California v. The Cigar Industry
California has thrown a massive roadblock in the face of the cigar industry, making it considerably harder to sell cigars in the state, one of the biggest cigar markets in the world. If you buy your cigars in California, as of January 1 some of your favorite brands may no longer be available. Here’s why.
The problem is rooted in the Unflavored Tobacco List, an expansion of a 2020 ban on selling flavored cigars in California. But wait, you might say: I don’t smoke flavored cigars. Not so fast. While all of us reading this note might be quite clear about what makes a flavored cigar, the state of California clearly is not.
Traditional cigars—the kind you read about in this magazine—are made with only two ingredients, tobacco and time. Flavored cigars are made by adding natural or artificial flavorings such as honey, cherry, mint or coffee. We do not write about flavored cigars, and we don’t understand why anyone would smoke them. They are quite easy to tell apart from traditional cigars, but the lawmakers in California don’t agree.
In late August, cigarmakers were given 45 days to apply to get their cigars on the Unflavored Tobacco List. The process is confusing and costly. Cigar companies have to register each size, or SKU, that they wish to sell. Some have hundreds of SKUs. On top of a $300 fee for each, applicants must also submit a box of each cigar they wish to register. On top of that, certain elements confuse the process, and not enough questions are being answered. It’s an outrageous request, a burden on an industry that has had far too much regulation.
The state’s attorney general is supposed to release the List by the end of this year. Any cigar not on the List will be deemed “flavored,” regardless of whether there’s any flavoring added, and be banned. This will greatly impact the cigar business.
In October, some of the most well-known cigar companies in the world sued to stop this: Arturo Fuente, Ashton Distributors, La Flor Dominicana, My Father Cigars, Oliva Cigar, Padrón Cigars and Rocky Patel Premium Cigars. They were joined by the two leading handmade cigar advocacy groups: Cigar Rights of America and the Premium Cigar Association. As we went to press, the issue was unresolved.
We applaud the cigar companies who have taken up the fight for their industry. You can stay up to date about this changing situation at our website, cigaraficionado.com.
We also applaud the efforts of our cover subject, star chef José Andrés. He’s worthy of being on our cover simply for what he has done for Spanish cuisine in America, but he’s far, far more than a chef. He’s a man who is literally making the world a better place, one meal at a time, via his World Central Kitchen, a fast-moving organization that brings meals to those who are impacted by natural disasters and war.
World Central Kitchen has fed the needy in the Caribbean, Gaza, Ukraine, Israel, the United States and all over the world. “The urgency of food and water is today,” he says. World Central Kitchen has served more than 500 million meals to those in need.
Andrés is a remarkable man doing remarkable things. His story begins on page 46.
