I got to thinking today about some of the more popular cigar brands.

IE. - Tatuaje, Liga Privada, Viaje, Cohiba, RYJ..............I'm not to familiar with whats popular for CC's.

Anyways, I was wondering what was popular back in the 60's 70's 80's & 90's.

From what I have gathered, the cigar industry back in the day was mostly driven by CC's. Am I correct?

I was just curious as to what brands were at the top of the totem pole in the earlier days.

I'm sure the Cohibas have always had a spot up there but what else has come and gone over the years?
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Do you mean aside from the mass market monsters, like Murial, El Producto, White Owl, or the most readily available "premium" brands such as Antonio Y Cleopatra, Te Amo and Optimo?
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I was thinking along the lines of custom rolled cigars but whatever was popular back then.
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I wanted to try out my freshly stolen smilie. This should be a good spot.
Image
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Solid!
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I didn't mean custom, I meant hand rolled.
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Josh, I'm a firm believer that there's no such thing as a "dumb" question, but there is such a thing as a vague one. You ask "what was popular in the '60s 70s . . .", then clarify you meant "hand rolled". Not only did the Cuban embargo begin in the early 60s, which would prohibit their "popularity" in the USA, but the "hand rolled" products from the Caribbean and Central America had not yet had a chance to develop, following the exiles who fled Cuba. So the big names in America during that time were mainly the Ybor City producers of cigars you (seemingly, anyway) do not even consider to actually BE cigars.


:-) , but that's my :-) , and certainly worth every penny.
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This is an incorrect premise. While these may be popular boutique brands they are far, far from the most popular hand rolled cigars on todays market. Until very recently the best selling brand of premium hand rolled cigars was Macanudo. The Acid line from Drew Estates also out sells the brands listed.
The Cohiba line of Cuban cigars was not rolled for commercial release until 1984. The non-Cuban versions came after that. :-)
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The US distributed Dunhill brands were quite popular including Royal Jamaican, Santa Cruz, Dunhill, Tempe Hall, Henry Clay... I am sure some here can name more.

The Cuban copy brands took a while to take off except for Partagas which has a long NC history (and much better cigars than what they are now). Try an humi-tube and wow!

Davidoff had their own line of cigars including Zino and Davidoff.

Oscar was a popular brand that is not talked about and still around.

As for sizes, let someone else chime in on that, but my hunch is US market was big on Corona range cigars. Churchill is always around, but for the same kind of smoker as today.
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My gramps smoked whatever cigar was on sale at the local grocer, didn't care what he name was. I think white owls were his favorites. Or Roi tans.
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A friend of mines father used to smoke "Tampa nuggets". I try my darndest to get
him to smoke one with me when I run into him now and again, but he stopped
smoking for health reasons!
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Add in Larks and you have three of my grandpa's favorites back in the fifties and sixties.
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My Grandfather had boxes upon boxes of Dutch Masters Presidents back in the 80s IIRC...
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I can speak some about the 90's. The early-mid 90's were crazy. The boom was big and brands came out of on a dialy basis to cash in on the cigar craze. I sometimes wonder how many people stuck around when the boom went away. I feel many folks were just being trendy. A few brands that were popular and some oddities I can remember are listed below:

Arturo Fuente: This was as always, a staple for the cigar boomers. The regular line like the 8-5-8's would sell out at my local Tinder Box the same day. They were charging $8-$9 a cigar in those days.

Punch/Hoyo De Montery/El Rey Del Mundo: These were quite popular with all the boomers. Scoring a 50-cab of Punch Rothschilds was a big deal.

La Gloria Cubana/El Credito/El Rico Habano: These made a huge splash in 93-97. Everybody loved Ernie Carillo and his store in Miami was a big hit. They made a version of the cigars in the DR and at the Miami store. Scoring the stuff from the Miami store was always considered best because they were supposed to have a better flavor profile. The original release El Rico Habano was a powerhouse cigar that I've never seen matched. That cigar would make my lips numb from the nicotine every time.

Puros Indios: Believe it or not, these were all the rage for awhile. They fetched $12-$16 a stick for a couple years. I think they tasted better back then but still not one of my favorites.

Chessman Royal Reserve: This cigar was made exclusively for Cigar Express and were popular among the alt.smokers.cigars gang in the mid-90's. I was in love with the Rosado wrapped churchills.

V-Cigar: An oddity for sure. This was the first cigar that could only be purchased on the internet. They only sold them from the V-cigar site. They sucked real bad.

Garmeister Cigars: A very unusual and expensive cigar rolled by a husband and wife team in Eureka Springs AR. I split a sampler of these with a buddy and have to say they were one of the best cigars I ever had. Think Davidoff.

One of the interesting things about the 90's was that Honduran/Dominican cigars were all the rage and Nicaraguan sticks were generally frowned upon. Padron was about the only exception and they were really only enjoyed by the hardcore smoker.

Ahhh, the 90's!

MCS
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+1 Nothing out there now this grenade.
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I'm sorry, I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to word this. I guess it does not matter if it was hand rolled or not. Just whatever was popular is what I was really wanting to know.

You're right Bobarian, I was just mentioning some brands that I noticed had a good following here at CA. You would know better than I would what is or was popular. Thanks for the info
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I'm very interested in this as well. Not to hijack the thread, but what has been popular trends through the years (Ring gauge, Wrapper type, Length). Great thread.

One thing I notice is that people who don't even smoke cigars for whatever reason know Arturo Fuente and Cohiba, maybe it is great advertisement but in my mind they are the Nike of Cigars.
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CT shade was the most popular wrapper for a long time in USA. Fuente along with Partagas really made their mark by using Cameroon wrappers.
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During the boom of the nineties, Fuente and Padron were two of the better brands. I can also recall smoking (NC) brands such as Rey Del Mundo and Hoyo de Monterey that weren't bad. The vilest I recall from that time was something with a red band that Nestor Plasencia produced. This was before the internet brought cigar shopping to your electronic fingertips, and buying cigars meant either a trip to the B&M or perusing a catalog.

And the Cohiba Esplendidos from that period (the real ones) were stronger than today's. A different profile if memory serves.

That's all I can recall from twenty years ago. Whatever else I smoked back then didn't leave any lasting impressions on my memory. And, I didn't smoke as many cigars then as I do today. At that point in time, cigs were still high on my hit parade.
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Lars Tetens
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