OK, first off, damn the person who started the ‘cigars’ thread (just kidding), as it peaked my interest. I haven’t smoked any tobacco in 4 years but I got a real craving for cigars so I bought a selection a few weeks ago: Some ‘private stock’ Dominican republic cigars in corona, tube 2 and tube 1 size - the cheapest cigars my tovaccoinist sells and I like them very much. Some Romeo y Julietta Cuban no 2 cigars, more expensive, but very nice. And from the supermarket, various brands of Sumatra cigars. These are the cheapests. There are a couple of brands of Sumatra that are both cheap and quite a nice smoke. I do not inhale! My question is are Sumatras real cigars? They are a lot cheaper. Why is this?

Absolutely. There is a distinction between Cuban cigars (also Nicaraguan, Honduran, etc) which need to be kept in a humidor and Dutch style cigars, which do not. The Cuban style smokes rather steal the limelight nowadays but I believe that in days gone by Dutch cigars with Sumatran wrappers were considered to be of very high quality. I suspect the popularity of the different types of cigar tobacco was partly due to how availability was affected by colonialism and the routes of the various national shipping organisations, e.g. the Dutch East India company. Someone with more knowledge in this area would be able to confirm. Either way, I have very much enjoyed the Sumatra wrapper cigars that I have had.

Cheap labor in Indonesia, limited marketing, law of supply and demand.

Thanks for the info. Fortunately, I’ve found a cheap Cuban cigar here in Switzerland (only small cigars but Cuban leaf and taste good). I only have 1 in the evening after dinner. I’ve also bought a stock of premium large size Dominican Republic cigars which are quite expensive and have 1 of those on a Saturday night (also very nice, can’t tell the difference from Cuban tbh - I’m not a conneoiseur). My budget doesn’t stretch to premium Cuban cigars. It is nice having one cigar in the evening. It’s my naughty pleasure.