Cuba relations thawing

[M1903A1]

Originally Posted by WhiteMamba

How were CC's viewed before the 60's? Anyone around here old enough to remember? We're they seen as anything special before the embargo?

Absolutely they were, though of course they didn't have the "forbidden fruit" air about them. I remember some of my father's comments about Cuban cigars (he started smoking cigars in the years before the embargo), and as a passing element of historical research I've noticed advertisers' emphasis on Cuban cigars, or at least Cuban tobacco. Realize that there were something like 920 different brands of cigars made in Cuba before the embargo...granted, many of them were regional, city-specific, or even neighborhood-specific within Cuba, but at the same time many of the marcas were American-owned and targeted at the American market.