Just back from a fabulous trip to Peru visiting the birthplace of Inka – Secret Blend cigars.

It was a bit of a crazy travel schedule as it’s not possible to fly directly to Lima from the UK so I enjoyed a very comfortable flight on Virgin to sunny Florida as the first part of the journey. My business partner, Ron, collected me from the airport with a fair selection of cigars to choose from for the herfing drive over to my hotel on Pompano Beach, which was most welcome after 9 ½ hours without a smoke!

A few smokes and drinks by the pool bar later and we had just about caught up on all the Orchant & Morrison business world domination plans 🙂 and a few hours later we were on an American Airlines flight to Lima. Without any doubt one of the busiest airports I have ever been to but fortunately we weren’t there too long before boarding our flight to Tarapoto.

Tarapoto is in the San Martin province in the North of Peru. It reminds me of Pinar del Rio but far larger and 20 years more advanced. Hot, humid and noisy but a very vibrant city.

Arriving at Tarapoto we were collected by our partner Gennaro from Tabacalera del Oriente and taken to our hotel which was a charming little place to stay right in the centre of town, right next to a French bakery and Italian restaurant (that was me sorted then!) The owner of the hotel has her own boutique brand of coffee and treated us to a coffee tasting which helped me get over the jet lag as I could not sleep at all after that!

Great timing as we arrived at the start of a heatwave which kicked off at 97°F and seemed to stay around that temperature for the next few days!

We spent the next few days in the fields and the factory going through every stage of production from seed to cigar. We are making huge efforts to ensure consistency of blending and quality control generally as we are truly a crop to shop business.

Our Inka Secret Blend project started in the UK some 3 years ago and rapidly turned into our most successful best-selling New World cigar. Recently launched in the USA as Inca – Secret Blend and rolling out to Europe next year as we start to introduce additional vitolas and scale up the production.

The new blends we were working on included a 20 count box of robustos with a Pinar del Rio wrapper and a 10 count limited release of robustos with a Pele D’Oro wrapper (and some of the filler as well) It’s a genuine Limited Edition, not a sort of  limited to as many as we can sell as many seem to be these days. We only have enough of this low yield/high quality leaf to make 10,000 sticks and they are super premium quality. A sweet zing on the palate, dark colorado maduro wrapper. Medium strength and perfect construction. I’m very excited about this project.

Tabacalera del Oriente is going through some major expansion and building works to cope with the demand for this superior quality Peruvian tobacco that is used I believe as filler in some of the big brand new world cigars as well as the Secret Blend Puros range. The work should be finished in around 8 weeks’ time and will feature a new visitor centre including scotch whisky bar and cigar sampling area. We are looking forward to our new C.Gars – Peru premises being completed 🙂

We managed a little time off during the trip, herfing at bars, restaurants and friends’ homes. Super friendly people and very laid back ambience. Tarapoto is a cool place to visit. We toured round waterfalls and relaxed at a friend’s house in the jungle close to the water. Perfect herfing spot.

Heading home via Miami , I popped in to our friends at Alec Bradley, had a dram of Jura 1984 and a Prensado and chatted about a new exclusive cigar project that we are working on together for early next year. All exciting stuff 🙂

Back in London and one day to catch up in the office until I was back on the road again to head up North on Friday for a mammoth 3 stop trip starting with architects meetings in Liverpool (and a quick smoke at Turmeaus Liverpool) and finishing with a visit to Turmeaus and LCDH – Chester.

The expansion to Turmeaus Chester is almost complete and with the three intercommunicating shops we now have all the space we need for our complete retail range of tobacco and alcohol. The builders are almost finished and if I do say so myself the results are pretty stunning. I reckon the additional premises will be integrated and open in around a weeks’ time and I’m looking forward to showing clients around at our next tasting evening on the 29^th October.

If all goes to plan next week we will complete the acquisition of another specialist cigar shop/lounge up North and Turmeaus will be expanding again. I’ll keep the location secret till my next blog 🙂

Our Winter Cigar Auction catalogue is now closed and very full. In fact I am fairly certain this is the largest catalogue we have ever offered and will likely be the largest cigar auction in history. We have a breath taking range of Davidoff, Pre Embargo, Limited Edition humidors and other vintage cigars in the auction which we are selling on behalf of many collectors, aficionados and connoisseurs.

The sale will be held at The Bulgari on the 30^th November. Catalogue will be online and in print 3 weeks before the sale. I’m fairly sure the Bulgari event is more or less sold out already.

In Havana cigar news this week, the H. Upmann No.2 Reserva has been released in tiny allocated quantities, excellent cigar but what a shame more aren’t available at this time. The UK regional Bolivar Belgravia is due out in November and I still have no idea when we will received the Montecristo 80^th anniversary.

We are releasing the Orchant Seleccion Ramon Allones Specially Selected next week. Just 64 boxes selected personally for their beautiful condition, appearance, quality and blend. I’m grateful for Hunters & Frankau’s continued support with the Orchant Seleccion Havana cigar range, Read more about them on this link.

It’s a ‘2 day week’ for me this week as I head overseas again on Wednesday… Although it won’t be as hot as last week in Peru!

Have a smokey week,

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Greetings from sunny London!

I can’t believe how good the weather has been over the last week, great timing as I took Monday and Tuesday off so I was able to smoke some good’uns in the garden.

I don’t usually smoked huge vitolas but the Partagas Salomones is the exception as I absolutely love this cigar. I don’t think I have ever had one that was anything but excellent. Exceptionally full, sweet, rich flavours and medium strength, considering the difficulty in rolling this shape the construction is absolutely first rate. Very highly recommended and at the best price in the UK – guaranteed.

This Sunday is the National Tobacco and Gift Fair at Nottingham and hopefully the weather will still be good enough for the 2 hour topless drive and car herf over there. I used to attend this show some years ago when it was the AITS show but I gave up on it as there seemed to be such a bunch of nerds running it! It was sort of a miserable/depressing excuse of a trade show considering how amazing InterTabac and IPCPR shows are. Nevertheless, the name has changed and perhaps there will be a nicer crowd running the show this year so I’ll give it a go and see what’s new in the trade.

Next week I’m zooming off to Peru to work on Inka (and Inca for the International market) Secret Blend cigars. I’ll be testing out blends for the new robusto ‘Reserva D’Oro’ that I hope to introduce later this year. This cigar is made entirely of the rare ‘Pele D’Oro’ leaf and will be a treat like no other! Pele D’Oro is a very low yield leaf and not used much these days so I understand as its not resistant to blue mold disease. However in Peru we have enough grade A leaf to make 1000 boxes of robustos which will be as sweet as sugar 🙂

Inka – Secret Blend is so popular now in the UK we are finding it hard to keep our Turmeaus shops stocked up fast enough but I’m trying my best! We have now imported more cigars than ever in all sizes to satisfy demand. You won’t find Inka everywhere in the UK but you will find it on C.Gars website, Robert Graham shops and Turmeaus Tobacconist shops.

In empire building news this week I am happy to report that the new Chester – Turmeaus whisky and cigar shop is coming along very nicely with the cabinets being fitted, the lighting completed and hopefully the signage, bar and counter all to be completed next week. That would be great timing as stock is now arriving daily and we expect to open the doors to the new part of our fabulous Turmeaus – LCDH, Chester later this month. There will be more seating for sampling, an incredible spirits range, accessories and of course more cigars. Very rare whiskies and rum by the dram and the friendliest service in Town.

A very warm welcome back to the Team to Chris Morrisson who will be based at Chester and overseeing the alcohol side of the business. You will recognize him easily… In his kilt 🙂 we have a comprehensive range of single malt whisky online at C.Gars but for an even better range visit our partners at Robert Graham Ltd.

Due to popular demand we have introduced Drew Estate cigars. Check them out on this link, this range is very popular in the USA and it will be interesting to see how UK smokers take to it. The packaging is cool, the names are hilarious!

Last two Cohiba Connoisseurs samplers available now when they’re gone… They’re gone!

The new Romeo Cedros de Luxe is in! Lovely smoke and a blend that I believe is well balanced enough to mature further and continue for some years. Buy a box to smoke and stash another away for a few years.

Also, a nice surprise lurking in the depths of our Directors Reserve humidor this week 🙂 The prettiest box of English Market Selection El Rey del Mundo Tainos I have ever seen. Looks like someone painted them with oils ! the closest blend to the Davidoff Dom Perignon.

Okays so I’m off for the weekend armed with a bottle of Benriach (I love this stuff!) and a baggie stuffed with Bolivar Belicosos, Fuente King (BIG smoke!!!) and a box of PSD6’s #Yummm (can’t get enough of them!)

Next report from Peru!

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing.

Mitchell

I spent the weekend at the annual Intertabak trade show in Dortmund. This has to be the largest tobacco trade show in the world, dwarfing the US IPCPR show in size. In fact it is so big my assistant Christine and I were having trouble finding people that we had meetings arranged with!

It was Great to meet up with friends from all over the world at the Cigar Journal event,. I also had a big surprise seeing a 4 page splash on C.Gars Ltd in the current edition of Cigar Journal.  You can find details for the cigar Journal event here

Big congrats to Mike Choi for winning the cigar lounge award for the Sahakian Lonunge at The Bulgari. A most delightful herfing spot in the finest location in London.

As expected there were tons of stands for shisha and e-cigarettes which are of no interest to us at all so we gave them a big miss and herfed on to all the cigar and pipe exhibitors that we wanted to visit. These included our favourite New World brands of Arturo Fuente, Oliva and Alec Bradley to name a few. I love these brands for the range and quality of their products, superior blending and beautiful presentation. Full ranges available on my website and select ranges available at Turmeaus stores of course.

Christine was very busy buying a zillion pipes of all shapes and sizes for just about every pipe smokers budget whilst I was busy drinking Grappa at Gentili humidors stand. I have been selling Gentili humidors for over 16 years now and have even visited ( and been very impressed by ) their factory in Italy some years ago. Hand made and beautifiully finished these humidors are superior quality and exceptional value, highly recommended.

My other top tip humidor and accessories range is Dunhill. I actually think their retail prices are wrong! Simply exceptional quality and finish, timeless classics that will last a lifetime. Checkout the range as they are highly recommended.

I attended the Davidoff retail panel ( Europe ) meeting with a few of my European contemporary and caught up with the latest news. I’m very excited about the new Davidoff  Escuria. We sampled this new range at the Davidoff Golden Bands Awards event on Saturday night and were very impressed. This was a delightful evening and the usual uber slick Davidoff event. I was so pleased to see my friend Marc Portmann win the Davidoff  Depositaire of the Year award.

I had the best of company at my table sitting with Edward ( my favourite cigar merchant in the world !) and Eddie Sahakian from
Davidoff London and Simon from My Smoking Shop in Preston. Fair to say we had a great evening together.
The only other UK cigar merchant I spotted at the show was Parresh Patel who has load of first rate cigar stores in the UK and is a thoroughly decent chap. Question is where was everyone else ?! perhaps no other serious cigar specialists in the UK ? I have always attended trade shows all over the world to take advantage of buying direct and buying new products to bring my clients the most exciting products at the best possible prices. Seems like a simple plan to me 🙂

I stayed in a hotel called Unique Excelsior, be warned the only thing that is unique about this hotel is how expensive it is and how terribly average it is. The only reason I booked was because it used to have a smoking lounge but that’s gone now as well! Dortmund airport has an exceptionally uncomfortable smoking area but at least it’s better than nothing.

In other cigar news this week, we are still waiting for H. Upmann Reserva but not hopeful of getting any substantial quantity any time soon. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we imminently expect the arrival of the UK regional edition Bolivar Belgravia. 5 1/4” length and w hopping 55 ring gauge presented in boxes of 10 . Having smoked 3 of these from the launch party, I can’t wait for these splendid cigars to reach our humidors.

La Casa del Habano – Chester also received the exclusive LCDH Romeo Cedros de Luxe another first rate Havana and a most welcome addition to our range.

For the experienced Havana cigar smoker I have put together a very special Cohiba sampler. A great opportunity to contrast some well-aged Cohiba with some of the finest limited editions.

I’m heading up North to Turmeaus  Liverpool and Chester to have a day out of the office! And to check out progress on our third Chester store which I understand is coming along very nicely. Part of my job is to test new products to ensure quality is up to standard 🙂 more details to follow !

I’ll be kicking back with this weekend’s baggie filled with some Romeo Cedros de Luxe, Fuente Anejo 77 and Oliva Orchant Seleccion Chubby… nice mix. And I’ll be pairing them up with some Dalmore 21 Limited edition as a bit of a treat J

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Ramon Allones Club Coronas Limited edition 2015, this cheeky little smoke is in… And out. Another super fast seller in short supply before it even reaches the shops.

Fortunately our La Casa del Habano got them first 🙂 But have more or less sold out now although we do expect another small delivery any time now. Turmeaus shops should have them by Monday with any luck.

This is a great size, large enough on the ring gauge at 47 to deliver volumes of flavour and long enough at 5 3/8” to satisfy. It’s the last of the 2015 LE’s and I’m already a fan of this smoke.

Actually I think Ramon is one of my favourite brands. I get on well with all the vitolas except for the Gigantes which I could never quite fathom out despite most of my pals loving this cigar. Perhaps its just too long a smoke for me.

I loved the brand so much we have already had Orchant Seleccion boxes of Ramon Allones Belicosos (UK regional edition) and 898’s some years ago and I’m delighted to announce that this years Orchant Seleccion Havana cigar will be the Specially Selected. Just 64 boxes have been selected and will be adorned with the distinctive Orchant Seleccion gold bands and box dressing.

Selected for their superior quality, condition, appearance and blend, I expect to release these in late October. Read more background on Orchant Seleccion Havanas here.

Its been a short week for me as I wasn’t in on Monday and Tuesday taking a break for New Year and birthdays. 3 day weeks are a very relaxing routine 🙂 I enjoyed a Cuban Davidoff birthday starting with a 4000, followed by a Haut Brion and finishing with an Yquem (well actually… 2!) All splendid smokes but the Haut was quite remarkable. For such a small format cigar its packs a hell of a punchy full flavour. I absolutely love vintage Davidoff (actually I’m quite fond of the New World Davidoff too!) when stored correctly this brand of Cuban Davidoff ages to perfection and is a sublime experience for the cigar smoker with a sophisticated palate.

In Empire expansion news this week(!) I’m happy to report that Chester part three now has an alarm system, CCTV, phone lines, a beautiful paint job and a few wires hanging here and there for the new lighting scheme! Tub chairs have arrived and the doorway between the La Casa VIP bar area and the new shop has been opened (thank you Chester locksmith!) If all goes to plan the super chic, trendy and expanded Turmeaus will be open early October.

We have also agreed terms on another new Turmeaus oop North (secret location till contract is completed!) with a planned opening in November. More details to follow.

I’m not sure if there’s a mini boom going on in the UK market but C.Gars Ltd has never been so busy (TY customers!) both our retail and mail order divisions are dramatically up on last year. Well done to all the Team for coping. I can tell you its no mean feat having 99.9% on time delivery for 1000’s of orders a week.

My guess is that it’s a combination of new cigar smokers, existing cigar smokers being hacked off at anti smoking legislation and perhaps a bit of stashing cigars due to perceived shortages of cigars in the market as well as fear that if the US market opens up there will be even greater shortages. Whatever the reasons I will keep growing C.Gars and Turmeaus to satisfy our customers needs for the finest in cigars and customer service. If we ever fall short on service, the buck stops here so you can always contact me personally at [email protected] or co- Director Laura at  [email protected]. Huge business this may be but we are still a family business with an ethos of traditional values and personal service.

I’m off to Dortmund now for the annual Inter Tabak trade show and looking forward to the Davidoff Golden Bands Awards evening on Saturday. I’m still on their European Retalier Panel so it will be interesting to hear all the latest developments from this great brand. This is a huge trade show that I attend every year. Full report next week.

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing.

Mitchell

As the subject suggests we are eagerly awaiting the release of the long awaited Upmann No. 2 Reserva. We still don’t know when but the market intel suggests it should be fairly soon.

Reserva and Gran Reserva series are my favourite cigars as they are generally the best! and the No. 2 will be no exception. I smoked them at the Festival in Havana last year and they were sublime smokes. Presented in cabinets of 20 cigars we expect massive interest in this splendid cigar.

In herfing news from last week…

This was a full on herfing week starting in style on Monday with an office herf with friends and thoroughly good sampling of the Partagas Maduro No. 1 followed by dinner at the White House and a herf at Chez Orchant featuring H. Upmann Magnum 56 paired up with copious quantities of Robert Graham Dancing Stag single malts.

Wednesday herf was with friends in The Garden Room at The Lanesborough where we were back to old standards including the Orchant Seleccion 2010 Bolivar Belicosos and Partagas P.2’s paired up with Oban single malt and chocolate muffins (TY JtB!)

That got me in good herfing shape for the whisky and cigar tasting evening at La Casa del Habano Chester on Thursday which was a ridiculously sold out, two session event which ran from 6 pm until midnight! we sampled Partagas D.6’s and D5’s and followed them with El Rey del Mundo Tainos 2001 vintage (closest blend to a Dom Perignon that I can think of) the whisky line up was the Turmeaus Reserva Cask, Turmeaus Highland (coming to a bottle near you soon!) and The Hoebeg by Robert Graham.

The Wednesday Whisky Club members were out in force and enjoyed a very special club offer on Romeo Anejados, Our friend and International member Pal from Norway came over just to enjoy the evening and friends traveled from far and wide to make this another very special event.

I popped in to Turmeaus Liverpool on my way to Turmeaus Chester and am always surprised to see how busy these shops are. The range of cigars and whisky is quite breath-taking.

The builders are crashing away at the Chester Turmeaus additional premises and we now have a beautiful floor as well as all three shop fronts redecorated. The beautiful new cabinets and furniture are being handmade now and will be installed in the next few weeks ready to take delivery of some extraordinary whisky, rum, gin, champagne and of course more cigar ranges 🙂 Our seating capacity for cigar sampling will be increased and we will have an additional ‘whisky sampling by the dram’ bar.

Saturday late night and it was back to The Lanesborough with friends until… Very late 🙂 we went through a baggie of some excellent 1996 vintage Havanas including Cohiba Siglo V (unbelievable good smoke) Partagas 898 and Cohiba Corona Especiales. I love the Garden room, super comfortable and the best in service.

Next week, I’m off to the trade show at Dortmund and as ever will be reviewing the latest cigar and accessories to bring our clients the best products at the best prices.

I’ll be offline Monday and Tuesday and for those celebrating, I’ll take the opportunity to wish you a very happy and healthy new year. Oh! I better not forget to wish a very happy birthday to C.Gars Director and my better half – Karyn 🙂

Have a great week.

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell