Cigar aficionados are applauding the Obama Administration’s decision to lift the United States’ decades-old ban on Cuban cigars and rum.
“For the U.S. market, I think it’s great,” said Willie Martinez, who owns House of Cigars in Farmers Branch. "It’s going to get rid of that myth when people actually start smoking the product they’re going to realize that really you got other cigars out there on the market that are as good or even better."
Two master cigar rollers from Cuba make the House of Cigars products in house.
“We actually brought back the way cigars used to be made in the old days,” said Martinez. “That’s part of what makes the Cuban cigar, is the actual building, the technique that they use in putting the filler together.”
“Cuban cigars are overrated,” said one regular customer, Tim Nace, of Dallas. “It’s actually just a novelty. You can’t have it so, I gotta have it.”
Beginning Monday, Americans traveling abroad, including those visiting Cuba, can now bring home all the Cuban cigars and run they want – subject, of course, to normal Customs regulations and fees.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said another regular at House of Cigars, Pam Tresp, of Dallas. “I don’t know if I would do that because I like these cigars. I’ve yet to find anything better but if that’s want I liked, I’d want to bring back as many as I could."
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Another milestone in normalizing relations with Cuba comes later this month, when American Airlines begins five direct flights to Havana from Miami and Charlotte, North Carolina.
There will not be any direct flights to Cuba from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport or Love Field in Dallas.
