Smoke Inn Blog
Home of the Puro
Most of you have no doubt heard of puro cigars by now. The puro or “pure” cigar is a premium cigar which is hand rolled from tobacco sourced from a single nation. Once upon a time, almost all cigars were technically puros. Cuba was the center of global cigar production, and as the film mentions in the opening chapter, Cuba is where the puro name and legend originated. In the late 1800s through the first half of the 20th century, the world’s finest cigars came only from Cuba. Other countries grew tobacco and rolled cigars as well, but there was little of the expertise and tradition found in Cuba, so the quality could be more than a little hit or miss. Any cigar with little to no Cuban tobacco was generally considered cheaper or low-grade.
The Original Puro Cigars of Cuba
The “puro” label evolved to differentiate those cigars which were rolled in Cuba with 100% Cuban tobacco from all the rest. For decades, that was one of the most reliable indicators for quality. Then came the Cuban Revolution that finally unseated Fulgencio Batista on December 31, 1958. It wasn’t long before Cuba and its people were thrown into turmoil. The famous Cuban cigar industry couldn’t escape the impact of this massive political upheaval.
As the state began to seize and nationalize all tobacco farms and cigar production, many of Cuba’s legacy cigar making families left the country to find their fortunes elsewhere. Some saw the trouble coming and left some years before this. The result was a fragmented cigar manufacturing infrastructure, but one that would grow into a mightier and more diverse craft industry than it ever was beforehand.
Possessed by the Devil
In talking about the famous Cuban puro cigar, the film shows street scenes of Havana interspersed with shots of classic Cuban architecture. We see the facades of the original headquarters of cigar giants like Partagas and Romeo y Julieta, with it’s ornate concrete datestone surrounded by scrollwork perched onto of their downtown Havana HQ built in 1909. The narrator talks about the history of cigars in Cuba. We hear about Columbus’ 1492 arrival on the island and learn that it was actually one of his crewmen, Rodrigo de Jerez, who first encountered the Taino people and their curious cigars.
Little did he know it, but he became the first European ever to smoke tobacco. At first many Spaniards were alarmed by the idea of inhaling smoke. It reminded some of the fires of hell and seemed demonic in nature. They relate a funny story about de Jerez smoking a cigar in front of his wife back in Spain after their return voyage. His wife, like the rest of Spain and Europe, had never seen someone smoke before. She panicked and told the Spanish Inquisition that her husband was possessed by the devil. That one cigar earned de Jerez 2 years behind bars in a Madrid prison.
Cuban Puro Cigars on Lock by the Spanish Crown
Of course, the Spanish realized smokers were not only free of devil possession, but there were really on to something. More and more people tried smoking tobacco. They soon learned the joys of the cigar life and so did the rest of the world. Demand for tobacco naturally followed and for a time, Cuba was the only place on Earth where Europe knew to find it. The Spanish Crown kept a tight grip on the tobacco trade for as long as they could. Tobacco was grown in Cuba, but the finally processing and production occurred in Spain.
Like any profitably commodity though, especially one as enjoyable as tobacco, no one country or kingdom could hold onto it all for long. Merchants, traders and tobacco farmers alike conspired against the crown to divert some Cuban tobacco to other nearby locations outside of the reach of the colonial powers and produced cigars and pipe tobacco there, mostly for use in the New World. The film makes it clear though, that tobacco really put Cuba on the map as far as the Old World colonial powers were concerned.
The People Behind the Puro
The documentary moves on to show traditional Cuban tobacco farming families. One unnamed man is interviewed and we learn about the challenges they face trying to produce tobacco using methods which have changed very little in more than 100 years. One enticing thing about this film is we see a lot more of Cuba than we are used to seeing. Watching the famers work and hearing about their time-honored techniques is very interesting stuff if you’re into cigar culture. Cuban tobacco farms and cigar production, like most of the rest of the country, looks a lot like a time capsule.
There is definitely something fascinating about watching a craft which is being done the way it has always been. This is one of our favorite things about cigars in general. Premium cigar production is very traditional and so much of the process is still done by hand. The focus is always on the soul of the final product and the experience it brings the smoker. Change is rarely introduced to the production of hand-rolled premium cigars unless it truly brings some kind of measurable improvement without compromising quality. We wish more things were still done this way. The rest of the world could probably learn a lot from the cigar industry and its respect for tradition.
A Closer Look at How a Cigar is Born
If you are truly interested in what goes into making your cigar like we are, you will find The Fabulous Story of Puro fascinating and you will likely come out of it knowing a lot more about the details of how tobacco is selected, cured and prepared for cigars. Even if you consider yourself very knowledgeable about cigars, we’d be willing to bet you will learn some surprising things here. You will also see how cigars are rolled. They don’t skip a thing here.
Every minute part of the process of growing and processing tobacco and hand rolling cigars the way it has been done in Cuba for centuries is covered in this film. The level of detail is exceptional. One of the things we liked most about the film, aside from the attention to detail, is the focus on people. There is great respect paid to the skill of everyone involved from the farmer to the master blender to the torcedores and torcedoras (cigar rollers) and everyone else who plays a role. There are few things produced in the modern world that get this kind of hands-on attention anymore and it’s a beautiful thing to see.
Review in Summary
We’d definitely recommend this documentary if you’re an aficionado and you are the kind of person who loves diving into the details and specifics of something you love. This isn’t a movie for amateurs or people with just a passing interest in cigars. You gotta love cigars to appreciate what they’ve done here. But if you do—and you like to nerd out a bit when it comes to acquiring knowledge, you’ll love it. If we have any criticisms, they are pretty minor.
First, it’s an older film, so don’t expect the modern polish and 4K resolution you saw in Hand Rolled. Think more something you’d catch on the History Channel on a Sunday afternoon and just get sucked in. You know, when the History Channel still showed documentaries about history instead of reality TV and God-knows-what. It’s professionally produced of course, just remember this is a 1995 documentary from Swiss and French TV. It’s not a product of the modern era, so the production values are different.
It’s no-nonsense, simple and to the point. There isn’t a lot of background music and the narrator is professional, but he’s not a celebrity or anyone you’ll recognize. The only other thing that left us wanting a bit was that they didn’t identify the people they interviewed, strangely. So, we don’t know the names of the farmers or most of the industry people they speak to. Minor point though, like we said. Overall, if you’re really into cigars, take 52 minutes out of your day to watch this, we promise you won’t regret it.
And…as always, if you’re local or happen to be visiting South Florida, be sure to reward yourself with a visit to one of the country’s best cigar shops in person. We’d love to see you.
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