into any shape they liked. The number of factory rejects far outnumbered the 3 cigar ration per day. Specifically making 3 cigars for the consumption of the rollers was far more cost ineffective than allowing them to smoke the factory rejects."
His historical explanation provides a third theory:
"It first appeared in the Philippines circa mid-19th Century, a Philippines cigar industry invention. This is probably the reason why most major Philippines cigar manufacturers are still producing them today. It was created based on the theory that a thicker cigar can mature better. The culebras was designed to enable a small ring gauge cigar to mature as well as a thick ring gauge cigar.
The culebras is considered by the Philippines cigar industry as a form of packaging rather than an individual vitola. This type of packaging slowly spread to the cigar industries of other countries.
The Cuban cigar industry never took the culebras seriously and very few culebras were manufactured in the pre and post-revolution era. The Cubans have their own version of "culebras". The bundles in cabinets of25's or 50's are in fact giant 'culebras' of 25 or 50 cigars."
Couldn't help myself and now have a box of Party snakes en route.
:-)
[Reply]
Originally Posted by Stick:
While a good sounding story, FWIW Min Ron NEE writes, "The inventor of this story simply overlooked the fact that any cigar rollers could twist the cigars they made into any shape they liked. The number of factory rejects far outnumbered the 3 cigar ration per day. Specifically making 3 cigars for the consumption of the rollers was far more cost ineffective than allowing them to smoke the factory rejects."
Damn, I need the MRN book!
:-)
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