Greetings from C.Gars London office where Laura and I have been having fun putting together our 10 Days, 10 hour Flash Sale which started yesterday. The first offer was an extra discount on our already competitive priced premium spirits which proved to be super popular 🙂

Today’s Flash sale can be seen on this link – All offers whilst stocks last… and I can tell you they are selling fast!

Last week I zoomed up North to our Turmeaus – Cigar and Whisky shops in Liverpool, Chester and Knutsford and was amazed how busy they were so soon after the holidays. From the many conversations I had with clients it’s clear that a lot of cigars were enjoyed over Christmas and New Years and a lot of humidor stock is now being replenished 🙂 I know my humidor at home took a good bashing over the New Year as friends and I herfed our way through Cohiba Robusto Supremo and 1966 Limited Editions. 2 of my favourite LE’s for sure.

Turmeaus Knutsford is open and operational but not yet completed, we still have a lot of finishing touches including construction of a premium wine room as well as new carpeting for the sampling lounge and quite a few bits and pieces of additional shop-fitting. If all goes to plan the finishing touches will be complete by Mid-February. I spent some time sampling in the lounge and from the amount of clients that came and sampled cigars, I have no doubt about the popularity of this latest Turmeaus. I’m planning some launch events for March and of course our newsletter subscribers will automatically be updated.

On to our super-duper megastore in Chester which includes our gorgeous La Casa del Habano and could well be the biggest if not best cigar and whisky shop in the UK and I was delighted to host a private clients Cuban Davidoff sampling event. The cigars included Davidoff Chateau Margaux, Davidoff Chateau Latour and Davidoff Chateau Yquem. I paired them up with Stalla Dhu Speyside Dalmore 21 year old and Speymalt from Macallan 1973.

I love vintage Davidoff cigars, in fact they are my favourite aged cigars BUT and this is a serious ‘but’ only if they have been stored correctly. 1970’s and 1980’s vintage cigars need to be stored at lower temperature and humidity to slow down the maturing process. If stored the same as regular Havanas they will lose the flavour characteristic but when stored correctly they will continue to slowly mature and they are a sublime smoking experience. Fair to say the pairings worked very well and a rather decadent evening was enjoyed by all.

We’re always happy to put together private sampling events at Chester and Knutsford and can tailor them to individual tastes and budgets. Drop me an email for more details [email protected]

La Casa del Habano – Chester received a fabulous new collection of Havana cigar branded accessories, magnificent ashtrays, humidors, cutters, lighters and baseball caps. They should all be on the website soon. Due to some ridiculous UK laws we can’t sell these items unless you purchase a cigar(s) of the same brand at the same time. Not too difficult I’m sure 🙂

And talking about ridiculous laws it seems that the completely bonkers TPD2 Tobacco Products Directive is stuffing premium cigar boxes with 65% health warnings from May of this year if I understand the legislation correctly. How sad to cover up the beautiful and ornate cigar box designs. What does it achieve realistically? – NOTHING. Will this stop any of our clients buying a box of cigars? Nope. If you’re one of my regular box buyers you may want to keep your current boxes and decant the 65% ones as they are introduced, That said most of my clients have a humidor or multiple humidors so I doubt anyone is particularly bothered about this latest nanny state BS piece of legislation.

So, I’m wrapping up in the next couple of days and then heading to sunnier climates until February. No Havana cigars for 3 weeks so what do I do???!!! Well the baggie is full of ‘anytime’ smokes:

Orchant Seleccion by Oliva Shorty and Chubby (our fastest selling new New World cigar of 2015)
Inka – Secret Blend Robustos (Rojo) and Half Coronas (still our best-selling New World range)
Alec Bradley Punk (good short full flavour bomb!)
Fuente Short Story (always a solid, reliable smoke)
Nat Sherman Sterling Robusto (my favourite cigar from this wonderful brand)
Davidoff Short Perfectos

That should keep me going till I get back!

If I manage to get a decent internet connection whilst I’m away I’ll do some updates of where I find to herf 🙂

Have a smokey January!

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Righto, that’s Christmas over with and I hope all of my blog readers enjoyed as decadent a four day break as I did 🙂 Billecart Salmon Champagne and Davidoff Chateau Margaux and 4000 as my treat on Christmas day and copious quantities of Bolivar Belicosos paired up with Robert Graham’s Ailein Mor and Benrinnes 1995 single malt whisky the rest of the time… My kinda Christmas!

Back to the office on Tuesday to a rather astonishing 1500 mail orders which I am pleased to say should all just about arrive on time for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Well done to Eliska in the London warehouse team and James in the Norfolk warehouse team and their staff for keeping up with all of the order volume. It truly took us by surprise (a very nice one!) this year and we will have to assume that our clients are very happy with the service if all the lovely emails received are anything to go by 🙂

Pre-Christmas herfing… I mean working was at Turmeaus – Mayfair. My little Oasis in central London, where I was joined by clients and chums for drinks and smokes last week. Probably best I left the car at home! Best of the cigars was the Diplomaticos no.2 perfectly crafted and very sweet full flavoured.

This week I herfed at Ten Manchester Street; one of my favourite cigar terraces in London, warm and comfortable and always great service. We paired up Glenkinchie with Sancho Panza Belicosos which was a perfect marriage of flavours.

Another year over and I’m already excited for 2016! Our brand new Knutsford Turmeaus is having loads more work done in January including the addition of a wine room which will be a first for a Turmeaus. Our next Vintage Cigar Auction will take place on February 28^th, The Cohiba 50^th anniversary will be celebrated in Havana in early March and Karyn has my diary crammed full of overseas trips already. It’s going to be a busy year…

I’ll be wrapping up the year at Turmeaus Mayfair on New Year’s Eve and then heading home armed with a baggie full of Cohiba 1966 and Cohiba Robusto Supremo. Suitably large cigars to celebrate our best year ever 🙂 Not wanting to drown out the delicious flavours of the Cohiba, I will be pairing them up with Pol Roger 2002 which should work perfectly.

Next week I’m heading up North again to Turmeaus – Liverpool, Knutsford and Chester and looking forward to sampling some cigars and a few drams with our Turmeaus customers.

Wishing all friends of C.Gars and Turmeaus as well as my fabulous colleagues and our brilliant suppliers a very Happy New Year.

Peaceful puffing.

Mitchell

Its definitely Christmas time from the aches and pains in my back after spending a week playing at being a retail cigar merchant at Turmeaus in Liverpool, Chester and Knutsford! I don’t think I can ever remember a busier Christmas season or for that matter a more fun season (aches and pains aside!)

Karyn and I had such a great week at the Turmeaus shops working 15 hour days helping the Team. We are both fairly useless in retail so we helped out filling shelves and packing orders mainly 🙂 whilst sneaking in the odd cheeky cigar and dram now and again!

The new Knutsford Turmeaus is open but we still have a month of ‘ finishing touches ‘ to complete which includes a wine room that we are building as well as a lot more imaging and furniture as the premises are in fact far larger than we thought when we originally zoomed past it in the car and decided ‘yup yup – that’s the next Turmeaus’! (call me impulsive!) The lounge is already complete and super comfy. The range of products is 90% complete with an extensive amount of Havana and New World cigars, pipes and tobaccos, single malt whisky, rum, gin, vodka, wine and champagne. The shops features a fabulous range of Dunhill humidors, cutters, case and all other cigars accessories. A great place to visit and herf at for sure 🙂

Our flagship Chester Turmeaus was busier than a train station at rush hour! Thank goodness we opened the third store just in time! The La Casa del Habano humidor and lounge had queues of customers coming in to buy their Christmas cigars as well as sample many in the lounge. This has to be the largest cigar and whisky specialist store in the UK? A paradise for our clients and it was so wonderful receiving so many compliments from them over the course of the week.

The UK really is a Montecristo market and it never ceases to amaze me how many of these fine cigars we sell to our clients. So, we built a bit of a Montecristo mountain in the La Casa humidor! By the time I had left it was reduced to a mole hill 🙂 I definitely am the king of selling Montecristo!

That said, New World cigars such as Inka – Secret Blend, Oliva and Fuente were also selling like there’s no tomorrow and UK regional editions such as the splendid new Bolivar Belgravia were flying off the shelves.

The addition of the 3^rd shop in Chester that specialises in premium spirits has received a very warm welcome and the comfy tub chairs in the bar area were constantly full of clients enjoying single malts and G&T’s. We’re licenced to sell by the dram so you can try before you buy from our extensive whisky list. Very cool…

We now offer super-fast local deliveries in the North in the C.GarsMobile! And we always offer super-fast 2 hour delivery service in London.

We did manage to have a little R&R during the evenings which included our shop fit out supplier dinner at the wonderful ‘Abode’ as well as the Chester Turmeaus Team dinner at the super cool Bar – Lounge loads of Champagne, great food, after dinner cocktails and some great smokes (Davidoff Chateau Margaux 1981) Bar – Lounge is a super place to herf.

I also went over to the two Turmeaus shops in Liverpool where again the customers were queuing to get in to buy their Christmas smokes and drinks. Small specialist shops with a huge range and always a warm welcome. I’m looking forward to expanding substantially in Liverpool in 2016.

C.Gars – London and Norfolk hit a new order shipping record on Monday with over 1000 mail order parcels being shipped! And that was after 24 hour shifts on the weekend and numerous courier and post collections all day, every day. Incredible achievement and well done to the C.Gars Teams. We have the largest stocks in the UK and give the best and fastest service possible. Don’t take my word for it – read what our customers say about us.

So, it’s the last few days till Christmas and after catching up at C.Gars London, I’ll be herfing… Oops I mean working at Turmeaus – Mayfair. Small but cool and with a comprehensive range of premium cigars as well as a comfortable sampling area.

I’m ever so proud of the C.Gars Group, the growth this year has been substantial with two additional Turmeaus shops and record sales. Despite all the anti-tobacco legislation (and rather stupid much of it is) we continue to go from strength to strength. We plan to open more Turmeaus cigar & whisky shops in 2016 and in 2017 we will celebrate the 200^th anniversary of Turmeaus Tobacconist Est. 1817; quite a milestone.

Check out the opening times for our shops over the holidays on this link, Turmeaus Chester will even be open on Boxing Day this year! C.Gars Ltd is online and available to assist and advise 24/7 every day of the year.

I’m looking forward to a few days kicking back with a baggie stuffed full of 2007/2010 and 2014 Bolivar Belicosos over the long weekend and a few vintage Davidoff as a ‘pat on the back’ treat after a great year. I’m going to pair them up with some Benrinnes 1995 – 19 year old single malt whisky from Robert Graham Ltd (thank you Steve Johnstone!) and 2002 Pol Roger Champagne (thanks to my favourite cigar merchants, Edward and Eddie!)

Merry Christmas to all of our C.Gars and Turmeaus customers and of course my brilliant C.Gars and Turmeaus Teams.

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

I don’t know how I always seem to manage to open a new cigar store at our busiest time of year – just before Christmas, seems to happen every year. It also seems to coincide with our Winter auction and the Cigar Smoker of the year awards event at Boisdale (read more on the previous blog). To say it’s a bit of a madhouse of busyness at C.Gars is an understatement. But… I, of course, wouldn’t have it any other way 🙂

So, I am very pleased to announce that Turmeaus- Knutsford is officially open and what a delightful Turmeaus shop this is. Tobacco, smokers accessories, shaving gear and a walk in humidor on the ground floor, premium spirits and comfortable sampling lounge on the first floor. A paradise for our clients (and me!)

The Turmeaus – Knutsford shop joins our group of delightful specialist tobacconists shops in Liverpool, Chester, Norfolk and London’s Mayfair.

Two new members of staff have joined the Team and Daniel from Turmeaus – Mayfair has been busy training them over the last week. Finishing touches will be completed by Monday which is great timing as I’m heading up North for the week next week and looking forward to my first smoke (and a dram) at this new Turmeaus store. We’re planning on regular cigar and spirit tastings and newsletter subscribers will receive updates automatically.

Wednesday Whisky Club (Chester) members will of course get the reduced ticket prices and we will have a little launch part early next year.

Winter cigar auction work has been all consuming over the last week as we wade through a zillion invoices, seller reports and pick/pack/ship of the 350-odd Lots from the sale. If all goes to plan we’ll be up to date pretty soon and as ever sellers will receive on time payments and buyers that opted for shipping will receive the fastest delivery service we can possibly do. Our next auction will be on the 28^th February and some choice Lots are already arriving into our humidor.

I managed to escape the craziness of the London office for a few hours to herf at the Lanesborough cigar terrace on Tuesday and treated myself to a Davidoff No. 1 from the 1970’s paired up with a couple of drams of Macallan 18 year old. A perfect pairing for my palate.

We expanded our whisky range quite substantially over the last few months but I’m still amazed at the popularity of Japanese whisky. If you want to try some we have this super popular sampler pack. A friend gifted me a bottle of Yamazaki sherry butt 1990 which I have been merrily enjoying at the office and one of my clients recently told me that the value of this bottle had rocketed to 900 quid a bottle. Hey ho… I have good taste and good friends!

For an even bigger range visit the Robert Graham website or shops in West Hampstead, Cambridge, Glasgow and Edinburgh (2 locations).

We now have the Alec Bradley Fine and Rare Toro in stock and having sampled a couple, I can tell you, they are not only good value but also a super-premium smoke that I enjoyed immensely.

Our Inka – Secret Blend continue to be our bestselling New World cigar, super value and a delicious sweet blend. I am enjoying the Robusto and Half Corona on a daily basis.

The petit robusto sampler pack has arrived and is selling like bonkers! I love this presentation, it’s very chic and perfect to keep my cigars in good shape in the car (I just add a baby Boveda!)

If you are a coffee lover you have to try the new range of Twin Engine we have introduced. It’s made in Nicaragua and I had a lot of fun sampling all the sizes in the Regius sampler pack with this coffee. Another perfect pairing.

Still plenty of time to top up your humidors before Christmas as our shops are crammed full of every cigar you could dream of and our mail order division is working flat out 24/7 to fill all orders rapidly. I’m pretty certain we have the largest stocks of premium cigars in the UK (I’m pretty certain we are the largest cigar specialist in the UK!) if it’s on the website… Its available 🙂

Looking forward to seeing the retail Turmeaus Team in Liverpool, Knutsford and Chester next week as well as a lot of our clients. I’ll be based in Chester La Casa del Habano and happy to help you choose the perfect Havana for the holidays or the perfect gift for friends and family.

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell