Mexican Puros?

Originally Posted by bobarian

Hopefully Richard(tzaddi) will chime in here. Much of the filler/binder in many big name smokes comes from the San Andreas region of Mexico.

If I may be so bold as to quote myself from my original 03-03-2007 introduction…

…With my interest in genealogy/history I was first drawn to the cigars of the Valley of the Tuxtlas in Southern Veracruz, Mexico via Cigar Magazine, Summer 2005 edition, reading an article titled, "The Much-Maligned Mexican Cigar". So I smoked me some A. Turrent 2000 Coronas, not being able to get my hands on any of the family cabinet line that Miguel Turrent smokes, I also smoked some Santa Clara 1830s and of course some Te-Amos. Santa Clara makes some good cigars but as far as the Te-Amos... lately I have smoked some Aniversario Vintage 99 Perfecto (love the shape) and Robusto sticks that I liked. Concluding the Valley of the Tuxtlas rant I have ordered a sampler of 18 cigars from http://www.calidadtobaccos.com/cigars.html that are currently in transit.…

Well those cigars arrived and here is a link to one of my web pages showing the Toztli and Getomi cigars that I received in a later shipment
http://web.mac.com/tzaddi/Cordero/Nicotiana_2.html

As some of the BABOTL are aware I have received several shipments of whole leaf tobacco from Calidad Tobaccos. The last order I received included;
3 pounds of Moron (centro) 8 yrs.
2 pounds of Capote (banda) 6 yrs.
2 pounds of Capa (Habana) 6 yrs.

My experience with Mexican tobacco has been mainly positive but I completely understand the negative comments and experiences of others.

Summize to say that there is good Mexican tobacco as well as not so…

Here is a bit of information that I have uncovered in my research concerning my region of interest in Mexico. I have posted this on several other sites.

I recently came across this excerpt from a book titled "Resources and Development of Mexico" By Hubert Howe Bancroft. Published by The Bancroft company, 1893.

In it he speaks to the concept of soil composition and how it relates to the flavor & strength of the tobacco grown there and how these conditions exist in Mexico.

Speaking to the potentiality of Mexican tobacco I quote further research and a cool anecdotal story.

In the category of just because a reference book is old is not an indication of it's accuracy. I submit he following excerpt of self promotion.

Mexico and the United States: A Study of Subjects Affecting Their Political, Commercial, and Social Relations, Made with a View to Their Promotion
By Matías Romero
Published by G. P. Putnam, 1898
Original from the University of Michigan
Digitized Feb 20, 2008
759 pages

Tobacco—Among the tropical products of superior quality that we raise in the hot zone, I should mention tobacco, the Mexican tobacco being, in General Grant's estimation, superior to the Havana article. The natural conditions of soil and temperature are the same in Cuba and Mexico, but we had not the superior experience of the Cubans in curing the leaf until the late insurrection broke out in Cuba, in 1868, when a great many Cubans went to Mexico to plant tobacco. As the land has been planted in Cuba with tobacco for nearly four hundred years, and as tobacco is a very exhausting crop, it has become indispensable to manure the land with guano, while in Mexico we have virgin land, and tobacco being a comparatively new industry, no guano needs to be used. General Grant, whom I consider a competent judge, detected the taste of guano in the Havana cigars, of which ours is free, and he, therefore, preferred to smoke the Mexican cigars.

In Cuba the exhausted soil cannot produce all the leaves that are required for the world's supply of Havana cigars, and the want can only be filled through the use of Mexico leaf tobacco, the weed produced in other countries having similar conditions. The Marquis de Cabanas sent to Sumatra a quantity of seed when it became obvious that the soil of the tobacco region of Cuba was fast being worn out. He sent seed also to Java and to the United States, but it was found that it was impossible to raise tobacco of the quality of that raised in Havana anywhere but in Mexico. That raised in Java from Havana seed was very coarse and rank, replete with nicotine and meconic acid, and devoid of those delicate essential oils that give the Havana and Mexican tobacco their fine aroma.

The tobacco plant is a native of the tropics, and thrives best in the hot lands. It is a hardy plant, however, and will grow well in northern latitudes in the summer time. It often happens that the land in the tropics is actually too rich for the successful cultivation of tobacco.

Further research provides a very different view of General Grant and his taste in cigars, in this case I submit the following cigar anecdote from
Ward, Ferdinand. General Grant as I Knew Him. New York Herald (magazine section)
December 19, 1909, pp. 1-2

Often I have been asked if General Grant was a drinking man. He was anything but that. He very seldom touched any liquor except ale, and he drank that sparingly and at rare intervals. As is well known, he smoked incessantly. I have known him to go to bed with a heavy Havana in his mouth, put out the lights and continue smoking for a time in the dark. He would never finish this nightcap cigar, but when it was about half done he would put it somewhere where it might be reached easily in the morning.
The first thing he did when he awakened was to get this stub and light it. Sometimes he would smoke another whole cigar before breakfast. Luncheon and dinner usually interrupted his smoking, and he would put his half finished cigar aside, to be resumed immediately upon finishing his mean. When he came to the office I always had twenty-five of his favorite three for fifty cent cigars ready for him, and invariably he smoked them all during the day.

A cigar anecdote, which, I believe, has never been written, will show another trait of his character, that of loyalty to friends.

The incident afforded several of us the greatest amusement at the time and we often teased the General about it. When he returned from his visit to Mexico he was enthusiastic about the possibilities of the country and a warm friend and admirer of General Diaz. He told us the General had promised to send him some Mexican cigars, and as he said the conditions for raising fine tobacco in Mexico were unexcelled he had no doubt they would be much better than even Havanas. He said he had not tried the Mexican cigars while on his visit, as the subject had not come up for discussion until he was leaving.

One day there arrived at the office a case of five thousand cigars made from pure Mexican tobacco, a present from Diaz. Before he opened the case the General was as excited about the gift as it was possible for him to get, and he told us that if there were any more of the Havanas on hand to give them away and that it would not be necessary to get any more for a while.

"We will probably like these much better any way," said the General, "and when they are gone we can order them in large lots direct from Mexico."

The cigars were packed one hundred each in fifty beautiful lacquered boxes. General Grant presented each of us in the office with a box and we began to smoke the new cigars. They were large, black and coarse, and to our educated taste exceedingly rank.

In deference to the seriousness with which the General took the gift we stuck it out as long as we could. U. S. Grant, Jr., managed to smoke about twenty-five of the Mexican cigars, I believe, before he was forced to discontinue them. Fred Grant and I managed somehow to finish out a hundred each, but declined positively to accept a second box.

The General manfully stuck it out for a while longer, chiding us for our lack of appreciation and telling us that we did not know good tobacco when we tasted it. Finally he, too, was forced to give up the unequal struggle and confess that, after all, the new cigars could not compare with the Havanas to which he had become accustomed.

To sum up… Mexican Puros have yet to consistently meet there potential, but I have not given up hope.