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--A box of Obama Presidential Series 44 cigars, made in honor of President Barack Obama, lays on a table at the Segovia Cigars tobacco company in Esteli, Nicaragua, Feb. 4. The Corona, California, based-Granada 1524 Cigars company hired Nicaragua's Segovia Cigars to produce the Obama series which retails for between $15 and $20 a cigar, depending on the size.
--Tobacco workers pack boxes with Obama Presidential Series 44 cigars, made in honor of President Barack Obama, at the Segovia Cigars tobacco company in Esteli, Nicaragua. . . .
--Miguel Ramirez, a partner of the tobacco company Granada 1524 and a descendant of African slaves, smokes an "Obama Presidential Series 44 cigar" made in honor of President Barack Obama in Esteli, Nicaragua.
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US President Barack Obama has spawned a host of commercial spin-offs from t-shirts and headbands to toilet seat covers But now here's one that may make the former chain smoker himself see red.
It's a line of cigars manufactured in Nicaragua for an US based company.
The company has shipped 20,000 Obama Presidential Series 44 cigars into the US after Obama's historic win.
It's already a hit among smokers.
While U.S. President Barack Obama tries to kick an old smoking habit, a Nicaraguan company has produced the latest in a flood of merchandise trying to cash in on his popularity -- "Obama" cigars.
Granada Cigars, a small outfit based in Nicaragua's tobacco-growing north, is using local and Cuban leaves to hand-roll cigars wrapped with a gold band that says "Obama 44," to commemorate the 44th U.S. president.
The cigars come in various sizes and strengths and the company says some 13,000 have been ordered so far across the United States.
Europe's largest cigar manufacturer, Scandinavian Tobacco Group, said on Thursday it had bought two family-owned cigar factories in Central America for an undisclosed sum to expand its global footprint.
The factories are in Danli, in Honduras, and Esteli, in Nicaragua
Anti-smoking advocates are burning mad at Grand Valley State University administrators' disregard of an Ottawa County law that puts puffers 25 feet away from building doors.
And with public pressure mounting from students and county leaders, it may be a short-lived dispute, even as the university maintains it is not bound by the smoking prohibition.
The school began taking heat Wednesday after the student newspaper, The Lanthorn, reported GVSU maintained it did not have to follow the county's workplace smoking ban, which took effect Jan. 1.
Hurricane Felix struck Nicaragua as a Category 5 storm yesterday . . .
Despite the power of the storm, its impact on Nicaragua's cigar industry appears to be minimal. Cigar production in the country is concentrated in EstelÃ, much farther south, where little of the storm's strength was felt.
The biggest concern for the Nicaraguan cigar industry were the tobacco fields of Jalapa, which were close to the storm's impact zone in the north, near the border of Honduras.
"Jalapa's OK -- no problems," said Jorge Padrón, president of Padrón Cigars Inc., which uses tobacco from across Nicaragua.
Government officials and industry leaders say thousands of jobs are at risk in Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic because of U.S. legislation that would hike taxes on cigars to help fund an expansion of children's health insurance.
A $10 cigar, for example, would go from incurring a few pennies in U.S. excise taxes to $3 under a Senate bill. Price hikes for the cigars of 30 to 40 percent would be devastating, industry officials argue, because many consumers will simply stop buying cigars.
Far-reaching effects
The worry has spread to the small towns of Nicaragua's tobacco country, which exported 56 million cigars to the U.S. last year. Employees quiz their bosses daily on the U.S. proposal and make plans if their jobs disappear.
Nicaragua's legislature, the National Assembly, on Thursday issued a declaration objecting to a planned U.S. tax on premium cigars.
The measure would raise the price of cigars from five cents to 10 U.S. dollars for each puro; hitting the tobacco industry in Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic.
Freddy Torres, a member of the assembly's economic commission, said that the declaration calls on the U.S. legislature to reconsider the measure.
"This measure will prejudice thousands of workers in the tobacco growing and cigar making industry," Torres said. "The U.S. Congress and Senate should recognize the damage this measure does to Nicaragua in its fight against poverty," he added.
While cigar rollers work in his factory in Estelí, José Orlando Padrón checks the aroma of a sample of tobacco. He is credited with helping to put Nicaragua on the map when it comes to tobacco, though his business has suffered from hurricanes and politics. . . .
Mr. Padrón’s company has grown steadily over the years, as has its reputation. Industry experts regularly give his full-bodied cigars some of their highest ratings. In Cigar Aficionado magazine’s latest ranking of the 25 best cigars in the world, the Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series Exclusivo was No. 3, behind a Dominican and a Cuban.
“It teems with flavor from the first puff, and the carefully cured tobaccos remain tasty and elegant until the very last,” the magazine said.
Mr. Padrón is credited with helping to put Nicaragua on the map when it comes to tobacco. With the United States trade embargo on Cuba restricting access to its cigars, the hunt for other quality locales has been fierce. . . .
Mr. Padrón scoffs at the health notices he is now required to put on the boxes warning that cigars carry the same cancer risks as cigarettes.
One warning: There is no such thing as a no-smoking section in Nicaragua. Ashtrays sit on every table, counter and desk while children roam everywhere carrying baskets full of cigarettes for 1 cordoba, or about 7 cents. [This graph only]
Nicaragua's oldest cigar company has an entirely new taste. Joya de Nicaragua was created in Nicaragua's first cigar factory, which opened in 1964. In the glory days of the 1970s, the brand was arguably the finest in the world, smoked in the White House and prized for its rich flavor. After war decimated Nicaragua, however, and the original factory burned to the ground, Joya de Nicaragua struggled to regain its former glory. In recent years, the brand has taken on a mild, easygoing flavor. Responding to the trend toward full-flavored cigars and looking at its own heritage as a producer of powerful smokes, the brand's makers have created a new version called Joya de Nicaragua Antaño 1970.