Stogies find favor with KU students
By Kevin Bates
By Kevin Bates Special to the Kansan
Students are lighting up more than ever before. Cigars, that is.
Cigar smoking, historically an elite and sophisticated leisure activity, is enjoying a comeback with a younger, more everyday crowd as students find that cigars suit their tastes.
"I've been smoking for about five months now," said Eric Neuteboom, Colorado Springs, Colo., freshman. "Ilike cigars, pipes and cigarettes, but cigars are my favorite."
Students see cigar smoking as a social activity and an opportunity to relax and enjoythemselves.
"I'll have one in the evening after a big test just to relax, or sometimes I have one just for the hell of it," said Neuteboom. "I'll smoke with a friend or two but not with a big group. A small group is more intimate and enjoyable. There's less chance of a strong objection to it."
Doug Dean, co-owner of Doug & George's Afternoon Pipe Shop, 727 Massachusetts St., said that about 200 students pass through his doors each week.
cigars, Dean said.
"Cigars have been going through the roof for the last two years," Dean said. The store sells about 500 cigars every month, and the popular ones come mostly from countries such as Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines. One type of cigar from Connecticut, the only high-selling U.S. cigar, is Dean's number-four seller. His second and third best sellers are Honduran and Dominican
But the most popular kind of cigar happens to be illegal — Cuban cigars. They have been illegal to buy or sell in the United States for more than 30 years. But Dean has connections.
Steve Puppe / KANSAN
"I work the gray areas," Dean said. "Two or three times a year, I go down to Fort Lauderdale to meet with a couple Honduran friends of mine, and I front them half the money for my next shipment. These cats ship the Cuban tobacco to their farm in Honduras, roll the cigars there and put their own stamp on them."
What the customer gets, Dean said, is a Cuban cigar with a Honduran seal. That keeps Dean out of the law's grasp.
U. S. Customs Agent Jim Lewis said Dean was skirting the law and that the whole process still was illegal.
"If the tobacco was grown in Cuba, then it's illegal to sell it here," Lewis said. But he said the law did get ambiguous because the tobacco undergoes a substantial transformation on the way from Cuba to the United States.
"When the tobacco goes to Honduras to be processed into cigars and stamped there, the question then becomes whether or not it is now a product of Cuba or of Honduras," Lewis said. "We get cases like this all the time."
Although less common and more expensive, students don't have trouble finding Cuban cigars.
Doug Dean and George, co-owners of Doug and George's Afternoon Pipe Shop, 727 Massachusetts St., take a break to smoke
"If you've made the right connections, you can get your pleasure," said Matt Roth, Manhattan, Kan., senior. "Any tobacco shop
worth anything has them."
But that pleasure can be costly. Dean's so-called "Cuban" cigars cost $2 to $3 each, depending on the width and the length of the cigar. But prices can run as high as $20 to $30, depending on the brand and age, he said. The taste and smell of a cigar is its signature, Dean said. Each one is different. The main characteristics to notice are color and width. Light-colored cigars have the mildest
their pipes in front of their store. The store sells about 500 cigars a month. Cuban cigars are the most popular.
taste.
Dean said a cigar's taste gets stronger as the cigar darkens. A light green cigar will go easy on the palate, but a dark brown, almost black, cigar will pack a wallop, he said. He also said the diameter of the cigar determines the intensity of smoke in each puff.
Favorite brands vary as much as the smokers themselves. Roth's preference, a Macanudo Portofino, costs about $6 a cigar.
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