Is General Cigar Company THAT Bad?

On the cigar forums that I lurk or participate in, there seems to be quite a bit of disdain for General Cigar Company and Scandanavian Tobacco Group. If some mentions a brand like CAO or Punch or Partagas, there invariably be a comment something like, “Those are owned by General. They’re nothing like the originals.” I get that, especially with the non-Cuban brands like Cohiba. They couldn’t be like the originals because Cuban cigars are made with Cuban tobacco.

But that doesn’t mean cigars under the General Cigar Company umbrella are bad as some may imply. Take, for instance, the CAO brand. Shit! I’ve had a few of the different blends and thus far, I haven’t had a CAO that I didn’t like or even absolutely love like the CAO America! I’m not too big on the n.c. Punch sticks, but I’ve had a n.c. Partagas in the past and dug those.

Maybe it’s because General is a conglomerate, and most folks tend to sidle up to the independent boutique brands. I can understand that. It’s like the reactions people have in the guitar world towards BOSS guitar pedals vs. the handmade, hand-wired boutique pedals. BOSS is a HUGE brand under the Roland conglomerate. BOSS is considered totally mainstream, so their pedals couldn’t be as good as boutique pedals. Or in the bourbon world, there are those who can’t stand the Buffalo Trace conglomerate.

As for me, admittedly, I suppose that I’m just not enough of a geek to care who the fuck owns a company. If a cigar or bourbon or guitar pedal works for me, I’ll buy it.

What got me thinking along these lines was when I was having my morning smoke this morning. It is one of my favorites, a Toraño Dominico robusto. It’s a mild, one-trick pony that I always have a bundle of because I enjoy it. It’s a General brand cigar.

A friend of mine and a real aficionado once said to me, “Yeah, Toraño used to make great cigars.” I told him that I have no reference points because I didn’t smoke any of their sticks before the brand was purchased by General. All I know is that of the couple of different blends I’ve had, I enjoyed them; enough so that I keep on buying bundles of the Dominico and am currently bidding on a box of 1959 Exodus.

Of course, people are gracious and usually back up their disdain with “but you smoke what you like.” And I’m cool with that.

But I do scratch my head when people get kind of agro about their disdain. I’m like If something tastes good why the fuck do you care where it comes from? Granted, I wouldn’t buy a product from a company that exhibits blatant human rights atrocities (which kept me from buying Apple products for a long time until they addressed that with their Chinese vendors). But sans that, I just buy what I enjoy.

And Wild Turkey 101 is my daily bourbon…