![]() But wherever they fall within the candela range, all double claro leaves are based on the same principle: Wrapper leaf is harvested while still green on the stalk then flash-dried over the heat of propane or charcoal fires, faster than the chlorophyll can cure out of them. Some reveal just a slight green tea hue-almost a basic claro. ![]() Green seems suddenly to be much more of “a thing” among highfalutin smokes-even a fashion statement. Now wrappers of alternating brown and green strips forming “barber poles” are increasingly commonplace. A couple of years ago Moya Ruiz introduced a candela Toro called Pickle Juice. Just this year, Camacho brought to market its $8 Camacho Candela. A quick look at the online houses finds candelas now being rolled by numerous premium brands: Alec Bradley, Illusione, Victor Sinclair, Rocky Patel, Drew Estate, La Flor Dominicana, and Arturo Fuente, to name a few. I am seeing more and more candela offerings in most of the mail-order catalogs that come to my home. Recently, however, I have taken (perhaps belated) notice that green wrappers are much more in vogue than they used to be. For decades, I wondered what it might be like to smoke a fine, long-filler cigar wrapped in green double claro. But I couldn’t find any long-filler cigars draped in candela, so I dismissed green cigars from my mind and went on exploring the million tan-wrapped classics. He invited me to try a few, and I must admit, although they too were cut-filler cheapies, they did taste a notch above the other economy-class sticks going around. And they were green cigars-wrapped in candela leaf-the first green cigars I had ever seen up close. I do recall one man on the job site, though, who took his cigars seriously enough to send off for boxes of them by mail order. My coworkers shook their heads in disapproval when I told them my cigars cost dollars instead of cents. I started economizing on food for sake of good long-fillers.Ĭigars were popular among the blue-collar crowd where I worked, but all of the other fellows contented themselves with cheap, cut-filler cigars like those I’d started on. Then and there, a long season of youthful poverty befell me: so many premium cigars to try, so little scratch with which to buy. I can still remember the evening I smoked that wonderful cigar and the place-the north rim of the Grand Canyon. ![]() That sage gentleman permanently changed my cigar smoking ways. This was during the 1970s, and that wise man handed me a Dunhill Montecruz 200, rolled in the Canary Islands (a product now extinct and very much missed). ![]() It wasn’t until just before my 19th birthday that a friendly hotel concierge showed me the wonders of top-flight cigars. When I first discovered cigars in my late teens, I mainly imbibed products I could easily afford, which meant I burned through a lot of Tampa Nuggets, little blond, cut-filler trifles that I bought over the counter in filling stations and convenience stores. But don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Green wrapper leaf-candela, aka double claro-may not be for every occasion. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |