With a
unique and incomparable flavor, blending spicy-sweet, chocolatey and
coffee-like tones that bring a toasty, crisp aroma and silky feel to the experience,
the Cameroon cape is one of the rarest, most prestigious and expensive wrappers
in the world. Some believe it is the most exclusive wrapper on the planet.
Although it
is also grown in other countries, such as Ecuador, top cigar makers use the
leaf harvested in Africa because they consider the "real Cameroon" to
come from that country. Unlike most premium wrappers, which are grown under
tarps or tents to protect them, this leaf is grown in the sun in Cameroon,
Central Africa, where the climate is more stable than in other areas and the
light more uniform due to the constant cloud cover during the tobacco growing
season.
The
Meerapfels, a Jewish family of German origin, which has been present in all the
important places of the tobacco industry (Indonesia, United States, Cuba and
Central America), began to finance crops in that Central African country in the
1960s, when production was still under the French government. Later, when
France pulled out of the operation in the 1990s, they founded their own local
tobacco company called CETAC S.A. (Compagnie d'Exploitation des Tabacs
Centrafricains), from which they organized production and introduced practices
that revamped the way Central Africans grow and process their tobacco.
From CETAC,
the Meerapfels worked with local producers to keep the flow of goods moving,
and restored a steady supply of high-quality Cameroon tobacco. Since then, Rick Meerapfel (1951-2003) became
the master of Cameroon wrapper tobacco and the world's leading supplier of that
rare leaf. Had it not been for his dedication and determination, Cameroon
tobacco would most likely not exist. That is why it is said that he saved that
precious wrapper from extinction.
Not only
that, over time, the tobacco patented as Meerapfel Cameroon has improved and no
one else has access to the seeds, to the point that one of his favorite slogans
is: "if it's not Meerapfel, it's not Cameroon".
This
wrapper covers some of Arturo Fuente's most prominent cigars, such as Fuente
8-5-8, the Don Carlos series, the Arturo Fuente Hemingway line and Casa Fuente.
It can also be found in the Ashton Heritage Puro Sol, General Cigar's Partágas
line, and a series from Aurora, the oldest cigar factory in the Dominican
Republic.
The
Merapfel legacy continues to reap success at the hands of Jeremiah and Joshua,
sons of Rick, who pioneered the family business in Africa. Today they are one
of the largest employers in the Central African country, with approximately
3,000 farming families working for them on nearly 3,000 fields (an average of
ten people per family). In addition, about 3,000 people work at the centers
throughout the year.
