Monday, November 29 1999
Q. Where does tobbaco for cheap cigars come from? Why do they usually taste bad? Why do people buy them?
- Ray in Staten Island, NY
A. Cheap tobacco can come from just about anywhere. It also depends on what kind of "cheap cigars" you're referrring to: handrolled or machine-made. They could be made with tobaccos that the grower didn't find suitable enough for use in premium cigars, or tobacco that wasn't fermented or aged properly, or just about anything in-between. That could explain why a lot of low-budget sticks taste bad.
Why do people buy them? Simple. Because the cigars are cheap. There's a certain sector of the market that will buy just about any cigar if it's cheap enough. Famous Smoke Shop had fun with this fact when they ran an April Fool's cigar sale advertising "Pre-Smoked Cigars" at 5¢ apeice.
Finally, it depends on how you define "cheap." There are plenty of low-priced cigars that offer satisfaction to a large number of consumers. As singer/songwriter Paul Simon wrote: "One man's ceiling is another man's floor."
