In 1963 the US placed sanctions on the Cuban government, making it illegal to import Cuban cigars. To get around it the US simply imported Cubans, to make the cigars in the US. Nowhere is this more evident than in Miami.
Miami has a very 'south of the border' feel, especially if you get away from South Beach, and come further inland. Our hotel wasn't far away from Little Havana, and I managed to find some details on a cigar shop so Dan dropped by to grab some to share round at Club.
Walking in the door the room is thick with smoke and the overly zealous salesman (who is obviously a fast talker and good at his job) offers you a cigar (ahh, no thanks) or some Cuban coffee (no on that front either).
There's a poker game going on down in the wine selling part, where the smoke is so thick you'd need a knife to get in.
And to me the whole place smells right off the smell-o-metre. (I have an incredibly strong sense of smell, more sensitive than your average person by far... apparently it is not unexpected in people who have lots of food chemical intolerance.)
I did find different parts of the shop smelt differently and I found a corner that was a bit more sweet smelling that I could tolerate.
There are just shelves and shelves of different types of cigars. As you'd expect I guess.
Here's the little area where they hand roll the cigars.
And I guess the Cuban hand rolling them.
She's smoothing out the tobacco leaves (and chatting to her friend who was sitting there with her. I'm sure they have someone there all the time so the friendly salesman can tell you to go down and look at the cigars being handmade), wetting her hands and then smoothing them and keeping them all roughly the same shape. She also pulled out the stringy bits.
Dan did buy some, not the pack of 100 they were trying to sell him.
I don't know if they were good or not when they smoked them, he didn't tell me.
It took a looooooooong time to get the smell of that place out of my nose.
Miami has a very 'south of the border' feel, especially if you get away from South Beach, and come further inland. Our hotel wasn't far away from Little Havana, and I managed to find some details on a cigar shop so Dan dropped by to grab some to share round at Club.
Walking in the door the room is thick with smoke and the overly zealous salesman (who is obviously a fast talker and good at his job) offers you a cigar (ahh, no thanks) or some Cuban coffee (no on that front either).
There's a poker game going on down in the wine selling part, where the smoke is so thick you'd need a knife to get in.And to me the whole place smells right off the smell-o-metre. (I have an incredibly strong sense of smell, more sensitive than your average person by far... apparently it is not unexpected in people who have lots of food chemical intolerance.)
I did find different parts of the shop smelt differently and I found a corner that was a bit more sweet smelling that I could tolerate.There are just shelves and shelves of different types of cigars. As you'd expect I guess.
Here's the little area where they hand roll the cigars.
And I guess the Cuban hand rolling them. She's smoothing out the tobacco leaves (and chatting to her friend who was sitting there with her. I'm sure they have someone there all the time so the friendly salesman can tell you to go down and look at the cigars being handmade), wetting her hands and then smoothing them and keeping them all roughly the same shape. She also pulled out the stringy bits.
Dan did buy some, not the pack of 100 they were trying to sell him.
I don't know if they were good or not when they smoked them, he didn't tell me.
It took a looooooooong time to get the smell of that place out of my nose.
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