Made in the Connecticut Shade…
The trend today is to dark cigars.
For most people, dark equals strong and strong equals good.
Leaving aside the whole issue of cigar strength, cigar flavor and the color of the cigar for another time — because it really isn’t as simple as it seems at first glance — I wanted to focus on a homegrown favorite that is being overlooked by many here in the United States. I’m talking about Connecticut, shade-grown wrappers.
The Connecticut shade leaf is still the wrapper of choice for many fine premium cigars such as Macanudo, Davidoff and Dunhill. It is pound for pound the most expensive tobacco leaf bought and sold. In fact, it is one of the most expensive agricultural products in the world. The reason is simple.
First, the leaf is beautiful. Silky, thin, smooth, elastic…these are all words that can justifiably be applied to the Connecticut shade leaf. The color is a light brown, almost a gold, and basically defines the term claro. As a wrapper, it looks good. And, after all, that is one of the most important qualities in a cigar wrapper tobacco. Aesthetics matter.
Connecticut Shade tobacco in the field
Second, the leaf burns beautifully. It gives an even burn, slow and smooth, providing balance to a cigar and producing a characteristic gray-white ash.
A third reason is flavor. The Connecticut shade leaf enhances rather than detracts from the overall flavor of a cigar. It has a mild and slightly spicy taste, with floral notes and overtones.
Joseph Cullman Jr. created the Connecticut Shade variety in the early 1900’s from the Hazelwood strain of Cuban tobacco crossed with Sumatran seed tobacco varieties. It is called shade tobacco because it is grown under large tents that protect the leaves from direct exposure to the sun and duplicate the perpetually-cloudy conditions found naturally in Sumatra.
If grown in direct sunlight, the leaf that is produced is coarse, tough and darker in color. It also has is darker and has different characteristics when grown anywhere but in Connecticut.
Just as certain Cuban tobaccos can only be grown in Cuba, so too this prized wrapper tobacco can only be grown to its fullest potential in a two mile wide by seventy-five mile long strip of sandy loam in the Connecticut River Valley between Hartford and West Suffield in New England. The soil there is much like that found in the Vuelta Abajo region of Cuba. The growing temperature is like that found in Cuba during the winter growing season when fine tobacco is produced.
Connecticut gets more rainfall during its growing season than Cuba usually does in the winter, but wrapper tobacco needs more rain than filler tobacco so that is a good difference. The unique combination of conditions in this one spot in the United States produce a truly premium product.
Attempts have been made to grow the Connecticut shade variety in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Panaama — even in Cuba — but no one anywhere has yet been able to duplicate the color, texture, flavor and other qualities that make shade-grown Connecticut leaf such a prize. It continues to reign supreme.
If you have been limiting yourself to maduro wrapper cigars, lighten up for a change and try a premium stick with a world-class wrapper. After all, you probably don’t eat the same kind of food every night, do you?
What should you try?
Perhaps a Cusano 18 Double Connecticut Robusto or Toro. The Cusanos have a Connecticut Shade binder as well as a wrapper, and an aged Dominican Oro filler. They were rated 91 and 88 respectively by Cigar Aficionado, and also listed as a best buy. They are bargain-priced for cigars of this quality, and I think you will enjoy them. I know that I do.
Or, you could try the Macanudo Hyde Park Café, which Cigar 
Aficionado describes as “an excellent medium-bodied cigar” with “soft spice flavors of coffee, cinnamon and nutmeg.”
Or perhaps the mild and mellow Macanudo Duke of Windsor would be more to your taste, with “a strong core of roasted nut flavors, and a light sweet woodiness on the palate, and the finish.” Both feature double-fermented Connecticut Shade wrappers with a creamy mildness and rate 91 and 90. Again, I enjoy both.
No matter which you try, you can’t go wrong. Light one up, savor the flavor and aroma, and you’ll realize why this wrapper tobacco is the highest priced and most expensive in the world.
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Theresa Cocolin
October 6th, 2007 13:31
I have found articles about shade tobacco interesting as my husband was a tobacco farmer in NC, and of course,my children and I helped.
I read the book Parrish, which was about growing tobacco in Connecticut and told my husband I thought he would enjoy the movie when it came out. He thought it was one of the best movies he had ever seen, so interesting in the way they produced their tobacco.