Macanudo: Basic Instinct

Despite numerous and rather significant changes that have been made to the Macanudo cigars in the course of their history, loyalty to traditions remains the fundamental principle of this brand. This contradictory combination seems almost unlikely; but looking at the booming sales of these cigars and speaking of the customers’ affection and trust, you start believing in the impossible, whether you want to or not.

The history of Macanudo cigars does not fit well with the idea of the classical history of a cigar brand creation. By the time they were officially born in 1925, these cigars had existed for almost sixty years already, although they had not been called Macanudos back then. They had no name at all, being a home-made product of a family of Cuban farmers, who used tobacco from a tobacco estate and factory called Temple Hall, which had been founded by several of their compatriots in Jamaica during the second half of the 19th century. The traces of the Macanudo cigars’ pre-history are preserved on their vista as an indication of the year of the estate foundation, 1868, and letters PP: one of them stands for the last name of the manufacturers of the future Macanudo cigars, the Policio family, and the other, the first letter of the first name of these cigars—Punch Macanudo. The Policios were manufacturing the famous Punch cigars at that time and, to all appearances, made up their minds not to take risks by marketing an unheardof product but to improve its profile by means of a popular brand. So, up until the Cuban revolution, these cigars were manufactured under a double name. Even the box for new cigars was made to resemble the traditional Punch box as much as possible.

Macanudo’s heyday began in the mid-1920’s, when Cuba was going through a difficult time: General Gerardo Machado-i-Morales, a cruel dictator, came to power in the country. Though eventually he was overthrown and exiled, his rule was in full swing in 1925, and the Policios thought prudently that their business would gain from their good relations with the president. As any Cuban, the General was a cigar aficionado, and even owned a tobacco factory of his own, so it was easy to please him. A small cigar, 4.5 inches long, that fully suited his taste, was created specially for President Machado. The status of the novelty—after all, the cigars were intended for the President— did not allow it to remain anonymous and at the same time prompted a decent name for it. Cigars for President Machado were called Macanudo, which means ‘wonderful, splendid’ in the Argentine dialect of the Spanish language. (By the way, the well-known aphorism concerning the direct relation between the ship’s name and its subsequent fate was fully confirmed in the case with Macanudo: they are the bestselling cigars on the market now and topped the list of worldwide annual sales in 2004 and 2005.)

The Macanudo series had greatly expanded over several years, and by the early 1930’s the brand was popular far beyond Cuba. The United Kingdom became the principal market for the Macanudo cigars, just like the majority of other Cuban cigars. This fact determines the selection of names for the Macanudo formats: almost all of them—Ascots, Duke of Devon, Duke of Wellington, Duke of Windsor, Duke of York, Hampton Court, Hyde Park, Prince of Wales, Prince Philip—are to some extent associated with Great Britain. That’s why the beginning of WWII, the introduction of so-called dollar control in the UK and a ban on the import of non-staples, including cigars, hit the Policios hard. Then, one of the first global changes occurred in Macanudo’s history: production of these cigars was fully relocated to Jamaica, which was part of the British Empire back then and, consequently, of the pound sterling area. This way, the Macanudos preserved their status, whereas other brands found themselves in dire straits. Manufacturers tried to keep the properties and quality of these cigars unchanged, as though they were still manufactured in Cuba. An inscription appeared on the vista, which informed the buyer that Macanudo was manufactured in Jamaica, while emphasizing that they were produced under the control of the manufacturers of Punch Cuban cigars.

A new shock was in store for the Macanudo in the late1950’s when, under pressure from Fidel Castro, who came to power, the Policios had to sell—under the pretext that Macanudo were not manufactured in Cuba—the brand to the Jamaican factory of Temple Hall named after the estate on which the cigars had come into being. But soon the brand was re-sold: this time, to General Cigar & Co. Initially, in 1964, General Cigar acquired rights to the popular brand and then, five years later, purchased the Temple Hall factory itself.

At the Peak of Glory

Once Macanudo became the property of General Cigar, this well-known brand entered a new phase of success. Even though Macanudo’s consistent quality and taste had always been the focus of attention of their manufacturers, General Cigar turned them into the fundamental principle of their work. They have concentrated above all on extended double ageing of tobacco and verifying the conformity of each rolled cigar with the established high quality standards. Moreover, the new brand owners closely followed the cigar trends and changes in the smoker tastes and offered a Macanudo series to suit those tastes. A year after General Cigar had become the sole owner of the brand, in 1970, the Macanudo portfolio (that had comprised only one series, Classic Macanudo, or Macanudo Cafe prior to that) was supplemented with the Macanudo Maduro series. Still, they were not very strong, but their flavor became richer and more exquisite.

Simultaneously, the demand for Macanudo products increased so much that the Jamaica-based factory was unable to meet it, so they had to relocate part of the cigar production facilities to the Dominican Republic. The decision to move was also made easier due to the fact that the political situation in Jamaica during that period was very unstable, and things could go sour at any time.

During the same period, in the 1970’s, General Cigar started using Connecticut wrapper for Macanudo series production. In combination with the filling made of Dominican, Mexican, Honduran and Nicaraguan tobaccos, it provided a basis for a new Macanudo series that hit the market in the late 1970s. The issue of the Macanudo Vintage limited cigar series in 1979 came as the first new important market event. That year, the tobacco harvest in the Connecticut River valley was as good as ever, and General Cigar resolved to make use of it to create something special. Then two more series of Macanudo Vintage were produced, in 1993 and 1997, and since then the vintage Macanudo have been manufactured twice a decade. The premium tobacco quality guaranteed a sophisticated and rich taste for these cigars, which made specialists say they that were one of the best cigars ever made.

In 1990, following in the wake of the demand for stronger cigars, General Cigar presented the new Macanudo Maduro series. To make them, they used the Connecticut Broadleaf, an oilier, darker and richer tobacco than the one used in the first issue of the Macanudo Maduro series. However, they were still medium-strength cigars. The consumers appreciated General Cigar’s efforts, and in 1990 the Macanudo became the best seller on the U.S. cigar market, having gained the lead in sales.

At last, in 1998, another novelty was presented to admirers of the brand—the first really strong Macanudo Robust cigars, with the dark wrapper made of the Connecticut Shade tobacco. The dark Connecticut Broadleaf was also used as the binding leaf. The strength of the new cigars did not make the manufacturers dump their principles, and the series was blended so as to preserve the non-harsh and well-balanced taste typical of all cigars of the brand.

New changes occurred in Macanudo at the turn of the century. In 1999, General Cigar began a merger process with the Swedish Match, a tobacco company with a centennial history. In 2005, this merger was completed, and the brand was now owned by the Swedish Match.

Main Man

Just like any other respectable cigar brand, Macanudo has its main man, who makes sure the cigars are what they are. The main man in Macanudo is called Daniel Nunez, and his life is as exciting as his personal cigar philosophy that looks more like a cigar religion.

Unlike many other cigar celebrities, Nunez was not born on a tobacco field, but rather joined this business almost accidentally. His family, living not far from the Dominican town of  Moca, had a small land plot planted with tobacco, but their core business was ribwort cultivation. A farmer’s career did not appeal to young Daniel, but he didn’t get a chance to study at the comprehensive school, either, since civil war broke out in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s, and going to a public school became unsafe. The only way out was to go to a vocational school specializing in agriculture. Nunez worked his way up at school and got a grant to continue his studies at the University of Texas. When he went to Texas with one hundred dollars in his pocket and without any English, Nunez did his best to become successful in the profession he chose. As early as 1972, he started working at a tobacco plantation growing the famous Piloto Cubano for the Dominican Tobacco Institute, and a couple of years later he was hired by General Cigar.

Since then, the entire life of Daniel Nunez became one big lesson where he gained insights into the subtleties of the cigar science. His teachers included such gurus of the cigar world as Ramon Sifuentes, who patiently made Daniel roll the cigars until they no longer resembled frankfurters, and Alfons Meyer who had been purchasing tobacco worldwide for Macanudo for a long time and who taught Nunez to select tobacco leaves for future cigars. At the same time, he studied the basics of marketing to understand better what happens to cigars after they have been packed into boxes and sent to the consumers. In twenty years, Daniel Nunez had studied all the cigar production stages, beginning with seed selection to exports arrangements.

Nunez is now one of the most important and indispensable people for Macanudo. His duties include harvest monitoring at the Connecticut estate, inspections at three cigar factories, tobacco purchasing and grading management, and a bunch of other things that are rarely overseen by anyone in particular. In addition, he has developed a unique tobacco ageing concept for the Macanudo— Winter Sweat cigars that has secured an unsurpassed taste to these cigars for many years.

The essence of the Winter Sweat process consists in the double fermentation of tobacco in different climatic conditions. In autumn, the Connecticut Shade wrapper graded in the Dominican Republic is packed in bales and sent back to its native land, the Connecticut River valley, to mature in the familiar cool climate for seven months. In spring, the tobacco is sent to the Dominican Republic where ageing and fermentation continue for twelve more months. Owing to such a complicated and expensive process, the tobacco intended for the Macanudo cigars loses moisture gradually and ages better, without losing its natural soft taste and flavor.

It is hard to believe that one person can do it all, especially since he is also in charge of Macanudo blending. It is namely Nunez who created all those novelties that made the brand the world’s tobacco market leader. But, being a living legend of the cigar world and vested with a great power, Daniel Nunez treats tobacco with the same awe as in his youth. All his love and care for show in a few he once said in his interview: “I have always tried to find my calling. I realized that tobacco is very complex, it never forgives or forgets mistakes, and it never gives you a break. And I was captivated by it.”

Macanudo Café
It is a fragrant mixture of Dominican and Mexican tobaccos with the Connecticut Shade wrapper. It is distinguished by a well-balanced soft taste with well-defined cedar and herbal touches and a creamy flavor.

Macanudo Maduro
Rich blending of Dominican and Mexican tobaccos with a specially selected Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. A soft mixture of spice and pepper, with a light sweetish flavor and slight overtone of chocolate at the end are felt in the taste. Despite the dark wrapper, these are medium-strength cigars.

Macanudo Robust
The blending of these cigars is based on the mixture of Dominican, Honduran and Nicaraguan tobaccos with the Connecticut Broadleaf binding leaf and the Connecticut Shade wrapper. The spice overtones are distinctly felt in the taste and flavor. This is the only strong cigar in the Macanudo series.

Macanudo Vintage 2000
The Connecticut Shade Vintage Selection 2000 wrapper combined with the Mexican binding leaf secure a truly rich flavor to this cigar. Cedar and fried bread overtones can be easily felt in the taste.

Cigar Clan 6'2008, vol.1.