Dutch Masters Candela Cigars – Is Green the New Brown?
Candela wrapper leaf is the mildest of all shades and offers very little in the way of strength. In essence, the filler tobaccos do most of the work while this green colored leaf imparts an almost floral or citrus taste and aroma to the blend. Referred to by several names, Double Claro, Claro Claro, and Candela, this style of leaf was at one time an extremely popular choice. Today, these forgotten gems account for about 2% of sales, and that is almost exclusively in the domestic segment where it still thrives today
During the pre-embargo era that spanned nearly two centuries, just about every single stick sold was of Cuban origin. This tobacco is very full bodied, leaving little choice for smokers who preferred mild. To appeal to this long-suffering segment of the market, The La Corona Company began selling Candela wrapped smokes to the US. Very quickly, the amount of this tobacco couldn’t meet the huge demand so instead of fully curing it, they froze the light tobacco to keep it green. Then, they’d fire cure it to get it the greenest shade possible. This created a tremendous demand, and other top Cuban manufacturers followed suit.
After the embargo, when mild Dominican cigars became king there was no need for this wrapper, because most of these cigars, even dressed in darker leaf were creamy smooth. When Honduran and Nicaraguan cigars began flooding our shores those who liked mellow smokes still had their beloved Dominicans to fall back on. Sadly, the green wrapper had lost its place in stogy land, except for those loyal machine made cigar smokers, who as stated early, still love them.
Why you ask? Because the majority of people that smoke machine made’s recognize them as the great cigars they grew up with, and the older we get, the more we resist change. It’s that simple!
One of the early adopters of the candela wrapped domestic smoke was the famous Dutch Masters Company. Today their Dutch Masters Corona Sports still fly off the shelves just as their original offering did back in the old Habano days.
Realizing that Candela was still a heckuva’ tasty wrapper, when the company launched the highly anticipated Dutch Masters Masters Collection lineup in 1995, they included the Cigarillos Green Foil, and two other flavored cigars featuring green leaf to the roster.
So if you want to smoke what your granddad did, or you want see if once again, Green is the new Brown. Why not give em’ a try.
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