美國一位雪茄愛好者的古巴尋寶之旅3
The country’s economic hardship became clearer on a sunny morning during a drive to the Robaina plantation. I was traveling with a translator and two of her friends, erstwhile guides. For the two-hour trip, my guides had wisely traded in the hulking 1950s Chevrolet taxi we’d used in the city for a late-model Pontiac rental. As dense, boisterous Havana receded and the urban landscape turned into rolling green countryside, I saw another side of Cuba: rural and scattered with clapboard shanties and mules, donkeys and chickens, especially as we headed deeper into the region of Pinar del Río. There, one is reminded of the island’s poverty, even if it’s offset by a tight-knit culture where the sound of laughter and chatter envelops fruit stands displaying bananas and papaya. At one roadside stop, I treated myself to a 10-cent cigar and a cookie stuffed with guava jam.
一個晴朗的早晨，我們驅車前往羅瓦伊納種植園。一路上，古巴的貧困狀況更加顯而易見。與我同行的有一個翻譯和她的兩個朋友，那兩個人以前都是導遊。在兩個小時的旅途中，我的導遊們聰明地把我們在市裏用的那輛龐大笨重的1950年代雪佛蘭出租車換成了一輛最新型號的龐蒂亞克。擁擠熱鬧的哈瓦那在我們身後漸行漸遠，城市景觀也變成了連綿起伏的綠色鄉村。我看到了古巴的另一面：田園風情，四處散落着隔板棚屋、騾子、驢子和雞。尤其當我們深入比那爾得里奧(Pinar del Río)地區時，這種景象隨處可見。那裏讓人想起古巴的貧窮，即使有緊密團結的文化作爲彌補——擺滿了香蕉和木瓜的水果攤上縈繞着人們的說笑聲。一次路邊歇腳，我抽了一支10美分的雪茄，吃了一塊番石榴果醬的夾心曲奇。
Tucked away on a narrow dirt road, the farm is easy for tourists to miss but for a modest hand-painted sign “Finca El Pinar Robaina” posted off the main one-lane drag. A mile or so along the road, the landscape turns into a bright green panorama of tobacco plants rustling in the breeze and stretching out infinitely in well-manicured rows. During growing season, from October through February, the plants can grow as high as 50 inches.
農場隱匿在一條泥濘的小路上，很容易被遊客錯過。不過，在那條主要的單車道小路上有一塊質樸的手繪指示牌，寫着“Finca El Pinar Robaina”。沿着路開大約一英里，眼前展開了一片亮綠色菸草植物的全景。這些植物在微風中沙沙作響，伸出了事先規劃好的界限外。在生長季節，也就是10月到來年2月，它們可以長到50英寸高（大約1.3米）。
Yanelis Delgado, a longtime neighbor and family friend in her early 40s, greeted me and began spinning yarns about Alejandro Robaina, the plantation’s founder, who died at 91 in 2010. For the next couple of hours, we walked around the 170-year-old property and Ms. Delgado shared stories, including how Mr. Robaina, who smoked his first cigar at age 10, took the reins of the operation after his father died in 1950. On a terrace adorned with flags representing the countries of visitors to the farm over the years is a life-size carving of Mr. Robaina sitting in a rocker gazing across the field. The memorabilia on display includes photos of world leaders and celebrity guests at the farm, and a handwritten note of encouragement (translated: “Hirochi, you are my future. Don’t disappoint me”) from Alejandro to his grandson, Hirochi Robaina, who now owns the farm.
迎接我的是羅瓦伊納家族的鄰居、好友，40歲出頭的亞涅利斯·德爾加多(Yanelis Delgado)。然後她就開始講述種植園創始人亞歷杭德羅·羅瓦伊納的故事。羅瓦伊納在2010年去世，享年91歲。接下來的幾個小時，我們在這個有170年曆史的農場走了走，德爾加多女士繼續分享着這個家族的故事，包括羅瓦伊納先生第一次抽雪茄時是10歲，以及他是如何在1950年父親去世後接管了農場的事務。我們來到一塊平臺，這裏裝飾着許多國旗，代表多年間來參觀過農場的遊客的國籍。此外還有一座真人大小的羅瓦伊納先生的雕像，他坐在一把搖椅上，凝視着這片農場。這裏還展示着一些收藏品，包括一些國家領導人和名人來參觀農場的照片，以及一張手寫的字條，上面是亞歷杭德羅給他的孫子——現任農場主西羅奇·羅瓦伊納(Hirochi Robaina)的一句勉勵（大意爲“西羅奇，你是我的未來。別讓我失望”）。
As one of Cuba’s few independent growers — most farms belong to cooperatives — the Robaina plantation became known for his growing techniques, which became synonymous with such premium brands as Cohiba and Hoyo de Monterrey. His tight relations with senior government officials — including both Cuban presidents Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl — led to the government creating one of the island’s 27 brands in his honor. To be sure, the brand is not as renowned as, say, Partagás and Romeo y Julieta, and cigar smokers have in recent years criticized the company for inconsistent quality as it struggled to meet rising demand that came from Castro’s homage to the farm.
作爲古巴少數的獨立種植園之一（大多數農場都屬於合作社），羅瓦伊納因種植技術而聞名，後來與高斯巴及奧約德蒙特雷(Hoyo de Monterrey)這些高檔品牌齊名。憑藉和古巴高級政府官員的密切關係——其中包括兩任古巴總統，菲德爾·卡斯特羅和他的弟弟勞爾——羅瓦伊納成爲了政府認可的古巴27個雪茄品牌之一。當然，這個品牌不像帕塔加斯(Partagás)和羅密歐與朱麗葉那麼有名，而且最近幾年，由於卡斯特羅家族的偏愛，羅瓦伊納爲了盡力滿足不斷上升的市場需求，也曾被雪茄愛好者們批評品質不穩定。
Cigarmaking is intricate, and success is governed mostly by timing, temperature and the artistry of human hands. It takes nearly two years for a cigar to move from nursery to rolling factory, Ms. Delgado explained. In the nursery, seeds are planted for germination and then a month later replanted as seedlings. In the roughly 45 days after the replanting, growers irrigate and treat the plants for pests. Once the leaves are brought into the drying or curing barn, they are strung with thread and hung from high ceilings. “It’s like a cathedral for tobacco,” Ms. Delgado said of the wooden barn, sun-bleached white with red shutters.
雪茄的製作過程複雜且精細，成功與否，主要取決於時機、溫度，以及人手卷煙的技術。德爾加多女士解釋說，一支雪茄從苗圃到捲菸廠需要將近兩年。在苗圃，先把種子種下，等發芽後一個月，再移植幼苗。移植後大約45天，需要灌溉和去除害蟲。等到菸葉被放進乾燥的穀倉（或熟化室）之後，它們就會被串成線，掛在挑高的天花板上。德爾加多女士形容木製穀倉“就像是一座菸草大教堂”，有着被太陽曬得發白的木頭和紅色百葉窗。
The drying process lasts 50 days, during which the leaves change from green to yellow to brown. The thread is cut and the leaves are bundled, placed in piles and covered with a net for some 40 days at 100 degrees or more to spur fermentation, which determines the concentration of nicotine in leaves, flavor, aroma and texture. In the curing barn I watched a farm veteran lay out leaves and, within minutes, construct a flawless cigar, which he handed to me. The farm sells 90 percent of its product to the Cuban state-run cigar company, S.A. Habanos.
乾燥的過程需要50天，在此期間，菸葉從綠色變成黃色，再變成棕色。把串葉子的線剪斷，再把菸葉成捆地堆在一起，在上面蓋一張網，在至少100華氏度（大約37.8攝氏度）下放置約40天，促使其發酵。發酵這一步決定了菸葉中尼古丁的濃度，以及菸葉的口味、香味及質感。在熟化室中，我看着一位手藝熟練的農場工人把菸葉擺好，幾分鐘之內就做出了一支完美無瑕的雪茄。然後他把雪茄遞給了我。羅瓦伊納農場把90%的產品都賣給古巴的國有雪茄公司——古巴菸草公司(S.A. Habanos)。
Serious cigar smokers wax poetic with the language of wine aficionados, referring to a cigar’s flavor as “spicy” or “creamy” with hints of “honey,” “cocoa” and “cinnamon.” Cuba’s tobacco farmers take fierce pride in producing the most flavorful cigars in the world. Their nemesis is the expanding market not only for Cuban knockoffs but also for iconic Cuban brands whose leaves and labor are actually from other parts of the world, partly as a result of fleeing growers restarting their businesses elsewhere.
嚴肅的雪茄迷們也有一套像葡萄酒愛好者那樣的語言，他們把雪茄的味道說成“辛辣”或“奶油味的”，帶着一絲“蜂蜜”、“可可”或“肉桂”味。古巴的菸草種植者們爲生產出世界上最可口的雪茄而有種強烈的自豪感。而他們所受的報應，就是市場中不僅混進了冒充古巴雪茄的冒牌貨，而且就連古巴名牌雪茄的菸葉和勞動力也是來自古巴以外的地方，部分原因是之前逃離的種植者在其他地方重新開始了他們的生意。
For instance, the premium brand Cohiba, created exclusively in the mid-1960s for Castro and other senior government officials, has been embroiled in litigation for years as Habanos S.A. has contested the right of an American firm, the General Cigar Company, which manufactures Cohibas in the Dominican Republic, to sell under the Cohiba brand. As one senior manager at TabaCuba, the state agency that runs Cuba’s tobacco production and research, told me: “A Cuban cigar must be made with Cuban sun, Cuban soil, with Cuban hands. If not, there are no properties that make it what it claims to be.”
比如，高檔品牌高斯巴是20世紀60年代中期專門爲卡斯特羅和其他高級政府官員創立的品牌。由於古巴菸草公司和一家美國公司——在多米尼加共和國製造高斯巴雪茄的通用雪茄公司(the General Cigar Company)——爭奪高斯巴品牌下的銷售權，高斯巴被捲入這場訴訟已達數年。負責古巴菸草生產和研究的國家機構——古巴菸草集團(TabaCuba)的一位高級經理告訴我：“一支古巴雪茄，必須要用古巴的陽光、古巴的土壤，和古巴人的手製造而成。如果有一條不滿足，它就不具備古巴雪茄的特性，也就不能自稱是古巴雪茄。”
It’s estimated that some five to eight million Cuban cigars reach Americans each year by way of countries like Canada, Switzerland, Australia and Mexico. Most experts agree that eased trade sanctions are far from opening a retail gateway between the United States and Cuba. It will take years, they say, for sellers to clear the byzantine network of international politics, trademark restrictions and F.D.A. regulations. When Cuban cigars finally do arrive abundantly — and legally — on American soil, most experts figure it will be through the Casa del Habano, Cuba’s state-owned chain of cigar boutiques, which already has some 130 stores worldwide.
據統計，每年有大約500萬到800萬支古巴雪茄從加拿大、瑞士、澳大利亞及墨西哥等國進入美國。大多數專家的共識是，貿易制裁遠未減輕到能在美國和古巴之間開放一條零售通道的程度。他們認爲，銷售商如果要打通國際政治、商標限制、美國食品藥品監督管理局(F.D.A.)法規等錯綜複雜的體制網絡，還需要多年的時間。大多數專家估計，如果有一天古巴雪茄能夠合法、大量地進入美國，也應該是通過古巴的國有雪茄連鎖店——哈瓦那雪茄之家(Casa del Habano)，該連鎖店已在全球開了大約130家分店。
Cuban cigar culture, of course, can’t be exported. On my final day in Havana I came across the Hotel Conde de Villanueva, billed as the world’s only hostel dedicated to cigars. In the atrium, peacocks strutted as a “torcedor” rolled cigars for guests. Each of the nine guest rooms is named after a tobacco farm. A gorgeously restored 18th-century mansion adorned with stained-glass windows, the hotel also has an excellent cigar shop, plus an intimate smokers lounge. Gracing one wall are photographs of celebrities smoking cigars (among them, Demi Moore, Denzel Washington, Groucho Marx, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill and Sigmund Freud). The hotel is surrounded by shops selling everything from chocolate to perfume.
當然，古巴的雪茄文化是無法被出口的。在哈瓦那的最後一天，我路過了被譽爲“世界唯一一家雪茄主題酒店”的康德維拉諾威瓦酒店(Hotel Conde de Villanueva)。在酒店中庭，有幾隻孔雀走來走去，就像給客人卷雪茄的“捲菸師”(torcedor)那樣趾高氣昂。九間客房分別以不同的菸草種植園的名字命名。酒店所在的建築是一棟經過華麗翻修的18世紀大廈，以彩色玻璃窗爲裝飾，裏面有一家非常棒的雪茄商店，以及一個私密的吸菸室。有一面牆掛滿了名人抽雪茄的照片（其中有黛米·摩爾[Demi Moore]、丹澤爾·華盛頓[Denzel Washington]、格勞喬·馬克斯[Groucho Marx]、厄內斯特·海明威[Ernest Hemingway]、溫斯頓·丘吉爾[Winston Churchill]，以及西格蒙德·佛洛依德[Sigmund Freud]）。酒店周圍是售賣巧克力和香水等各式商品的商店。
The atmosphere didn’t feel exactly authentic, so I walked a couple blocks away, deeper into Old Havana, and found a quiet seat beneath a canopied outdoor bar. It was a perfect spot to relax, to enjoy the distant sound of rumba and the view of vintage cars moving along the streets. I ordered a mojito. And then I lit my last cigar in Cuba.
這種氣氛給人的感覺並不十分真實，所以我又往前走了幾個街區，來到哈瓦那舊城(Old Havana)，在一家有頂棚的戶外酒吧找了個安靜的座位。這裏真是個完美的休閒之所，在遠處傳來的倫巴音樂中，看着一輛輛老爺車來來往往。我要了一杯莫吉托，點燃了我在古巴的最後一支雪茄。
