The Purist Puffs On
The once red-hot cigar craze has finally burned itself out and many longtime cigar aficionados couldn’t be happier.
Sure, the craze gave the once-frowned-on habit newfound glamour. After all, Demi Moore, James Wood, Jack Nicholson and Claudia Schiffer all graced covers of glossy cigar magazines proudly puffing away on fat stogies.
At the height of the trend, cigar shops and smoking clubs were popping up around town as frequently as SigAlerts during rush hour. But cigar aficionados fumed when their favorite brands were suddenly in short supply, having been snapped up by Johnny-puff-latelies.
Popular brands like the Arturo Fuente double corona, a long cigar with an earthy cocoa bean flavor, were frequently out of stock. Same for the much sought-after La Gloria Cubana maduros, stubby cigars with a rich creamy taste and dark oily wrapper.
What’s more, the new demand pushed prices of $3 to $5 cigars up by at least $2 and forced some retailers to impose limits on the most sought-after brands. Longtime cigar lovers grumbled that their stylish pastime was being taken over by an unruly gang of novices who wouldn’t know a $9 Cohiba from a 30-cent White Owl.
“It was frustrating to walk into a cigar shop and learn that some of my favorite cigars were not only out of stock but were not expected to be available for six months to a year,” said Eric Rose, a 34-year-old Thousand Oaks public relations executive who has smoked an occasional cigar for 15 years.
Now that the craze is over, cigar aficionados like Rose are celebrating.
“The non-enthusiasts who were just blowing smoke to impress their friends have faded from view,” he said. “It’s great news.”
His favorite stogies--La Gloria Cubanas and Dunhills--are easier to find at tobacco shops and through mail-order Internet sites, he said.
No one can say for sure what sparked the cigar trend. It may have been a backlash to society’s increasingly puritanical attitudes toward health, or simply a reflection of good economic times. (Smokers shell out at least $6 for a good cigar, after all, and the accessories aren’t cheap either. Humidors start at $50, lighters cost about $12, and good cigar cutters start at $15.)
Then again, it may have been about the romance of the experience, about relaxing in a leather armchair, slowly drawing on a robust cigar, watching the smoke rings dissipate, imagining buying and selling corporations with a flick of an ash. Whatever the reason, the trend caught on big, particularly among Hollywood celebs, baby boomers and Gen-Xers.
Beginning in 1994, sales of premium import cigars began to take off, according to the Cigar Assn. of America. In 1995, sales jumped by 35%, then 68% in 1996.
At the height of the cigar fad, manufacturers couldn’t keep up with the demand, forcing many retailers to impose three-cigar-per-customer limits on the most popular brands.
The craze also sparked a record flurry of Cuban cigar smuggling. Cubans are widely considered to be the creme de la creme of the puros. According to the U.S. Customs Service, the seizure of Cuban cigars increased sixfold between 1993 and 1996.
Then cigar sales started to taper off.
In 1998, the market went flat. In the first 10 months of 1999, premium cigar sales dropped 20% compared to the same period in 1998.
“The dramatic increases of the past are no longer with us,” said Norman F. Sharp, president of the Cigar Assn. of America.
Sharp said California’s passion for cigars was cooled by Proposition 10, the initiative launched by director Rob Reiner to raise money for early childhood development programs by increasing the tax on cigarettes and cigars. The new tax increased the price of a $5 cigar to about $6.80. Any tobacco products in stock were subject to the higher tax when it took effect on Jan 1, 1999. Sharp estimated that 100 cigar shops went out of business after that.
After the tax measure passed, Carrie Aley, owner of Romeo et Juliette cigar shop in Seal Beach, posted a sign that read: “Liquidation Sale. Rob Reiner Taxed Me Out of Business.”
When she closed her shop, she let eight employees go. “I had a viable business,” she said angrily. “I was doing well and all of a sudden Proposition 10 hit.” (Proposition 28 on the March ballot would repeal the tax, although political analysts give it little chance of passing.)
Surviving retail outlets have a great selection of cigars--if smokers can afford the higher taxes.
“There is a much greater availability of the product than there was before,” said Larry Brown, owner of the Smoke N’ Stick shop in Granada Hills.
And gone are those annoying three-cigar-per-customer limits.
“I love it,” said Steve Garber, an attorney from Century City who has smoked cigars for about 10 years. “The fad is gone and now we can have what we want.”
When cigars became the rage, Garber said he gave up trying to find his favorite Arturo Fuente and Punch cigars at tobacco shops and instead ordered from out-of-state catalog companies, which also helped him avoid the state tobacco tax.
But some aficionados, like Cuban-born Armando Azarloza, 34, said cigars can lose their freshness when they are shipped across country from the East Coast. Azarloza, a Northridge public relations executive who likes to puff on a Romeo y Julieta or a Monte Cristo after a good meal, has been smoking for 10 years.
When he found his favorite brands in short supply, he said he searched around a bit. He often got lucky at out-of-the-way shops like Ugly Al’s Fine Cigars in Northridge, which eventually went out of business.
“If I’m going to smoke once a week, I want to smoke what I really like,” he said.
Now that the trend followers are gone, he can.
