Connecticut shade tobacco is a tobacco grown under shade in the Connecticut River valley of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and southern Vermont. It is used primarily for binder and wrapper for premium cigars, and is prized for its color and quality, its subtle sweetness and elegant, refined flavor.
Tobacco farming in the Connecticut River valley has a long history. When the first settlers came to the valley in the 1630s, tobacco was already being grown by the native population. The town of Windsor is the epicenter of the tobacco industry in Connecticut. The town was founded in 1633 and within seven years it was producing tobacco for personal use and profit. The tobacco being grown was for pipe use, brought up from Virginia since the tobacco variety found in the Connecticut Valley was not as delectable as the Virginian style. It was immediately apparent that the soil from the river, a rich sandy loam, and the hot and short summer of New England yielded an excellent crop each year. Approximately 34,000 acres (140 km2) of land in Connecticut is covered by Windsor Soil, named after the town of Windsor. [1]
Eventually, the popularity of cigars became greater than the pipe. Initially, a tobacco leaf type named Shoestring was grown. This was replaced by broadleaf tobacco, which was the variety that dominated the industry. It was in such high demand that during the Civil War the Connecticut Valley yielded up to ten million pounds per year. The fame of quality Connecticut tobacco was raved about throughout the settled regions of the United States. [2]
By 1700, tobacco was being exported via the Connecticut River to European ports. The use of Connecticut Valley tobacco as a cigar wrapper leaf began in the 1820s. Area farmers grew tobacco for the two outside layers of cigars, the binder and the wrapper. By the 1830s, tobacco farmers were experimenting with different seeds and processing techniques. [3] Knowing that they were not the only players in the cigar wrapper economy, farmers began planting a new tobacco species in 1875, the Havana Seed. This smooth, good-looking leaf yielded a higher percent of quality cigar wrappers.
Just a few decades later, in the late 19th century, a fine grained leaf type imported from Sumatra was adopted for growth in Connecticut.
The demand for high quality cigar wrapper was never ending. This pushed Connecticut growers and scientists to develop a leaf so smooth and golden that it would dominate the market. Farmers and scientists worked together to develop a hybrid to overcome competition from Cuba and Asia. Using over thirty samples from Cuba and Sumatra, Shade Tobacco was born in 1900, and the first shade-leaf tent was put up on River Street in Windsor. The shade tents made of cloth cut sunlight and raised humidity. [4]
The technique of growing shade tobacco has changed little in the past hundred years. To form the shade tents, a tobacco field is set with posts in a grid layout. Wires are stretched from post to post, and a light, durable fabric (once cotton but now a synthetic fiber) is tied across them and draped along the sides. For example, twenty posts in four rows of five will create twelve square cells in three rows of four. Under the tents the sunlight is soft and diffused, the air is humid, and the ambient temperature is slightly warmer than outside. Filtering the sun produces a thinner and more elastic tobacco leaf that cures to a lighter, even color often desired by the Cuban and Dominican cigar producers.
The 1920 Prohibition ceased legal sales of alcohol in Connecticut, and tobacco production consequently reached a peak in Connecticut. [5] At its height, there was greater than 20,000 acres (81 km2) of tobacco being cultivated under shade in the Connecticut Valley. In the mid-2000s, the amount of tobacco being grown in the valley was just over a steady 2,000 acres (8.1 km2). [4]
As a consequence of increased competition from growers of "Connecticut" wrapper in Central America, where production costs are substantially lower, a decreased demand for cigars generally, and an increase in the appeal of darker and thicker broadleaf tobacco wrappers, there has been a dramatic decline in shade tobacco production in the Connecticut River Valley. By 2011, plantings were down to about 700 acres a year, and by 2017 those plantings had further declined about 80%. [6] Also in 2017, one of the largest producers of shade grown tobacco, O.J. Thrall, placed over 300 acres of prime tobacco growing land up for sale. Pockets of the crop briefly remained in production in Connecticut towns such as Windsor, East Windsor, Suffield and Enfield. [6]
Windsor tobacco leaves in particular are highly prized by fine cigar makers, and are used as the cigar's outer wrapping. The former president of U.S. operations for Davidoff, a Swiss maker of luxury goods including premium cigars, praised Connecticut shade tobacco as "[a] nice Connecticut wrapper" and "very silky, very fine. From a marketing point of view”, and “one of the best tasting and looking wrappers available", in a 1992 Cigar Aficionado article on why many of the world's best cigars use Connecticut tobacco wrapper leaves. [3]
The 2019 generational novel "Old Newgate Road" by Keith Scribner is set in northern Connecticut with its culture of tobacco growing.
The 1952 novel East of Eden by John Steinbeck is set partially on a farm in Connecticut, where character Charles Trask improves the land in part by planting tobacco.
The 1958 novel and 1961 motion picture titled Parrish featured the shade tobacco industry in and around Hartford in the '40s and '50s. [7]
In the 2018 novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, the narrator works on a tobacco field in the Connecticut river valley: "The summer I turned fourteen I got my first job working tobacco on a farm outside Hartford." (p. 85) [8]
A cigar is a tobacco product made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of shapes and sizes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder leaf which holds the filler together, and a wrapper leaf, for appearance and flavor, which is often the highest quality leaf used. Often there will be a cigar band printed with the cigar manufacturer's logo. Modern cigars can come with two or more, highlighting special qualities such as age and origin of the tobaccos used.
Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population of Windsor was 29,492 at the 2020 census.
Cuban cigars are cigars manufactured in Cuba from tobacco grown within that island nation. Historically regarded as among the world's “finest”, they are synonymous with the island's culture and contribute nearly one quarter of the value of all exports from the country.
Arturo Fuente is a cigar brand founded by Arturo Fuente, Sr. in 1912 in West Tampa, Florida. Following a catastrophic fire in 1924, the brand had a production freeze for 22 years, reemerging in 1946 on a limited, local basis. Ownership was transferred to Arturo's younger son, Carlos Fuente, Sr. in 1958. Following the 1960 United States embargo of Cuba, the Fuente brand began a period of slow and steady growth, emerging as one of the most critically acclaimed makers of hand-rolled premium cigars outside of Cuba. As of 2010, the company was producing 30 million cigars per annum from its factory in the Dominican Republic.
Perique is a type of tobacco from Saint James Parish, Louisiana, known for its strong, powerful, and fruity aroma. When the Acadians made their way into this region in 1776, the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes were cultivating a variety of tobacco with a distinctive flavor. A farmer named Pierre Chenet is credited with first turning this local tobacco into what is now known as Perique in 1824 through the labor-intensive technique of pressure-fermentation. It is reported by authorities on tobacco that Perique is based on a variety of Red Burley leaf. The Tobacco Institute says perique has been shipped out of New Orleans for more than 250 years and is considered to be one of America's first export crops.
Don José "Pepin" Garcia is the CEO of El Rey de los Habanos, Inc, a cigar company in Miami, also known as My Father Cigars. He is a noted cigar maker living in Miami, Florida. Born in Cuba, he is a master cigar roller and blender, and the creator and maker of numerous popular cigar brands.
Tatuaje is a brand of handmade premium cigar owned by Tatuaje Cigars, Inc. It was founded by Pete Johnson, with the assistance of José Garcia. The cigars are manufactured at the El Rey de los Habanos factory in Miami, Florida, and at Tabacalera Cubana S. A. (TACUBA) in Estelí, Nicaragua. Tatuaje also has a Private Social Club called “Saints & Sinners” which was created in 2011. In 2011, Tatuaje created the private social club "Saints & Sinners".
The tobacco barn, a type of functionally classified barn found in the USA, was once an essential ingredient in the process of air-curing tobacco. In the 21st century they are fast disappearing from the landscape in places where they were once ubiquitous. The barns have declined with the tobacco industry in general, and U.S. States such as Maryland actively discourage tobacco farming. When the US tobacco industry was at its height, tobacco barns were found everywhere the crop was grown. Tobacco barns were as unique as each area in which they were erected, and there is no one design that can be described as a tobacco barn.
Corojo is a type of tobacco, primarily used in the making of wrappers for cigars. The variety was originally grown in the Vuelta Abajo region of Cuba but is today grown exclusively in the Jamastran valley of Honduras and in the United States in Western Kentucky.
Criollo is a type of tobacco, primarily used in the making of cigars. It was, by most accounts, one of the original Cuban tobaccos that emerged around the time of Columbus. The term means native seed, and thus a tobacco variety using the term, such as Dominican Criollo, may or may not have anything to do with the original Cuban seed nor the recent hybrid, Criollo '98.
Macanudo is a brand of cigar produced by the General Cigar Company in the Dominican Republic. It is noted for its mild flavor and light café Connecticut shade wrapper, but is also available in a darker maduro wrapper, catering to a range of preferences among cigar aficionados.
Piloto Cigars Inc. is a private company that produces the Padrón cigar brand from Nicaragua. Commonly known as Padrón Cigars, the company was founded in September 8, 1964, in Miami, Florida, by Cuban-native José Orlando Padrón. In 1970, Padrón moved the company to Estelí, Nicaragua.
This article contains a list of tobacco cultivars and varieties, as well as unique preparations of the tobacco leaf involving particular methods of processing the plant.
La Flor Dominicana is a "boutique-style" cigar brand The cigars were manufactured by Tabacalera La Flor S.A. and were first produced in Santiago, Dominican Republic in 1996. The company was founded by Litto Gomez, a former jeweler turned cigar maker and Ines Lorenzo.
Oliva Cigar Co. is the manufacturer of several brands of cigars primarily grown and produced in Nicaragua and sold internationally. Melanio Oliva began growing tobacco in Pinar del Río, Cuba, in 1886. In 1964, in the aftermath of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Melanio's grandson Gilberto Oliva emigrated with his family to Spain before eventually moving to Nicaragua and re-entering the tobacco business. In 1995, Gilberto and his son, Gilberto Jr., launched the Gilberto Oliva brand, which became Oliva Cigar Co. The company is currently based in Miami Lakes, Florida.
General Cigar Company is the largest manufacturer of premium cigars in the world. It is a subsidiary of Scandinavian Tobacco Group with North American headquarters located in Richmond, Virginia.
Agriculture played a major role in the early growth of Connecticut as one of the original 13 colonies that would form the United States of America, particularly in the Connecticut River valley which provides fertile soil, temperate climate and easy access to markets. As the Industrial Revolution helped focus capital on mercantile centers in the 19th century, Connecticut farmers over time ceded their relative economic and political influence.
Ecuadorian Sumatra Tobacco is a tobacco grown in Quevedo, a fertile sub-tropical region in Los Ríos Province, Ecuador, and is used primarily as a wrapper for premium cigars.
Sancho Panza is a cigar brand in Cuba dating from 1848, and still produced there by Habanos S.A., the Cuban state-owned tobacco company.
The Windsor Farms Historic District encompasses a large historically agricultural area and the historic town center of South Windsor, Connecticut. Its built environment extends mainly along Main Street, between Interstate 291 in the south and Strong Road in the north, with a diversity of architecture spanning three centuries. The district includes agricultural fields on both sides, many of which remain in tobacco cultivation. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)