qmech wrote:A number of the sticks listed here faded into obscurity while others still linger.
Lotsa boom stuff there ... during the 90s, there was such high demand relative to supply, that everyone and his brother (including Chuck Norris) rushed to get into the cigar biz ... even the best companies were hard pressed to even remotely keep up ... being an agricultural product that takes several years to mature, there was a lot of planting going on, but not a lot of harvesting ... the demand for ANY tobacco leaves was through the roof ...
Many of the brands mentioned in this thread were stuff that would never have been on the market had that boom not taken place ... once the 'trendiness' of cigar smoking faded, there were a lot of those low quality brands available, while reliable makers were ramping up ... it's difficult now to imagine how it was at the time, since the goofy stuff fell away and we're left with more quality cigars on the market than at any time before in history.
Now, the FDA has joined the fun ... and, as with anything else, the government blunders along on the pretext they know what's best for all of us ... they're forcing good makers to reduce and limit good product and forcing up prices for every thing else on the market .. it's a real sh*t sandwich when you consider what we had for the last 10 or so years ...