PCA Magazine 2022 Show Issue

26 PCA The Magazine | VOLUME 2 2022 PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG a superstar. The cigar he lit was a Toscano. Eastwood would go on to smoke Toscanos throughout his spaghetti western career, at the insistence of Leone, who liked the image that a Toscano projected. One must admit, the cigars that gave theMan with No Name comfort through all of his conflicts did lend a certain unforgettable cachet. Millions of cigar lovers are deriving comfort fromToscano cigars to this day, as evidenced by the company’s output. Toscano says they are selling 230 million cigars worldwide every year, in 40 countries. Just seven years ago Toscano began distributing in the United States, where the brand lint Eastwood fans all remember the iconic character he created— the “Man with No Name”—and his distinctive, commanding way of riding into town in a series of Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. In particular, we remember the 1965 film For a FewDollars More . Eastwood’s entrance greets us with a foreboding crack of thunder. TheMan with No Name is ambling into an unfamiliar, unfriendly western dirt town, his horse striding by his side, as a deluge of rain cuts loose. It is a deliberately grungy, disagreeable-looking scene, but Eastwood, protected by hat and poncho, makes the most of it: He fishes around in his shirt pocket for a short, stubby cigar, which (since he is ultra-cool) Eastwood is able to light with a single match in the midst of a downpour. That too-cool, tough-guy image is what made Eastwood BY WI LL I AM C . NELSON The Blend C is growing its retail footprint every week. A Toscano cigar—known in the trade as “the Italian cigar”—is unlike anything else found in the average American humidor. For one thing, a Toscano needs no humidor. It is a dry cigar, kept pliable merely by dint of the essential oils and resins locked in during the company’s production process. You can toss a box of Toscanos into your backpack and hike the Appalachian Trail with no concern for keeping themmoist. Another distinction: The tobaccos used in Toscano cigars are 100 percent Kentucky-seed dark fire- cure. The spikey barbecue flavor that a Toscano delivers is a world apart from the familiar cream bombs coming out of the Dominican Republic. Most of the tobacco used in a Toscano cigar is grown and fire- cured in Italy, sourced principally in the regions of Veneto, Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio and Campania. About 30 percent of the leaf comes from Tennessee and Kentucky; but all of the tobacco in a Toscano cigar is of same basic type. The cigars contain no binder, which accounts for their rustic appearance and feel. Finished cigars are allowed to dry, fitted with a band, wrapped in cellophane and then placed in storage where they mature for four to 12months. Most are constructed of medium filler—and they are wrapped— entirely with Kentucky-seed fire-cure. The portion of leaf that comes from the U.S. is fired over hickory wood, which gives a mesquite-barbecue scent and flavor. The Italian-fired tobacco is cured over oak, which imparts more of a butteriness. (Hickory is not indigenous to Italy.) Toscano has been using both American- and Italian-fired leaf since the 1960s because the company desires the complexity that differentiated leaf flavors bring out. What all of this means is that, at least in the U.S. market, a Toscano can be something of an acquired taste. These are not mild-flavored Toscano: The Italian Cigar For Americans, Clint Eastwood made them sexy. Today’s cigar buyers are making them trendy.