I reckon this was something like the 16^th or 17^th IPCPR (previously RTDA) trade show I have attended in the USA and this is the second time I have been to the show in New Orleans. The show was HUGE!!! and I love seeing all the manufacturers of cigars and accessories, as well as trade colleagues not to mention learn about all the new cigars and other products coming to the market. In fact the show is so huge, despite being there for 5 days I still didn’t manage to meet up with everyone I had planned (sorree).

There used to be a trade association in the UK that put on a rather miserable looking annual trade show. I’m not sure if they do it any more as I gave up going out of sheer boredom some years ago and prefer to attend International trade shows instead.

I only spotted two other cigar specialists at the show from the UK- Paresh Patel from Regal Cigars and Simon Jackson from My Smoking Shop, both thoroughly professional merchants and top chaps!  No one else from the UK?! Excellent, that leaves it pretty clear for me to keep importing new stock lines and passing all the savings over to our customers – job done 🙂

There were many new brands of cigars that I have to wonder will they actually be around in a years’ time? they look like branding exercises rather than actually cigar making businesses. We shall see.

The first stand I stopped at was Daniel Marshall humidors. I think I made Daniel’s day as I gave him his first order of the show! Awesome boxes, store in style 🙂
Click here to see our full range of Daniel Marshall humidors! More designs coming soon.

Great to see the Xikar range growing year on year and looking forward to an even larger range online very soon – see our Xikar range here!

We’re excited about the possibility of introducing La Palina cigars to the UK market and we plan to add to our existing Nat Sherman range, as I found a cracker of a smoke that I will be importing to the UK very soon. I love Nat Sherman and it’s my favourite shop to visit when I’m in NYC.

I bumped into Daniel who used to work at Turmeaus Mayfair and was very happy to see how well he’s doing at Mombacho Cigars. I even found a cracking little cigar in their range that I fancy bringing in to the UK in the next few weeks.

Turmeaus shops and customers  will be very happy to hear I bought zillions of new pipes that can’t normally be found in the UK so their ranges are about to have some delightful quality and value additions. Our pipe tobacco business has been going ballistic over the last two years. Best value in the UK guaranteed- if I’m wrong I will gladly price match.

As most of C.Gars blog readers know, I love Alec Bradley Cigars! We have started a project to have a special release for the UK market only which is very cool and will be very exclusive to two or three cigar specialist only 🙂 Oh and thanks to the Boys at A.B. (George, Alan, Mike, Ralph et al) for the delightful dinner in New Orleans.
Check out our current Alec Bradley range here

I’m equally fond of the Oliva cigars who had a beautiful exhibition stand and we voted ‘the most comfortable armchairs’! Orchant Seleccion by Oliva remain our best-selling new cigar this year:

Shorty

Chubby

Skinny

I was working hard for Regius cigars at the show being a sort of brand ambassador for the limited edition Orchant seleccion cigars that Akhil and I have blended. Seemed to go well as I think we sold them all out on the first day. Check out my UK Regius range here – ridiculous good value, no wonder we sell zillions of them all year round 🙂

Inca Secret Blend – Robusto

I probably don’t need to bang on about the success of the Inka – Secret Blend cigars I created for the UK market but I can now confirm that our Inca- Secret Blend created for the US and International market seem to be selling out faster than we could ever have dreamed. I’m now finalizing the blend on my Inca Robusto, which will roll out in a few months’ time. We are adding retailers daily and some are listed on our Inca website.

The Davidoff stand was as breath taking as usual and it was good to see Avo holding court as usual. The Davidoff range is stunning and I love this brand, especially the new Winston Churchill cigars.

My business partners; Ron Morrison and Guy Hancock celebrated the successful business with colleagues including Chris Morrison , Gennaro Lettieri , Gary Hyams and Clay Wilson with a fabulous dinner at the Commanders Place in New Orleans! Highly recommended.

So all in all another successful trade show and now I’m looking forward to doing it all over again at the Dortmund trade show in September and then back to Las Vegas next Summer 🙂

Righto – 1 day off before I get back to my serious cigar dinner talking routine… tough life but clearly I’m the man for the job.

Peaceful puffing and long ashes from sunny L.A.

Mitchell

I would have thought that after 18 years of non-stop travelling the world on business trips I would be immune to jet lag by now but not so! The 8 hour time difference between London and California is pretty brutal and it’s taken me the best part of a week to feel ‘normal’ again.

That said I was super impressed with the Virgin Dreamliner that flew me over here. Huge comfortable seats and the air circulation seemed to be so much cleaner. Please please change those awful old 747’s on the London – Havana route Mr Branson! Super friendly flight attendants and a very nice First Officer who I spent ages chatting to (there are 3 pilots on the Dreamliner!)

I love the Virgin Airlines experience, from booking to checking in, Upper Class lounge through to the flight. All very slick, friendly, modern and cool. I like to think of C.Gars as the Virgin Airlines of the cigar industry 🙂

And so started my annual rather long annual Summer trip to the US 🙂 I got out of the airport in record time and grabbed a taxi just missing the rush hour which was just as well as it really was time to have the first smoke after a long days travelling. Of course I’m a Havana cigar smoker but there won’t be any of those for the next month or so! Despite President Obama’s watering down of the embargo I will have to wait a good while longer before I can smoke a good Cuban over here.

Happily I had some Inca Secret Blend with me so I smoked a Tambo with a good shot of Mac 12 which hit the spot perfectly! I have a few firm favourites that I’ve been herfing my way through over the last week including our fabulous Oliva Orchant Selection range (particularly the Chubby – bit of a bargain at £9.99 a pop which is probably why they are one of our fastest selling cigars!)

I’ve also been herfing my way through huge quantities of Regius Robustos. I like this brand of cigars, in fact I think I may be the only cigar specialist in the UK to stock the full range as well as sell them for the most ridiculously low prices. The fact is they are good smokes. Not for the novice as they have a bit of that full power thing going on in the blend but the experienced New World cigar smoker will enjoy this well-crafted completely handmade premium cigar. I know I’m right as well are literally selling mountains of them.

To add a little sophistication to my daily cigar rotation I have been enjoying the Davidoff Winston Churchill Toro immensely. Rich, bold and complex from start to finish. Highly recommended.

The weather is quite perfect in Los Angeles and it’s great to have a change of pace and work from the pool side! Friends keep stopping by for a smoke with me so it’s not much different to the London office but it is much sunnier 🙂

Thanks to my dear friend Peter for hosting me and a load of chums at GHR earlier this week. We had a wonderful full on herf! Dinner, drinks, smokes with a load of cigar smoking pals that I have known for many many years. I expect to be herfing with them for many more years to come.

I’m heading over to New Orleans for the annual IPCPR tobacco trade show and in fact I think this is the 16^th trade show I have been to (it used to be called RTDA). I love to come to this trade show, not only to herf (though there is quite a bit of herfing going on!) but to see what’s going on in terms of new products whether New World cigars or Cigar accessories. My trick over the years was to cut out the middle man, buy products that were not in the UK, buy huge quantities to import and… Give my clients the best products and best value possible. By the sheer size C.Gars has grown to, I would say I have accomplished that 🙂

I’m looking forward to seeing my business Partner Ron Morrison as well as Gennaro Lettieri and Gary Hyams from Inca Cigars USA at the show as well as Guy Hancock from Decent Cigar Emporium Dublin. Guy and I own a company called Decent C.Gars Ltd and is the importer of the fabulous Arturo Fuente cigars to the UK.

A few days ago I heard that once again the EU is dictating their mental laws to the UK and next year we will have yet more awful health warnings ruining our beautiful cigar boxes. Apparently there is also some bonkers requirements for me to register the ingredients of Inka Secret Blend cigars. Umm ok then: Secret Blend cigar ingredients: Tobacco. Honestly, you couldn’t make it up, it’s so stupid.

Pretty exciting news that I can share in so far as we have just put another retail shop under offer and in solicitors hands so we are doing another little unexpected additional expansion this year. More details when the contract is signed in a few weeks’ time (call me superstitious!)

Okay that’s me heading back to the poolside office for a few more rays of sun before I head to the airport and New Orleans 🙂

Have a smokey weekend,

Peaceful puffing and… ‘have a great day’!

Mitchell

What an incredible vintage cigar auction! I think this is the first time that anyone has combined a physical auction with an online auction and I was delighted that the bidding platform we created in house worked as well as it did.

Auctioneer Jonathan Humbert offered 302 Lots of aged, rare and unusual cigars and sold all but 15 Lots on Monday evening with most of the unsold Lots being sold at low end estimate immediately after the sale taking the sale rate up to 99% which was fairly impressive.

Pre Embargo prices seem to be scaling new highs as I predicted they would a few years back. The quality of the Pre Embargo cabinets was quite breath taking with pungent bouquet and magnificent wrappers. A box of Dunhill Tubos in pristine condition sold for a record £8000 including premium.

The top selling Lots were:

We held the auction at The Bulgari which was a fabulous venue, super slick professional service from Mike Choi and his team and an excellent post auction herf in the Edward Sahakian cigar lounge. On the menu were Partagas SD4’s, Juan Lopez Seleccion No. 2 and Montecristo Petit Edmundo washed down with Robert Graham award winning Ben Nevis single malt whisky and delicious canapés which were all very welcome after the 3 ½ hour auction sale!

My thanks to all the bidders that attended and of course my auction team for organizing such a great event.

As ever there was a post post herf in my lounge at home with my regular cigar smoking chums which went on till very late. We switched over to Partagas P2’s which are smoking exceptionally well at this time and a few drams of Dalmore Cigar Malt.

We are now starting to plan our Winter auction sale which will be help on the 30^th November. We are further developing our auction platform so online bidders will also have the option to select audio and visual should they wish. That way they can ‘feel’ the action of the auction room.

Prospective sellers should contact my auction team with details of their cigars on [email protected] but please be aware that if you have just returned from a holiday in Cuba with a box of Cohiba Esplendidos… We are not interested! (the clue is in the name ‘ Vintage Cigar Auction’!)

On to the next exciting event and today is the Hunters & Frankau Summer party and introduction of the Ramon Allones 225^th anniversary humidor and cigars. I’m fairly certain that by the time these reach our warehouse and shops on Monday they will be all but sold out. This could well be the fastest selling new cigar I have ever known. Oh … and it’s not hype … the cigars are delicious, well matured and crafted to perfection.

My assistant Michelle will be attending the party and will give a full run down and some great photos no doubt, especially if you follow us on Facebook. I’m not attending the party as it’s my Fathers birthday so I’m afraid I have another party to attend 🙂 So I’ll wish everyone a fabulous time at the H&F party and I’ll wish my father a very happy birthday.

My father is not only my best friend but also my favourite herfing partner. We were in business together when I was a lot younger and had barrels of laughs together and continue to do so today. We started the birthday celebrations last night with a family dinner at a fabulous restaurant followed by cracking open some Bilecart Salmon 1989 and a box of Davidoff Dom Perignon 1989, which was sublime. Tonight we have another dinner planned and I have a rather incredible cabinet of Davidoff Chateau Yquem that I have been saving for the occasion.

The celebrations are continuing on Sunday with Father’s day on Sunday! So a bit of a Dad spoiling weekend, and why not? After all, my father is the reason for my success in the cigar business as well as my enjoyment and appreciation of a fine cigar. I remember snagging cigars from his humidor when I was a teenager (I’m sure he secretly knew!) and I have fond memories of going to cigar shops with him when I was a kid to top up on his stocks as well as buy me cigars when I was a bit older.

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell