Think that the only place in the United States where good cigar tobacco can be grown is Connecticut?

If so, you are mistaken.

Deep in the Bluegrass State, in an area more known for thoroughbred horses and fine bourbon, something unusual is happening. Some fine cigar wrapper tobacco is being grown because of the vision and efforts of Mark Barrow, a man who decided to try something no one else had tried.

“I think Kentucky’s heritage is tobacco, bourbon and fast horses, and I want to keep all three of them going,” said Barrow.

Mark Barrow is not just a visionary. He is a visionary who has succeeded.

The story continues after the jump.

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For the moment, at least, it is still possible to light up a cigar while enjoying a game of golf.

Even in San Francisco, thanks what I will charitably call a change of heart.

The Board of Supervisors in the City by the Bay had originally voted to ban smoking at the city’s five public golf courses. Fears of loss of revenue won out over charges of elitism and a puritanical desire to further curb freedom, so if you visit San Francisco you can still light up on the links.

That will not last, of course.

Eventually, the anti-smoking crazies will be moving to aggressively protect us from “Death by Second-Hand smoke” as the silent — and mythical — killer wafts from tee to tee. So, you had better enjoy the freedom to light up while golfing while you can.

And to help you enjoy golf and cigars a little more, we have some tips from the Stogie Guys.

The article contains four tips that are specific, and useful. More about that after the jump.

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Do you like Maduro cigars?

Do you like Corojo cigar wrappers?

Ever wished that you could have the best of both in one cigar?

If so, then you are going to love the latest news from Camacho Cigars. Thanks to an exceptional harvest of cuban-seed Corojo tobacco, all of their popular Camacho Corojo cigars will now be available in Corojo Maduro.

That’s right. Corojo Maduro.

The Eiroa family, owners of the Camacho brand as well as Baccarat and La Fontana, are also major growers of Honduran cigar tobacco. Their tobacco is grown in Honduras in the Jamastran Valley, near that country’s border with Nicaragua.

Corojo tobacco takes its name from the Santa Ines del Corojo Vega, a plantation near the town of San Luis y Martinez in Pinar del Rio in the heart of Cuba’s famed Vuelta Abajo tobacco-growing region. Diego Rodriguez began renting the farm from its owner in Spain in the 1920’s, and worked for years to select and develop a superior wrapper tobacco for Cuban cigars.

Between 1930 and the late 1990’s, all cigars from Cuba — regardless of brand or factory — used Rodriguez’s Vuelta Abajo grown Corojo tobacco leaves for their wrappers. The spicy quality and peppery smoothness gave the leaf that unique Cuban “punch” that connoisseurs came to associate with authentic Cuban cigars.

The only problem is that true Corojo tobacco is also delicate and hard to grow. It requires just the right soil, rainfall and weather conditions. It is extremely susceptible to blue mold and black shank disease.

Cuba stopped growing it for that reason.

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From Peter Vincent at the Sydney Morning Herald:

In an era where cigarette smoking is in decline for its health effects and faces increasing social censure, there has been quiet growth in the popularity of the cigar.

The theory goes that cigars are about more than just smoking. Sure, aficionados will praise the complex taste of the world’s best cigars, which are made around the Caribbean. But it’s also about how and where you smoke them.

“For me, a cigar is not an everyday thing, it’s something I spoil myself with,” says Spiro Ellul, a Melbourne collector and cigar smoker.

“I spend up to two hours smoking one, with a nice glass of red or a port and I’ll drift off and reflect on my daily life and organise my thoughts.”

Ellul spent about $15,000 last year collecting cigars. He has about 50 boxes in storage. True aficionados leave cigars to age for at least a year in a controlled humidity of between 65 and 75 per cent.

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If you have not been living in a cave for the last thirty years of so, you have been exposed to a lot of talk about the dangers of “second-hand” smoke.

Everyone knows that second-hand smoke is dangerous. We hear it constantly — especially in this time when smoking bans are commonplace and that proverbial cave looks like the last place that smokers will be allowed to hide in to light up.

Until, of course, someone complains that the bats and other cave wildlife will be harmed by tobacco.

One important statistic on the dangers of second-hand smoke comes from a definitive, careful study showing a clear-cut link between second-hand smoke and cancer in humans. The findings of the study, undertaken by the World Health Organization, were published in 1998. Their multi-year investigation found an unquestionable 22% relationship between cancer in adults and whether or not they had been exposed to “second-hand” smoke as a child.

A 22% relationship between second-hand smoke and cancer is much too clear to dispute. It is not a statistical anomaly. It is a proven fact.

The only problem is that the WHO study found a 22% decrease in the chances of adults getting cancer who had been exposed to smoke as a child.

More below the fold…

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Under the heading of “stop the insanity,” here’s the latest craziness on the myth of second-hand smoke.

The assault on smoking is moving into its next phase. Not satisfied with outlawing smoking in public buildings, and even near public buildings in many places, the True Believers continue to mount pressure to prevent smoking in private homes.

The press release which follows on the dangers of second-hand smoke does not come from the American Heart Association. It does not come from the American Cancer Society. It does not come from the Lung Association.

No, my friends, this warning of how second-hand smoke is a silent killer of the innocent comes from…

(drumroll, please)…

PETA.

That’s right. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The group that brings you naked models, naked actresses, and naked celebrities promoting how evil it is to wear furs by their “I’d rather go naked” ads.

That, PETA.

Hang on to your hats. This one is…

…well, I’d call this a shaggy dog story, but it is really more of a fluffy kitty.

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