Machine Made Cigar Renaissance?

Premium hand rolled cigars get most of the attention these days, but that may be changing. Machine made cigar sales appear to be on the rise, and at least one major online tobacco retailer has taken notice. "Machine Made: Ultra affordable cigars, precision-made for unrivaled consistency," reads a smart looking new graphic at Famous Smoke Shop. Not that Famous and other online tobacconists haven't sold machine made cigars in the past (though some haven't), it's that they weren't the most prominently displayed items on the homepage, often relegated to a subsection of the drop-down menu.
Forty-six years ago, premium cigars were something of a rarity in the U.S., says Theo Folz, of Altadis in a 2008 interview in Smoke Magazine, "There were tobacconists, but there weren't as many of them - there weren't that many premium cigars sold. ... The cigars that sold in those days were basically brands like Dutch Master, El Producto, Antonio & Cleopatra, White Owl, Phillies, King Edward - Swisher Sweet wasn't even a seller in '64, it was King Edward." But it was all downhill from there and the American cigar market seemed to be heading for extinction. That changed in the early '90's with the premium cigar boom, spearheaded by Cigar Aficionado Magazine.
However, even at the height of the swanky cigar revival, machine made cigars still constituted the largest portion of the American cigar market - they just didn't get any respect. They may still get no respect, but thanks largely to high cigarette taxes, America is once again in need of a good five cent cigar.
Call them what you will, stogies, cheapies, stinkers, prairie burners, dog rockets, whatever, tobacco consumers are looking to the machine made cigar industry for a little relief. This, I think, is good news for all cigar fans. A lot of premium cigar lovers started out smoking something with the word "sweet" or "filter" or "homogenized" somewhere on the package, and then graduated to more upscale brands as their tastes and earnings matured. It's also doubtful that machine made cigars are much threat to their upscale brethren, manufacturing differences ensure two very different products: different draw, different flavor, and yes, often, different quality. But, believe it or not, some of those stinkers are pretty good smokes, believe it or not. To quote a guy in the business, "a good machine-made cigar is better than a fair handmade cigar," a statement as true as it is modest.