Another predicted heatwave that failed to arrive in fact it looks like a grey winters day from my office window – nothing like the traditional bank holiday washout weekend in the UK. It was obvious this would happen as soon as I said the word BBQ to my wife. I bought the hugest BBQ imaginable  almost 2 years ago, a real bad ass American style  one (as I am a wannabe American!) and you can imagine how many times I have used it? Once! Splendid.

C’est la vie, I will have to console myself with some great bank holiday smokes as I plan some chill out herf time at home. And in the baggie this weekend…

Saint Luis Rey Lonsdales Cabinet Selection vintage 1998 – Simply delicious.

Por Larranaga Magnificos UK regional 2007 – Possibly one of the finest regional editions ever an destined to become a classic.

Punch Double Coronas 1999 vintage – My long-time favourite prominente.

Bolivar Belicosos Finos 2007 vintage – My favourite vintage in the last 15 years +

El Rey del Mundo Tainos 2002 vintage – 13 years aged and smoking like a dream.

That should keep me smiling despite the weather! Oh and I’ve grabbed a bottle of Dancing Stag Strathisla which will pair up to perfection with the smokes.

There’s nothing quite like a fine hand rolled cigar but for the most of us quite how you would roll a cigar is the mystery. This is why we are holding cigar rolling events throughout our stores. The first of which took place in The Treasurer on Edinburgh’s Canongate this week

Professional Torcedora (cigar roller) Arlety Alemańy Azcuy, fresh off the plane from Cuba, demonstrated her art with amazing ease, carefully preparing each tobacco leaf and skilfully moulding together a series of rather impressive Robustos. 

Arlety Alemany Azcuí originally learnt to roll cigars in some of the smaller factories of Pinar del Rio, the province where she was born. She then moved to Havana and began working in the Romeo y Julieta factory, where she remained for nine years. However, she then transferred to the H. Upmann factory where she has been for the past three years and where she is still located today. She specialises in rolling large format cigars such as Prominentes, Gran Coronas & Julieta No. 2’s and has also spent time teaching trainee torcedors in the academies. 

Amazing to watch, it takes years to develop the skill to produce as many as one hundred cigars in a day (though for demonstrations purpose she goes a little bit slower so we can observe). Arlety is a glamorous and fun person who is at ease with posing for photos without even breaking her concentration from the task in hand. 

There are a couple more opportunities to catch this brilliant display on Thursday 22nd at our Rose Street branch and Friday 23rd at the Glasgow shop. All the cigars made on the day are available to buy on the day. Don’t miss the opportunity to see the skill of Cuba here at home.

We look forward to welcoming Arlety at our London offices in a few weeks’ time (Gracias Hunters& Frankau)

If you can’t make it to the demonstration, you can purchase a fresh cigar for yourself here. 

If the licencing authorities do their thing we should have our new, and may I say rather super duper, Robert Graham shop in Glasgow opened imminently (more news next blog… I hope!) this will be a mega cigar and whisky emporium. If you have visited our wonderful Cambridge shop think of this as similar but on steroids! Huge  range of cigars in fabulous walk in humidor… My best effort yet (well my Partner Ronnie did all the design and planning as usual – thank you Ronnie!) I’ll be at our Edinburgh and Glasgow shops from the 8th September for quite a few days. Pop in and have a dram with me.

Our Winter Auction catalogue is coming together nicely. I think this will be the largest amount of limited edition humidors ever offered! In fact I can’t get into my walk in humidor as there are so many! More details on the auction website in a few weeks’ time.

Check out the photo of one of the rarest humidors I have every come across in my life. The humidor and the Cohiba cigars are breathtakingly beautiful. (More photos here!)

Laura and her I.T. Team are hard at work on the long planned revamped C.Gars website and it should be online in a few weeks’ time, faster, more interactive and uber cool… Very exciting stuff.

Michelle is still on holiday so if you phone the London office the friendly sounding sales assistant may well be me! (I have already been told not to use my “grumpy voice”!)

Have a smokey bank holiday weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Finally back to the UK after 5 weeks herfing on the West Coast. Unfortunately I didn’t bring the sunshine back with me!

Great to be back at our London office though, nice working by the swimming pool and hosting cigar evenings non-stop but 5 weeks without a Havana cigar is no joke!

I can’t knock the NC’s I have been smoking though (mainly Fuente, Davidoff, Alec Bradley and Regius) perfect draw every time, beautiful wrappers and a variety of flavours that are exceptionally different to the Havanas I am used to.

So I kicked off my return to London with the new Limited edition Punch Serie D’Oro no.2 just released in ridiculously small quantity. The cigar needs a little humidor time to settle down but may well develop into a classic. Punch flavours throughout, medium strength well balanced. I look forward to revisiting this one later in the year.

The new Punch will be featuring at the cigar and whisky tasting evening at my Cambridge Robert Graham shop on the 2nd September together with some fine single malt whisky from the Dancing Stag range. I’ll be there to host the evening in conjunction with Jimmy from Hunters and Frankau and we will also have a Cuban roller rolling some fabulous fresh Havanas. If you haven’t booked up we still have a few places available, click here to book your ticket to the tasting event now.

Moved on to some decent mature Havanas and I decided to break open a case of Saint Luis Rey Lonsdales in cabinet selection from 1998. After 15 years maturing in our reserve humidors, these puppies have now come into their own. Smooth and creamy, sweet flavours, medium to full strength and perfectly crafted. I’ve already blasted though half the cabinet. On very special offer whilst stocks last at £499, less than a Tenner a pop, great value for a great smoke. Saint Luis Rey were my Fathers favourite brand for many years and I understand my late Grandfather used to smoke them too. 3 generations can’t be wrong! Incidentally,  my father visited our Robert Graham Cambridge shop  over the weekend and had great fun hunting through both walk-in humidors, no doubt he took some SLR’s away with him. 

Loads of nice write ups all over the internet over the last few weeks including this one at the fabulous Cigar Journal magazine.  Yes indeed, Turmeaus cigar shop in Mayfair sold ‘the’ £40,000 cigar!!! Check out the story. Congratulations to Callum. I think he will have the trip of a lifetime in Nicaragua.

Found this great blog as well I think some of these bloggers do reviews better than most professionals. It’s ‘ real’ and I love that.

One of my favourite sites is HalfWheel, honest  and to the point, these Guys write great articles. Check out the review on the special edition Regius that I was delighted to collaborate on. I’m looking forward to offering clients this limited edition in the UK in a few months’ time.

Auction time is approaching  on the 19th November at Boisdale Canary Wharf, should be the biggest event yet. Auction Lots will be online and in printed catalogue 4 weeks or so before the sale. 

Mid October we are looking forward to the release of the latest UK regional edition. The La Flor de Cano –Gran Cano is eagerly awaited following the success of the LFDC short robusto. I can’t wait to try them!

Have a smokey week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell 

‘Hotter than July’ great album lol and I gather from the news on my Blackberry that August started off even hotter in the UK, sunny days and balmy nights? Perfect for the cigar smoker of course!

I’m still herfing my way round California which is nowhere near as hot as London but I’m not complaining as its in the low 80’s and blue skies every day.

Fortunately my hotel is very cigar friendly (or at least they tolerate me and cigar smoking chums and have done for the years and years I have been spending Summer here!)  in fact I put on a small cigar dinner for friends at the hotel’s restaurant a few evenings ago and we smoked throughout the evening without anyone batting an eyelid. Very civilized.

I popped into Nazareth’s in Beverly Hills for a smoke and bumped into a few people that I know (I get recognized everywhere!!) Naz is the perfect host and always makes me feel very welcome. It’s the perfect spot to relax with a good cigar and espresso.

Took the train to San Diego to herf with friends for the day (thank you V.C.), Easy train ride from Union Station (quite beautiful station  also used for a lot of movies) I was very impressed with the comfort and complimentary cinnamon rolls and soft drinks in Business Class till I realised I was booked in coach and moved on 🙂

I’ve been taking the opportunity of testing out some great cigars from the Vegas trade show. The new Alec Bradley Mundial is one that I am particularly fond of and I’ll be bringing a few of the popular sizes for the UK market into our humidors in a couple of months time. Exclusive to C.Gars Group of course.

Also planning some exclusives on new Torano cigars and looking forward to Davidoff Nicaraguan arriving.

Happy to report the release of the first limited edition Havana of this year this Monday. The Punch Serie D’Oro No. 2 measures in at 5 ½” length and 52 ring gauge. All tobacco aged for 2 years so we could well be in for a treat if it is anywhere as good as the UK regional (2008) Punch Serie D’Oro no. 1. I’m particularly fond of the UK regional as I loaned the only known surviving box of 1970’s Punch Serie D’Oro no. 1 to H&F/HAS to copy the box design.

Small initial allocations but hoping to have more soon.

Our Online Auction website is becoming more popular by the day. Check it out if you are looking for something aged, rare ,discontinued or unusual. New Lots are added every 2 or 3 days. We are still ironing out a few bugs but hope to start listing 100’s of Lots weekly very soon as we have quite a huge backlog of sellers Lots  (over 1000 !) I am still getting loads of clients emailing to ask how the fees and shipping works which I am always happy to answer but I can tell you that the FAQs really does answer almost all potential questions.

Our Winter Auction event is now confirmed for the 19^th November at the fabulous Boisdale Canary Wharf. My ‘cigar twin’ Ranald (we have the same birthday!) and I are planning an event that will be like none other… Watch this space as more details are to follow. Auction Lots will be on the Auction website approximately 5 weeks before the auction at Boisdale and we are expecting a great selection of aged, rare, limited edition and other fine, desirable Havana cigars.

Apologies to our Inka – Secret Blend fans, I know a few of our retail cigar shops are very low on stocks as is our mail order division but we do have the hugest import arriving in a few weeks time to try and cope with demand which continues to amaze us. I probably shouldn’t be surprised, it’s a great quality cigar, in popular sizes at a brilliant price point. 100% handmade and 100% Peruvian. Oh… And 100% exclusive to C.Gars Ltd and Robert Graham Ltd.

This week we will be offering our UK newsletter clients new pricing on Saint Luis Rey Serie A whilst stocks last. I dare not even mention the new price on my blog as I doubt we could handle the volume of orders we would receive! If you are not signed up to the newsletter you know what to do 🙂 I have always enjoyed the Saint Luis Rey brand as does my Father and did my Grandfather. Popular sizes with a good flavour and strength profile. Sort of a cross between a Romeo and a Punch would be my best description.

We recently ran a similar offer on Saint Luis Rey Regios which sold out in a day. No one could believe the price and wondered how we could do it? Well… That’s called buying power baby!!! And taking care of our clients with the most competitive prices and the best service in the UK. Hey we didn’t become the largest specialist cigar merchant in the UK for no reason 😉

OK that’s enough from me and I better head back to that deckchair by the pool where I have a Davidoff Puro D’Oro waiting for me

Have a great week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

So, after a zillion flights so far this year my smoking chum George and I decided on a road trip to Las Vegas for the annual IPCPR trade show with a quick stopover in Iowa where I have some relatives and so we can look for some places to visit in Iowa 🙂 Renting a no smoking car we immediately lit up some rather huge cigars and headed off for a 4 hour drive from LA to Vegas enjoying Davidoff, Fuente and Alec Bradley smokes whilst taking in some great scenery on the way and watching the temperature soar to a peak of 115F near Death Valley (how appropriate!)

No sooner than I checked in to the Venetian Hotel did I start bumping into friends and colleagues in the industry. Over the next few days we enjoyed fabulous parties hosted by Cigar Journal, Torano Cigars, Alec Bradley Cigars and Davidoff to name a few.

Met up with old friends from the ASC newsgroup as well as Cigar Family and walked the show over and over again from 10 in the morning, usually starting at Fujipub for a liquid (whisky) breakfast to get us going in style. (TY Bobby!) and tried to methodically go up and down the miles and miles of booth of exhibitors.

I am always amazed at how many new brands of cigars are at the show and I can’t for the life of me understand where they think they will find a niche in the market with so many well established and first rate brands. I mean seriously how many similar blends and similar packaged brands of Nicaraguan cigars can there realistically be? Maybe some folks think that the cigar trade is easy? – Connect with someone to brand up some off the shelf cigars and ‘create’ a new brand and then hey presto ‘success.’ I don’t think it’s that easy personally but no doubt we will see how many new exhibitors are still at the show next year.

It was great to meet Charlie, Bruce and Brian from Torano out on a fabulous evening. I’m a big fan of this brand and they kindly made our very successful house brand of Nicaraguan cigars. We also import some of the Torano range to the UK as we  highly rate their cigars. There are some great new ranges that we will be bringing in later this year.

Bumped in to my new friend George Sosa (we did a tasting with him at our Cambridge store a few months ago) and met Alan Ruben from Alec Bradley cigars at their huge booth (complete with bar and not too shabby single malt!) and was presented with a delicious new limited cigar to try  which C.Gars Ltd will exclusively be selling in the UK in the next month or two. More details to follow.  Their party was a huge event at the Palms hotel swimming pool and that part was preceded by the Davidoff Golden Bands Awards black tie dinner at the Venetian. An amazing evening as one would expect from this premium brand, packed to capacity with the best Davidoff retailers in the trade. Always great to see Edward and Eddie Sahakian from Davidoff London too.

Davidoff introduced their new Nicaraguan cigar range which we hope to introduce to the UK shortly. Not for the novice, this cigar has a very bold full strength and full flavour blend. Rich, complex and smooth.

I love going to the trade show as I’m able to do all my buying for the next season. Literally 1000’s of pipes, 1000’s of humidors and of course Palio cutters and lighters to name a few bits and pieces.

Also in discussions to import some of the other fabulous new world cigars such as Litto Gomez, Drew Estate and CyB through our friends at Tor Imports. May take a little while but C.Gars Ltd will of course have the largest and best value range of new world smokes in the UK and quite a few exclusives too.

A brand to watch out for is Regius which seems to be gaining sales traction by the day. Made in Nicaragua by hand with finest long filler tobaccos this range hits the spot for quality and value. 2 exclusive limited editions that I assisted in selecting the blends of and are co branded with our specialist cigar store Turmeaus Tobacconist est. 1817 were introduced at the show and immediately sold out! I selected the very popular short robusto and the funky Culebras. The blend is sweet, smooth and spicy. I will have allocation of these limited edition cigars for my UK clients later this year of course.

I’m well known as a Havana cigars specialist and very proud indeed to be a Havana cigar connoisseur and people constantly ask me ‘What are you doing messing around with these non Cuban brands?’ well the simple answer is that Havana cigars in my opinion are the finest cigars in the world, however they may not suit everyone’s palate so my job as cigar specialist is to give my clients ‘choice’ from cigars of merit that may suit the non Havana cigar smoker as well as the Havana cigar smoker for perhaps a change of pace. New World cigars are not inferior in any way they are simply different. A bit like comparing a Coke to a Sprite! To educate ones palate variety is indeed the spice of life for many.

I was very proud to be able to present the first prototype cigars and packaging of Inca – Secret Blend cigars for the US market. These 100% Peruvian long filler puros that I have created in partnership with Tabacalera del Oriente in Tarapoto Peru. They were very well received and feedback was very positive and encouraging. We are looking forward to first production samples in September and market roll out soon after.

If I can replicate the success of the UK version (Inka – Secret Blend) I will be more than satisfied. The second generation development of the UK version will roll out in August with additional sizes and superb professionally designed packaging – all exciting stuff for me.

Back from Las Vegas and continued herfing with a splendid evening at Grand Havana Room Beverly Hills (TY P.L.) where 20 chums gathered for dinner, drinks and smokes till we… Closed the joint down 🙂

Next it was off to Pebble Beach, a beautiful place that can best be described as Disney Land for golfers! (You guessed I’m not a golfer) pretty cold  in Pebble after the sunshine of West Hollywood but I read on the news that the UK is going through an incredible heatwave (my luck I missed it!)

Now back to my hotel for a few days catching up on testing a load of cigars from the show and making some final decisions on what to order for our fabulous Robert Graham and Turmeaus cigar shops. Tough job…

…And finally, BIG congrats to Will and Kate on the Royal baby!!! What a great year the UK is having and about time we did too 🙂

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

With apologies to the Beach Boys but I really am ‘Herfin USA’ at least till mid August that is 🙂 I always look forward to Summer in Los Angeles except by the time I arrived last week it was sunny and hot in London and cloudy and raining in Los Angeles! No matter, it was temporary and has not curtailed the serious planned herfing schedule.

Possibly the most famous and continuous annual organized herf ever is the SoCal herf, this year being the 14^th year that Kelly (Poker) and friends have hosted the event. Its grown to a monster 4 days of pre pre herf, pre herf, mega herf and post herf and features the now legendary Dollar Auction that raises a shed load of money for a different charity every year.

I’ve had the pleasure of attending some of the SoCal herfs in the early years and it’s good to be able to attend this one too. Meeting up with old Pals (going back to the mid 90’s) and making a load of new herfing chums too.

The pre pre herf was at Casa Rodondo courtesy of Larry last Thursday, an afternoon and evening of solid herfing with attendees coming, staying, going throughout the day/evening. I smoked loads of well matured Fuente Opus X that I had been saving for this herf and they were quite delightful. We matched up the smokes with a load of different single malts including Robert Graham Ltd Ailein Mor, Mac 12, Glen Ord 12 and Dalmore 15 to name a few (TY VV and Lee!)

Saturday evening I’m planning to be at Kelly’s Patio and I’ll pop some photos on my next blog. My thanks to Larry, Barry, Kelly and the SoCal crew for always making me so welcome.

I’m off to Vegas on Sunday to attend the IPCPR annual trade show. Staying at the lovely Venetian hotel (which I don’t expect to step out of for a few days which could be just as well as its 110F predicted temperature!) and as ever accompanied by smoking chum George who assists me in selecting the finest products for our clients.

I’m looking forward to seeing what’s new with the companies that we distribute for such as Fuente, Palio, Cigar Oasis as well as the companies that supply us fabulous products such as Davidoff, Daniel Marshall. Elie Bleu, Xikar and others.

This is the suppliers showcase to the International audience of retailers in the cigar trade and most exhibitors have great new products and great offers. I love taking the opportunity to do a complete seasons buying all in one place (I think many of my suppliers like it too!) Maybe that’s what made me the largest specialist cigar merchant in the UK? Most of the competition sell the same old crap at the same old high prices, year in and year out – we, on the other hand, have the largest range that includes the latest products that we import and guarantee the best prices in the UK.

My promise has always been the same – I won’t be knowingly undersold on cigars or cigar accessories in the UK. I also promise the best service imaginable.

If you’re following the Inka – Secret Blend story you will know that I am also in the USA getting a little closer to the US launch of Inca – secret Blend 🙂 I’ll tweet some photos of the prototypes this week if all goes to plan.

What a pleasant surprise I had reading on Twitter that the ridiculous ‘Plain Packaging’ was not going to proceed any further. More details on this link and well done to everyone who took part in the consolation, at last some common sense has prevailed in the UK.

As well as the aforementioned fabulous result, the UK is definitely going through a feel good Summer, with continued low interest rates, the fab weather, The Royal baby due and Andy Murray winning Wimbledon… Lots of reasons to celebrate with some fine smokes!

Talking of fine smokes I decided to reduce prices on my Saint Luis Rey Regios boxes of 25 last week which as a consequence sold out in around 2 hours (I had a lot of stock set aside for my clients!) at a give-away £199 I shouldn’t be surprised  at the popularity of this very very good handmade Havana cigar. If you subscribe to my newsletter you will of course be notified of price reductions and other special offers on accessories and humidors.

I always liked the Saint Luis Rey brand (as does my Father and did my Grandfather) I remember Regios being given out  and smoking these at my first wedding. Would have been better off grabbing all the cigars and running out the door!

On that note… I’m off to have a smoke with my fabulous cigar friendly co Director Karyn (v.2 as we refer to Mrs O!)

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

GALLERY