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.

一个晴朗的早晨，我们驱车前往罗瓦伊纳种植园。一路上，古巴的贫困状况更加显而易见。与我同行的有一个翻译和她的两个朋友，那两个人以前都是导游。在两个小时的旅途中，我的导游们聪明地把我们在市里用的那辆庞大笨重的1950年代雪佛兰出租车换成了一辆最新型号的庞蒂亚克。拥挤热闹的哈瓦那在我们身后渐行渐远，城市景观也变成了连绵起伏的绿色乡村。我看到了古巴的另一面：田园风情，四处散落着隔板棚屋、骡子、驴子和鸡。尤其当我们深入比那尔得里奥(Pinar del Río)地区时，这种景象随处可见。那里让人想起古巴的贫穷，即使有紧密团结的文化作为弥补——摆满了香蕉和木瓜的水果摊上萦绕着人们的说笑声。一次路边歇脚，我抽了一支10美分的雪茄，吃了一块番石榴果酱的夹心曲奇。

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.

农场隐匿在一条泥泞的小路上，很容易被游客错过。不过，在那条主要的单车道小路上有一块质朴的手绘指示牌，写着“Finca El Pinar Robaina”。沿着路开大约一英里，眼前展开了一片亮绿色烟草植物的全景。这些植物在微风中沙沙作响，伸出了事先规划好的界限外。在生长季节，也就是10月到来年2月，它们可以长到50英寸高（大约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.

迎接我的是罗瓦伊纳家族的邻居、好友，40岁出头的亚涅利斯·德尔加多(Yanelis Delgado)。然后她就开始讲述种植园创始人亚历杭德罗·罗瓦伊纳的故事。罗瓦伊纳在2010年去世，享年91岁。接下来的几个小时，我们在这个有170年历史的农场走了走，德尔加多女士继续分享着这个家族的故事，包括罗瓦伊纳先生第一次抽雪茄时是10岁，以及他是如何在1950年父亲去世后接管了农场的事务。我们来到一块平台，这里装饰着许多国旗，代表多年间来参观过农场的游客的国籍。此外还有一座真人大小的罗瓦伊纳先生的雕像，他坐在一把摇椅上，凝视着这片农场。这里还展示着一些收藏品，包括一些国家领导人和名人来参观农场的照片，以及一张手写的字条，上面是亚历杭德罗给他的孙子——现任农场主西罗奇·罗瓦伊纳(Hirochi Robaina)的一句勉励（大意为“西罗奇，你是我的未来。别让我失望”）。

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.

作为古巴少数的独立种植园之一（大多数农场都属于合作社），罗瓦伊纳因种植技术而闻名，后来与高斯巴及奥约德蒙特雷(Hoyo de Monterrey)这些高档品牌齐名。凭借和古巴高级政府官员的密切关系——其中包括两任古巴总统，菲德尔·卡斯特罗和他的弟弟劳尔——罗瓦伊纳成为了政府认可的古巴27个雪茄品牌之一。当然，这个品牌不像帕塔加斯(Partagás)和罗密欧与朱丽叶那么有名，而且最近几年，由于卡斯特罗家族的偏爱，罗瓦伊纳为了尽力满足不断上升的市场需求，也曾被雪茄爱好者们批评品质不稳定。

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.

雪茄的制作过程复杂且精细，成功与否，主要取决于时机、温度，以及人手卷烟的技术。德尔加多女士解释说，一支雪茄从苗圃到卷烟厂需要将近两年。在苗圃，先把种子种下，等发芽后一个月，再移植幼苗。移植后大约45天，需要灌溉和去除害虫。等到烟叶被放进干燥的谷仓（或熟化室）之后，它们就会被串成线，挂在挑高的天花板上。德尔加多女士形容木制谷仓“就像是一座烟草大教堂”，有着被太阳晒得发白的木头和红色百叶窗。

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.

干燥的过程需要50天，在此期间，烟叶从绿色变成黄色，再变成棕色。把串叶子的线剪断，再把烟叶成捆地堆在一起，在上面盖一张网，在至少100华氏度（大约37.8摄氏度）下放置约40天，促使其发酵。发酵这一步决定了烟叶中尼古丁的浓度，以及烟叶的口味、香味及质感。在熟化室中，我看着一位手艺熟练的农场工人把烟叶摆好，几分钟之内就做出了一支完美无瑕的雪茄。然后他把雪茄递给了我。罗瓦伊纳农场把90%的产品都卖给古巴的国有雪茄公司——古巴烟草公司(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.

严肃的雪茄迷们也有一套像葡萄酒爱好者那样的语言，他们把雪茄的味道说成“辛辣”或“奶油味的”，带着一丝“蜂蜜”、“可可”或“肉桂”味。古巴的烟草种植者们为生产出世界上最可口的雪茄而有种强烈的自豪感。而他们所受的报应，就是市场中不仅混进了冒充古巴雪茄的冒牌货，而且就连古巴名牌雪茄的烟叶和劳动力也是来自古巴以外的地方，部分原因是之前逃离的种植者在其他地方重新开始了他们的生意。

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，高档品牌高斯巴是20世纪60年代中期专门为卡斯特罗和其他高级政府官员创立的品牌。由于古巴烟草公司和一家美国公司——在多米尼加共和国制造高斯巴雪茄的通用雪茄公司(the General Cigar Company)——争夺高斯巴品牌下的销售权，高斯巴被卷入这场诉讼已达数年。负责古巴烟草生产和研究的国家机构——古巴烟草集团(TabaCuba)的一位高级经理告诉我：“一支古巴雪茄，必须要用古巴的阳光、古巴的土壤，和古巴人的手制造而成。如果有一条不满足，它就不具备古巴雪茄的特性，也就不能自称是古巴雪茄。”

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.

据统计，每年有大约500万到800万支古巴雪茄从加拿大、瑞士、澳大利亚及墨西哥等国进入美国。大多数专家的共识是，贸易制裁远未减轻到能在美国和古巴之间开放一条零售通道的程度。他们认为，销售商如果要打通国际政治、商标限制、美国食品药品监督管理局(F.D.A.)法规等错综复杂的体制网络，还需要多年的时间。大多数专家估计，如果有一天古巴雪茄能够合法、大量地进入美国，也应该是通过古巴的国有雪茄连锁店——哈瓦那雪茄之家(Casa del Habano)，该连锁店已在全球开了大约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.

当然，古巴的雪茄文化是无法被出口的。在哈瓦那的最后一天，我路过了被誉为“世界唯一一家雪茄主题酒店”的康德维拉诺威瓦酒店(Hotel Conde de Villanueva)。在酒店中庭，有几只孔雀走来走去，就像给客人卷雪茄的“卷烟师”(torcedor)那样趾高气昂。九间客房分别以不同的烟草种植园的名字命名。酒店所在的建筑是一栋经过华丽翻修的18世纪大厦，以彩色玻璃窗为装饰，里面有一家非常棒的雪茄商店，以及一个私密的吸烟室。有一面墙挂满了名人抽雪茄的照片（其中有黛米·摩尔[Demi Moore]、丹泽尔·华盛顿[Denzel Washington]、格劳乔·马克斯[Groucho Marx]、厄内斯特·海明威[Ernest Hemingway]、温斯顿·丘吉尔[Winston Churchill]，以及西格蒙德·佛洛依德[Sigmund Freud]）。酒店周围是售卖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.

这种气氛给人的感觉并不十分真实，所以我又往前走了几个街区，来到哈瓦那旧城(Old Havana)，在一家有顶棚的户外酒吧找了个安静的座位。这里真是个完美的休闲之所，在远处传来的伦巴音乐中，看着一辆辆老爷车来来往往。我要了一杯莫吉托，点燃了我在古巴的最后一支雪茄。