Ho Ho Ho 🙂 by now all our Clients will have their humidors brimming with cigars for Christmas and we are available for advice online 24/7 throughout the holidays as ever [email protected] Its been a crazy Christmas season in our mail order division with record numbers of orders and so far 100% successful fulfilment so I have to say well done to our mail order Teams in London and Norfolk.

I managed to get away from the madness of my office this week and visit a load of our retail shops thinking I could have a quite smoke and a dram but they were all crammed with customers ( thankfully!) and I ended up (trying!) to assist my retail Teams.

My Partner Ron and I paired up some amazing Clynelish 1995 from our Dancing Stag range exclusive to Robert Graham with the my Orchant Selection Juan Lopez and the match was quite perfect.

Our Chester and Liverpool shops were so busy that we had queues to the door at some times during the day! Rose street in Edinburgh and West Nile street in Glasgow shops were selling so many cigars we could just about refill the shops fast enough every few hours to keep up with demand- just incredible. Canongate in Edinburgh seemed to be selling as much chocolate as whisky from the great range  we carry. Finally it’s great to see so many new customers at our latest cigar store in Mayfair in the heart of London.

From humble beginnings back in 1997 on the internet we have grown into the largest specialist Havana cigar merchant in the UK with an ever growing group of fabulous retail cigar and whisky stores. We are already planning another shop opening for Easter which will in fact be our flagship store in the UK – an emporium of cigars, whisky and chocolate with a fabulous tasting  and sampling lounge… more details in the new year!

Each shop is very individual in style and carries a comprehensive range of product- something to tempt every cigar smoker for sure as all of our shops have walk in humidors crammed to the ceiling with the finest cigars. If we don’t have it in store, we can overnight it from our mail order warehouses to your home or office.

My favourite cigars of the year have been the La Flor de Cano short robusto and Partagas Serie E no.2. Simply delicious blends from the first to the last puff.  I can’t wait for the new Montecristo Reserva to be released which we expect sometime very soon.

I’ll be kicking back over the long weekend with some delicious Margaux from 2007 ( TY H&F!) and a variety of planned smokes including Dunhill Cabinetta, Davidoff Ch. Latour, La Flor de Cano short churchills and a few Haut Brion too 🙂

Wishing all of my clients, Partners, Management, retail and mail order Teams a very merry Christmas!

Peaceful puffing and Slainte

Mitchell

At long last I can finally announce the opening of our newest specialist Havana cigar shop in the heart of Mayfair.

Located in Shepherd Market and open 7 days a week including late night  openings Thursday through Saturday

The shop features a walk in humidor with an enormous range of the finest English Market Selection Havana cigars available in singles, small packs, boxes and cabinets. We also stock gift presentation boxes, jars and limited edition humidors.

Clients will find a comprehensive range of pipes, pipe and rolling tobaccos, cigar cutters, humidors, lighters, ashtrays, Cuban coffee and all smokers accessories and of course offer private locker facilities and a sampling room

The light and bright shop design makes leisurely browsing a pleasure and Shepherd Market has plenty of superb restaurants with al fresco dining where you can enjoy a good cigar after a meal

On our walls we are exhibiting some of our world famous collection of original photographs from Cuba

Our staff have been trained both at Hunters and Frankau’s cigar school as well as C.Gars Ltd on-going training program and are always delighted to advise. We guarantee you the best old fashioned service second to none

I will be happy to meet clients and discuss their specific requirements in my sampling room which has a nice range of Robert Graham single malt whisky

Turmeaus Tobacconist is the second oldest Havana cigar merchant in the UK having been started in business in 1817 in Liverpool by the Turmeaus family from France (you can see an original shop photograph in our shop window from 1917!)

In its heyday Turmeaus was not only a Havana cigar retailer but also an Havana cigar importer and had some 7 specialist shops in Merseyside.

In 2003 there was only one rather run down Turmeaus shop left in Water street Liverpool which C.Gars Ltd purchased with a mission to revive and ensure the survival of the Turmeaus name in the cigar industry. After a radical tidy up and reimage of the store and the appointing of our friend Christine Nestor as Manageress the business has never looked back. Christine’s husband Alfred, an author and avid pipe smoker has been influential on the growth of our pipe and pipe tobacco side of our business and we have names our Mayfair shop in his honour.

Another Turmeaus tobacconist shop was opened in Chester in 2005  having taken over an existing specialist shop from my friend Peter Lloyd who had owned the shop for many years.

Over the last 12 months we have opened a Turmeaus retro confectionery shop in Fenwick street, Liverpool, developed a brand new Turmeaus Tobacconist shop in Fenwick street Liverpool, refurbished our Turmeaus shop in Chester and now opened our Mayfair Alfie Turmeaus shop. We plan to open more Turmeaus tobacconist shops over the coming years offering the finest cigars and the best service in the business

You can see all of our locations including our splendid Robert Graham Ltd whisky and cigar shops on our contacts page and my team look forward to giving you a warm welcome

I reckon C.Gars Ltd Group is the largest Havana cigar Specialist in the UK and also has an incredible La Casa del Habano in Hamburg managed by famous cigar specialist Christoph Wolters. Our associates in Dublin are the Decent Cigar Emporium will offer you the same care and attention that you expect from C.Gars Ltd too.

My Team and I would like to think that we are the best in the trade and of course we are founder members of the Association of Independent Cigar Merchants (your guarantee of quality, service and value) we are all trained by Hunters and Frankau and we are passionate about our English Market Selection Havanas

If you don’t have one of our shops near you we are happy to offer our rapid mail order service through C.Gars Ltd- online 24/7 – every day of the year through our purpose built warehouses and offices in London and Norfolk

We are still shipping literally 1000’s of orders to arrive before Christmas but we recommend you get your orders in before the 22^nd

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

I’m finally getting back to ‘normal’ after a crazy week of Winter auction herfing that started with a fabulous pre auction herf at our offices last Sunday ( lost count of all the Champagne we went through but probably set a new office herf record) moved on to wonderful Ten Manchester street and finished with our mega 400 Lot auction at Boisdale Canary Wharf which had around a 92% sale rate.

The event was a cigars smokers herfing heaven with drinks, canapés and smokes on the cigar terrace before and after the auction and we were lucky enough to have dry and mild weather for the evening. This was a massive contrast to our last Winter auction at Boisdale Belgravia where we nearly froze to death !!! The auction room was packed to capacity with almost 100 bidders from all over the globe.

I have actually lost count of how many Partagas Festivals I have attended in Havana but I reckon this may well be my thirteenth. It’s rather confusing as I can’t seem to get a definitive answer whether this Festival was the 14^th,16^th or 21^st depending on how you count them (!)

So after relaxing with a facial and massage at the Virgin Upper class lounge in Gatwick to prepare me for 10 ½ hours of no smoking I settled into my flat bed for my 57^th trip to Havana !

The usual Partagas Short at Jose Marti ( smoking ban of course not particularly policed) and we headed straight over to the Melia Habana for a bit of a herf to get us in the Havana Festival mood 🙂 bought a box of Partagas E2’s ( which hardly lasted for the 4 days) and sipped a few HC7’s

My smoking chums and I  spent a long day  enjoying fabulous sunny and hot weather visiting the Indian Caves, Robaina’s Finca ( where the seedlings had just been planted) Pinar del Rio and beautiful Vinales  which always looks like a postcard to me.

Herfed our way through a baggie of assorted smokes including E2’s,D5’s as well as Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 that my friend Zaffie had brought from London ( talk about bringing coals to Newcastle!) dinner at Prado Neptuno and smokes on the Terrace of the Nacional whilst listening to some good if not incredibly loud music ( maybe I am getting old but my friend Valerio assured me there are only too volumes in Cuba ‘ too loud’ and extremely loud’ !)

Someone emailed me to say that one side of the Nacional Terrace was now ‘no smoking’ but I couldn’t see anyone without a cigar in their hand !

Herfed at Partagas VIP and caught up with a friends from all over the world as ever and bought some cracking Partagas books with robustos and piramides- v. cool. Smoked a few at Palacio too before doing a bit of a walking tour round old Havana including the rum factory, La Bodegita del Medio,Floridita,Villa Nueva, Camra  Oscura and  a great ice cream shop where I introduced my friends to the pleasures of smoking a good Havana whilst eating vanilla ice cream !

This was possibly the best Partagas Festival I have ever attended as the venue for the gala dinner was at the incredible ‘Tropicana’ which beats any and every show I have seen in the world ( and I have seen quite a few!) Great bunch of friend at our table including Amir and Tim from Canada who I meet up with at every Festival, Rob Fox from JJ, Zaffie and Arturo and cigar journalist Nick Hammond. We were treated to cigar after cigar throughout the evening together with copious amounts of wine and rum-finishing off with a bottle of HC7, very nice!

I bumped in to Colin Ganley from European Cigar Journal who gave me a new cigar book called ‘Le Snob’ which was a nice surprise as there’s a short chapter that I wrote for it with a nice photo of me ( no idea when that happened!)

Massimo from Italy ( no moustache this year!) conducted the auction in his inimitable style and was very successful in raising some 38,000 C.U.C. for charity- well done Massimo.

‘Amigo’s de Partagas’ were presented with fabulous boxes of special size and specially banded cigars and I will proudly display mine in my London humidor. The show followed the dinner and was as breath taking as ever. I’ll try and wham some movie clips on to our Facebook page in the next day or two

Herfed a few in the lounge at Jose Marti airport before the flight back home to finish a memorable Festival trip and my last overseas trip of the year. I think I have spent 6 months out of the UK this year so it’s good to be back at the office…..if only till the February’s Festival del Habanos

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell
 

Just back from a sunny week in New York City where I was herfing round the clock at some of the best cigar lounges with some of my favourite friends 🙂

Morning smokes were usually Davidoff at De La Concha with the window on 6^th Avenue it’s the perfect spot to watch the world go by

Evening smokes usually at Grand Havana Room ( membership required ) or Club Macanudo ( no membership required) both places had the best of service and ambience and it was good to catch up with many friends over the week, and herf my way through countless Fuente, Davidoff and Oliva cigars to name a few.

Also popped into the fabulous Nat Sherman store to have a smoke or two or three with Michael Herklots. It was great to see some of the old Nat Sherman pre embargo Havanas specially made for them. Could well be one of the finest cigar stores in the world and I’m always made to feel very welcome there. ( TY NS!)

It’s always good to get back to London though… and my walk in humidor crammed floor to ceiling with Havanas! I delved straight into a Partagas SD no.5 followed by the new E2 which is fast becoming a favourite. The boxes of 5 are very cool.

Auction catalogue is about to be sent to the printers, we expect to post them out to clients next week. Although all 400 Lots will be online in the next few days and browsing as well as bidding is all clear and easy to do on the website. 

Looks like the press coverage has already got started 🙂 we’ll keep adding it to the media centre here 

More Cohiba 1966 expected to arrive any day now and we still have some decent stocks of the other 2011 limited editions : Ramon Allones- Allones Extra and Hoyo Short piramides.

Countdown to the Partagas festival in Havana in November- actually can’t believe how fast this year is flying by, 4 and a ½ weeks till the cigars auction and 8 weeks till Christmas!

Have a great week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Grand Havana Room