Canadian buying Cuban Cigars and Rum – Questions…?
Hi there,
I’m a Canadian travelling to Holguin, Cuba for vacation at a resort this Friday. Some friends want me to pick up some genuine Cuban cigars (Sancho Panza Coronas and Montecristo No. 4 Marevas) and Rum. I have a few questions:
- Where should I buy the cigars? Do they charge you a lot more at the airport for them? How much approx. should they cost?
- How many boxes of cigars am I allowed to bring back to Canada? Does it matter if I have a receipt?
- How many litres or bottles of Rum can I bring back?
Thanks in advance everyone!!!
I believe it’s 50 cigars and1.5 litres of rum, but I usually bring back 2 bottles with no problem. Check the Canada customs site below it should fill you in. I’m off to Rio Luna y Mares, holguin on November 30. enjoy yourselves, if it’s your first visit chances are you will be back. Don’t buy on the beach, but at a real cigar store there will be one at your resort. Prices at the airport won’t be cheaper. They aren’t cheap either although cheaper than what you would pay at home.
Actor from Canada discovers wine in a bag and Cuban Cigars
Those who know their cigars well also, by that same token, know Brazil-albeit as a source of great tobacco rather than as a top cigar-producing nation. Brazilian tobacco, mainly produced in the country’s temperate northeastern and southern regions, turns up in such world-class cigars as Carlos Torano’s Toro, but the country’s cigar producers themselves haven’t always gotten the same respect. But that may be about to change. After all, Brazilian cigars-including the Angelina, Dannemann and Dannemann, Le Cigar, Don Pepe, Dom Porfirio, and Dona Flor (named for Jorge Amado’s classic novel Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands)-have already convinced many US cigar aficionados that this country’s cigars are as good as its tobacco.
But Brazil’s own rich history-and its sure-to-be-turbulent future-make it an important place for cigar smokers to understand. How has one of the world’s important tobacco-producing nations come to be the home of one of the strongest anti-smoking movements in the Western Hemisphere? And will these two opposing tendencies continue, uneasily, to coexist? Only a prophet could say-but perhaps a brief backgrounder on this Latin American nation can provide some helpful context.
The first thing to know about Brazil is that it’s big-in resources, landmass, and people. It’s the fifth-largest country in the world, and the fifth most populous. Among the world’s pro forma democracies, it ranks fourth in population size, and it controls a powerful economy, ranking ninth in the world in purchasing power. It’s a diverse country, too, with one hundred-eighty-eight living languages, and, interestingly enough, the world’s largest confirmed reserve of uncontacted peoples-small pre-industrial tribes that, for all practical purposes, have stayed sealed off from the rest of the world. In this single nation, then, an ultramodern economy exists side-by-side with some of the world’s last refuges of pre-industrial life, and gleaming cities (Sao Paulo and Brasilia) share the same boundary with huge swaths of rainforest.
What kind of culture does such a diverse country produce? Well-a similar situation produced artistic riches for the United States, and things are hardly any different for Brazil. Consider tropicalismo, one of the country’s major artistic exports. This musical movement, spearheaded by the legendary band Os Mutantes and the singer-songwriters Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and manic genius Tom Ze among others, fuses all the diverse musics of this country (along with a hefty dose of Bob Dylan, Velvet Underground and jazz) to create some of the best-regarded music of the 1970s. Whatever political and logistical headaches it may pose, such bursting-at-the-seams diversity is good fortune for any artist lucky enough to benefit from it.
Like many Latin American countries (and like the US), Brazil was originally the colony of an ambitious European nation-in this case, Portugal. Led by its Portuguese-born regent, Pedro I, the country won its independence in 1822. What followed was a long power struggle between Pedro (eventually replaced by his son Pedro II), various rebelling factions of the population, and the country’s economically dominant classes, who found Pedro variously useful and irksome, depending on the situation. Following the deposition of Pedro II in 1889, the country became a republic; during the twentieth century, though, Brazil fell frequently to military coups, some of them (most infamously in 1964) made possible by covert US assistance. Its current relative freedom has lasted only since 1985.
Made up of twenty-six states and a federal district (think Washington, D.C.), the country’s exports include (among others) coffee, iron ore, ethanol, textiles, shoes, and cars. With a major modernizing initiative underway-in 2007, the country’s government, under President Luis Ignacio DaSilva, dedicated three hundred billion dollars to renovating power plants, roads and ports-Brazil clearly intends to keep those exports booming. Including tobacco? Well-that’s dicier. Brazil is incredibly rich in natural resources, but that rainforest shrinks every day. The resulting controversy raises issues for tobacco farmers: only a sustainable ecology will ensure that Brazil continues to yield those fine tobacco crops, and yet some sustainability measures may threaten farmers’ short-term profits (small farmers, many of them, and small profits). It’s a difficult balance.
More threatening, perhaps, for those of us who value Brazil’s contribution to cigar culture, is the strength of its anti-smoking movement. The country has some of the toughest anti-smoking laws in the world, funnels large amounts of money into anti-tobacco campaigns, and forbids tobacco-products advertising in any form. Still, the total number of smokers grew slightly during the past decade. Some business experts forecast that the country’s tobacco industry will have to get used to a shrinking overall population of smokers, and concentrate instead on increasing brand value, making better and safer products. Cigars, designed to be used in moderation and savored, may well flourish in this environment. At any rate, the reported use of genetically-modified tobacco crops in the country’s southern region suggests that tobacco-related controversies will continue in Brazil.
About the Author:
CigarFox
provides you the opportunity to build your own sampler of the finest cigars that include cigar brands like Montecristo, Romeo & Julieta, H Upmann, Macanudo, Cohiba, Partagas, Gurkha and many more. Choose from more than 1200 different cigars! Other cigar products include cigar humidors, cigar boxes, and cigar accessories like Zippo Lighters.
I went on a trip to Europe this past spring break, and while there I bought a pack of Villiger Filtered Vanilla cigarillos, and I’ve been rationing them ever since coming back. Now that I’m down to three, I want to buy another pack, but nowhere in my city sells them.
I was looking online and there are other types I’m interested in trying (5 1/2″ Honey cigarillos that come in packs of 25) but I can’t find a site online that ships to Canada, and I can’t find a site that will for the other cigarillos I want.
If anyone knows of either a Canadian store or one that will ship here without charging me $50 for shipping, please help!
They’re in Vancouver, they don’t ship across Canada..
In Canada we have warning pictures on our cigarette packages. Is this the case in the USA?
There are pictures of diseased organs and horrifying statistics. Do you think this would work too with fast\junk foods? Have a heart with clogged arteries or a morbidly obese person on a bag of chips?
A picture of a big fat fanny in stretch pants on your bag of dorito’s would that work to turn you off the chips?
Mweller ha ha ha that is so funny. My little brain is just catching up and I get it now.
No pictures on the smokes — although I think I’d need one after seeing a cancerous lung. “SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy”
As far as warning’s on junk foods — all you have to do is LOOK at people. We do what we want to at the time, and ignore the consequences…
Stop smoking – Canadian cigarette package warning pictures – Dimmu Borgir Perfection or Vanity
would i get in trouble for buying cigars in duty free in europe then flying to canada. im 14.?
buying them isint the problem. but im worried i might get caught. i would say there a gift, they actually are a gift for my cousin.
I dunno how you can say you won’t have a problem buying cigars as you have to be 18 in order to do so and you must show your passport and a boarding pass if you are buying them in Duty Free.
Otherwise, it is not illegal to possess them – only to buy them.
I have just ordered 40 toro sized cigars from the U.S, does anyone know how much tobacco tax i have to pay?
I live in Victoria (Australia)and am knew to online ordering from the U.S(L.Lynn cigars)
If you owe any tax at all it would be to Australia as far as I know you do not have to pay an export tax. I would check the tobacco laws or import laws. Hope this helps.
CIGAR, SMOKING; WITH FRANCE BLUE HAT, FRANCE BLUE T-SHIRT OF SURF, AND TANGO: ” VICTORIA “
One day a man, who had been stranded on a deserted island for over 10 years, saw a speck on the horizon. He thought to himself, “It’s certainly not a ship.” And, as the speck got closer and closer, he began to rule out the possibilities of a small boat and even a raft.
Suddenly, there emerged from the surf a figure wearing a black wet suit.
The swimmer put aside the scuba up to the stunned man and said to him, “Tell me, how long has it been since you’ve had a cigarette?”
He takes one, lights it, and takes a long drag. “Wonderful!” said the man, “that’s so good! I’d almost forgotten how great a smoke can be!”
“And how long has it been since you’ve had a drop of good Scotch whisky?” asked the blonde.
Trembling, the castaway replied, “Ten years.”
Hearing that, the blonde reached over to her right sleeve and unzipped a pocket. Then she removed a flask and handed it to him.
He opened the flask and took a long drink. “It is nectar!” exclaimed the man.
“It is truly fantastic!!!”
At this point the gorgeous blonde started to slowly unzip the long front of her wet suit, right down the middle. She looked at the trembling man and asked,
“And how long has it been since you played around?”
With tears in his eyes, the man fell to his knees and sobbed, “Have mercy, woman! Don’t tell me you’ve got golf clubs in there, too!”
Funny story (2) Gimme
A young man, his father and grandfather were about to tee off to start their round when an incredibly goof-looking woman walked up to the tee box.
“Would you like to join us and make a foursome?” asked the grandfather.
“I would, but on one condition,” replied the lovely young woman, “I prefer to select my own clubs and make my own putts without advice from men. Every other time I’ve golfed with men, they try to give me advice. Will you agree not to give me advice?”
The men all consented in unison, none of them being particularly good players.
As they soon realized, this young woman was a fabulous golfer. She was getting par on every hole. The men were wondering who would have the nerve to give her advice!
On the eighteenth hole, the woman found herself facing a 35-foot putt, with a severe undulation on the green. She studied it, and studied it, and studied it.
Finally, she said, “Gentlemen, I’m very happy that none of you tried to give me advice before this. I’ve never played a round with men when at least one of them didn’t try to give me some advice. Right now, if I make this putt, I’ll have par for the course, and I’m asking for your advice. If you help me and I make this shot, I’ll sleep with each one of you!”
The young man rushed over, studied the putt, and said, “You have to aim for that small bush to the left of the hole. That should be the right break!”
The father ran over and studied the putt, then said, “No, I think you should aim at the knot on the log to the left of the hole, and that will be the right break!”
The grandfather walked up to the ball. “Heck,” he said, calmly picking up the ball, “that’s a gimme.”
About the Author:
Common mistake young players make – if they hit the ball hard they think it will go far.
Looking for a place that is CLEAN and not shotty or ghetto. Reputable business that sells lots of Cigars and cigar cutters, lighters, and other accessories.
Best answer with maybe a link gets 5 stars.
There is a La Casa del Habano in the Bloor-Yorkville area. Yitzes Deli (really!) has a decent selection & they’re on Eglinton. Correnti’s on W. King (they roll their own) and Thomas Hinds on Cumberland. There are other places that sell them, but these are the ones that I have been to.
The making of Cuban cigar by Andrea Calunga live during Havana Cultura festival 2009 in Toronto
