I suppose now, many years later I might as well say it.

I used to put them, wrapped in bubble wrap down the tube of vibro poker spares when sending out to our agents in Houston, Boston and Chicago. When they were over here, a tobacconist near to our factory did rather well out of them.

It always amazed me how popular they were. To the free world, there are many other cigars worth buying but as it used to be with the old USSR and Eastern bloc countries wanting Levi jeans with their industrial spares, The USA wanted Cuban cigars.

Actually, the guys in Houston had us send HP Sauce as well, but that was supply and demand, not sanctions busting....

I used to mention Cuban cigars when giving talks to public sector bodies on trade and competitiveness, citing USA as an example of preaching capitalism whilst practicing communism.

A pity then that celebrating access to tobacco products isn't the coup it used to be 😎