Cigar aroma rises above an embargo era

Sometimes a cigar isn't just a cigar.

Take, for example, the Romeo y Julieta No 2 in the glass case before me. I'm standing in the cigar bar at Beijing's St. Regis Hotel, and if I reach out and slide the glass panel, I am on my way to committing a crime. No, I am not planning to steal that premium smoke.

But, as an American, if I were to purchase that cigar, I would violate the embargo on Cuban goods signed by former US president John F. Kennedy in 1962.