On this site, we need to come down harder on bunglers. Bunglers either tend to be anarchistic-narcissistic or obedient-conformist, which means that you can be one in either major political party, even if the biggest bunglers come from the Utopians who, among other things, ruined Cuban cigars.
Yes, like the vision of Jesus or Buddha, the idea of peace and happiness on Earth always seduces the human being. You can either be a dualistic egomaniac or a daoist life-denier, but the bug gets everyone at some time. In politics, it becomes the idea of equal distribution.
People love that notion because like pluralism itself, it is pacifism: eliminate the differences between us, we all get along, angels play trumpets and pianos play “Imagine,” and everything is good. Like all simplistic fractional truths, this leads to horror, which is what happened in Cuba.
Some bunglers rose to power by realizing that there were lots of bunglers out there, so if they formed a movement based on the idea of equal acceptance of bungling, they could drive out the non-bunglers and therefore, rule forever on the backs of the incompetent.
This is not much different than regular democracy, but redistributing wealth sticks a nasty burden to the competent and productive. It tells them to do a good job so everyone else can laugh at them for being nerds who take life seriously. After awhile, they quit doing that.
Since this process happens pretty quickly, socialist states quickly go from “everyone have the free food” to “work or we shoot you” in the same way democracy goes from tolerating everyone to punishing those who are not tolerant enough. Cuba followed this path, and it killed their cigar industry.
You can still buy Cuban cigars, but these come from bungler-regulated fields instead of farms managed with pride by those who take great joy in their product. You will pay a lot of money; you will receive a cigar that, price comparatively, is worse than options from Nicaragua, Honduras, and even crackhead retiree meth ghetto Florida.
Since the glorious people’s revolution, basically the French Revolution without any of the pretense toward pragmatism, in Cuba, the Cuban cigar industry has done what everyone else with an IQ higher than 96 did in Cuba: hop into an inner tube and head overseas, figuring the sharks are less destructive than loser bunglers with AK-47s and a mandate from Heaven to make Utopia on Earth.
I mean, really, what is Communism but a misinterpreted Christianity? The Republicans read Jesus as a middle class businessman, which is more accurate, but the Communists see him as a hippie. In reality, he was just a half-Jew who hated the Roman occupation because empire sucks to its core.
When death metal gave the finger to the notion of “good,” it was telling us that nature is good and humanity is lies, therefore whatever humans think is “good” is unrealistic Utopian nonsense. Turn that cross upside down, burn human bones on the altars, rape Baby Jesus, and read the Bible backwards.
Escaping the Communist cigar bungle, the Cuban growers set up shop in nearby areas and began cultivating their broadleaf varietals for the classic Cuban flavor: a light, vanilla-esque sweetness with an inner richness but a surface, agave-style thin flavor, so that the smoke surges into depth over time.
If you make a cigar too strong, bold, and quirky like the hipster brands of today, you end up with a great experience on the surface that over time becomes tedious and one-dimensional. If you start with a simple note, then expand its inner texture, over time it becomes more interesting and pleasurable.
This was the genius of the Cuban cigar and it built them a reputation in the 1920s-1950s that lives on today, undeservedly since the product of Cuban agriculture is about on par with the products of Soviet agriculture. Utopia, like dualistic heaven, is human projection not reality.
Perhaps the most prominent blend to carry on the Cuban tradition is the Altadis Montecristo line, especially the White, which has that Nilla-wafer-with-white-pepper flavor that made Cubans so popular. Altadis, being savvy, have made a budget knock off.
Joining other low-cost everyday smokes for non-pretentious people like the Cusano M1 and CC lines, Casa de Garcia Connecticut is a straightforward cigar in the Cuban style: light, vanilla-tasting (but not flavored) Connecticut wrapper and a mild binder.
Strength is medium, at best, but when you are smoking an ounce of tobacco, it can be mild and you will still get that peaceful, logical, intense, but non-Utopian state of mind. The flavor is mild, and the rolling is not as sparse as a Macanudo but still makes for an easy draw.
You can burn one of these down over the course of about three hours by just breath-smoking it, which in fact is the only way you should smoke mild leaf like Connecticut and Virginia. It is slightly aged, just enough to remove acidity and ammonia, but without the caramel-like fermentation and its spicier pepper taste.
Sure, you will impress absolutely no one by hauling out these budget sticks. If you need to impress hipsters, get some Junko in My Trunko maduro nub and rave on about the overtones of leather, apple brandy, J7, AstroGlide, and the smell of the limited edition first pressing Nirvana live album. Whatever.
However, for a good daily smoke that you can enjoy for its subtlety as well as its solid dependable inoffensive but pleasurable flavor, the Casa de Garcia Connecticut churchill is worth seizing and enjoying. You can always paste on a label from one of your hipster brands.
