The turkey is on the table with trimmings all around, and the first real inklings of winter are starting to grace across the slightly-frosted windows. It’s Thanksgiving Day, a time dedicated to grateful reflection on the year that soon will be coming to a close. Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday season, calls families together from miles around, and is one of the quintessentially perfect excuses to light up a fine cigar.
Traditionally, we are taught that the Thanksgiving holiday has its roots in the communal breaking of bread between the British Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans shortly after the colonists’ first harvest in 1621. While Squanto, a Patuxet Native, taught the newcomers how to fish for eel and domesticate corn, the Plymouth colonists were tended to during their first New World winter by the Wampanoag, and their leader, Massasoit. The celebration lasted three days, occurring sometime between September 21 and November 11.
While popular history recognizes this seminal moment in the Americas as the first Thanksgiving, there is evidence to suggest that such events were commonplace throughout the colonial era, and even before. Autumnal harvest festivals were regular annual events amongst the Natives, and Spanish colonists in the 16th Century were holding similar days of thanksgiving. These celebrations were typically carried on as Sabbath services as early as 1607 in Virginia, and Jamestown colony held an organized Thanksgiving in 1610.
There is some controversy surrounding the Plymouth Thanksgiving, specifically concerning the colonists’ interaction with the natives. Roughly three years before the arrival of the Mayflower, a plague-like epidemic swept coastal New England and demolished the native population. Roughly 90-96% of all native peoples living in the region perished, the total population reducing from 30,000 to less than 300. The idea that, in the wake of such a violent outbreak, nearly 1/3 of the remaining natives would attend a meal with British subjects that they knew to be the source of these new diseases is sketchy at best.
Still, as the great filmmaker John Ford said in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Thanksgiving traditions continued through the Revolutionary War, with George Washington proclaiming a Thanksgiving in honor of the victory at Saratoga, in December 1777. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be celebrated on the final Thursday of November, which it has been ever since.
For Thanksgiving 2013 we decided to go to Pam and John’s for the holiday. Coming from a Cuban family, I was used to dishes of yucca, tamales, and pork. I remembered one year when we forgot to bring a bird of any kind to the family potluck. Pam made no such mistakes, and a pork dish was likely the only food not prepared for the evening. Piles of mashed potatoes, stuffing, cream cauliflower, brussel sprouts, green bean casserole, curry pumpkin soup, buffalo chicken dip, and a turkey nearly the size of my torso adorned every visible surface as we enjoyed, as Arlo Guthrie would say, “a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat.” In honor of this wonderfully American holiday, I chose for my Thanksgiving smoke an Alec Bradley American Sun Grown Torpedo.
Don’t let the name fool you, while the Alec Bradley American Sun Grown line features images of Revolution-era fife and drum corps, this cigar is a Nicaraguan puro. Measuring in at 6 1/8 inches and sporting a 52 ring gauge, the torpedo is an elegant package for a blend of fillers hailing from Esteli and Condega. The American Sun Grown is both bound and wrapped in leaves from Jalapa, the wrapper being, as the name suggests, a sun-grown habano. Dark, oily, and firmly packed, I was eager to give thanks with every puff.
Upon the first light, I knew I wasn’t going to be disappointed. One of Alec Bradley’s fullest-bodied lines, the American Sun Grown is possibly the spiciest cigar I have ever smoked. While the spice holds throughout thanks to the habano wrapper, the blend gives a complex evolution of sweeter tones. Cocoa and nuttiness swim through the smoke, which when blended with the spice gave me the impression of a dark chocolate with chili sensation. While full-bodied, the cigar didn’t overwhelm the palate, making it a singularly enjoyable way to follow up our meal.
We followed up our cigars with a bakery’s worth of assorted pies. As we sat and enjoyed our dessert, I reflected on all the good that had come from the year. Meagan graduated from college and began her graduate studies in education. Dana and I celebrated five years together, our first wedding anniversary, and the purchase of our first home. As the evening came to a close over the last few bites of pie, I was grateful; Grateful for close family, new beginnings, and of course, Good Smoke.
Your’s Truly
W.S. Cruzgriffith
Good Smoke 
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