The weekend was spent herfing with my Father on both Saturday and Sunday evenings. He’s my favourite smoking buddy but he does bang on about how his Monte 2’s don’t taste the same as  20/30/40 years ago ! drives me completely bonkers. I did have him hooked on custom blends that Yoel rolled for us a while back but they seem to have gone sick now so I had to find some smokes that would hit the spot. I know what he is looking for as we have almost identical taste. Smooth, sweet, full flavour and light to medium strength and of course an easy draw. We don’t care too much about wrapper colours although generally stay away from maduros.

So as we paced our way steadily through some of this nectar I managed to select the right cigars that hit the spot, starting with an El Rey del Mundo Choix De l’Epoque, followed by a Partagas SD4 ( 2009)  and finishing with a Punch Serie D’Oro No 1.

On Sunday we changed the rotation to: El Rey del Mundo Tainos (2001- Orchant Seleccion), Montecristo No.2 ( 2009) and Bolivar Belicosos Finos (2007).  Great to spend a lot of serious herfing time chatting about all the years and all the people we have come across since we have been in the cigar business.  It’s never really seemed like a day’s work and I still can’t wait to get to the office (or the shops or the warehouses or my client meetings!)

Now getting ready to celebrate my birthday with a few days serious herfing and have already selected a Dunhill Cabinetta, Cohiba Sublimes, Davidoff Anniversario 80^th and one or two others…should be a great evening or two which is likely to start tonight at the Lanesborough or Ten Manch.

Latest cigar to be released from Havana !!!!!!

Partagas Serie E . No.2 

I smoked this cigar when it was introduced at the February Festival in Havana and was enormously impressed with the blend,  6 months later and it’s even better. Far fuller in strength than the Serie D No.4 fuller in body and richer in flavour. Complex and balanced from the first puff till I almost burnt my fingers on the last puff. Perfect construction and a beautiful colorado maduro wrapper. This splendid cigar measures in at 5 ½” length and 54 ring gauge

First tiny allocation has now arrived and we have decided that newsletter subscribers are offered on a first come first served basis. Order early to avoid disappointment.

Partagas Serie E No.2 Box of 25 £489

Box of 5 £99

Singles  £20.59

Email [email protected] to reserve

Cigar Auction Lots still arriving daily so we’re looking forward to a great event again  still plenty of time for entries but we do start photography and cataloguing at the end of this month ( sellers note!)

We buy and sell vintage Havana all year round (actually every day!) so if you need some advice just shoot me an email [email protected]

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

I just realised that no one in the cigar industry in the UK actually have a full colour brochure of their products ! I remember years ago there were one or two people that did and they were quite excellent. So,I have asked my marketing Team to get the job done and fast and hope to have it in print next month. 

I decided to sell a few of my Cohiba Behike Festival presentations  these are too cool.

I am rather partial to the Xikar range and find myself leaving Xikar lighters everywhere (home/office, shops, cars etc.) as they are so incredibly reliable and well made for cigar smokers so here’s a quick offer:

Buy one and get the second ( same item ) half price on all Xikar products….quick! split the orders with your friends lol 🙂

Whilst stocks last, subject to availability ( we have lots !) and offer ends this  Monday 11pm

Quote promotion code ‘ XIKAR buy one get one half price’ when ordering in comments section of order form

I’m often asked what I am currently smoking and usually answer with my daily rotation such as Monte 2/s Bolivar Belicosos and Partagas SD no.4 but I also smoke smaller cigars in the morning and occasionally late at night such as Partagas Shorts and Cohiba Siglo I. first 20 clients to order a cabinet of Cohiba Siglo I can get an additional 5 singles for 1p ☺

Order a cabinet of 25 Cohiba Siglo 1 and add 5 more singles for 1p !

Offer ends midnight this Monday ( unless I smoke all the stock earlier!) and is whilst stocks last 

Mention ‘ Gimme 5 singles for 1p’ in comments section of order form when ordering.

I herfed my way through another few Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 with friends Zaff and Dov at the Lanesborough cigar terrace on Tuesday matched up with their splendid Premier Cru Chablis. A perfect combo. The Punch is now out of stock with our importer Hunters and Frankau but we still hold reasonable stocks of this, one of my all time favourite Havana cigars.

Michelle had her wisdom tooth taken out on Thursday so hopefully she won’t be such a clever clogs now and Laura has been on vacation for the last week, Lawrence was off sick – poor chap so it was up to me to run the business.

Of course I thought ‘ bugger that’ it’s off to meet my partner Ron from Robert Graham Ltd  for our annual general meeting instead ! I can confirm that after a splash of wine and a few Trinidad robusto T’s we agreed that we would continue to expand our empire this year and hope to have a rather sexy new Robert Graham shop to tell you about soon. I do love our Robert Graham shops ( see them here ) Whisky – Cigars – Chocolate or Scottish health food as we like to describe it 🙂

Back to my deck chair for the last of summer- looks like it’s going to be a lovely weekend, great timing as it’s my buddy Ashwans birthday party herf tomorrow so happy birthday Ash and many more long ashes 🙂

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Well it’s taken a while to clear the backlog after so long overseas but I am just about there – I have even managed to work out how to get the odd  photo off the camera and on the computer.  (See Los Angeles herf photos below) and now that the paperwork is diminishing it’s time to get back to the usual routine !

So  I kicked of an office herf and sampling session in style with Simon Chase of Hunters and Frankau and more or less kidnapped him for ½ a day 🙂 asking him zillions of questions about everything you could possibly want to ask the ‘Walking Havana cigar encyclopaedia’  we pored through some old cigars books and catalogues together whilst I enjoyed a rather delicious Montecristo Gran Reserva that he kindly gave me (can’t wait for these to be released but need to be patient till the end of the year I reckon)

Found a rather old Hoyo tubed cigar in my antique collection that Simon dated as 1920’s (older than me then!) and he was also rather impressed with a delightful very large Edwardian Punch cigar cabinet that was a recent arrival, so at least I found something that Simon had not seen before.

Nick Hammond (journalist)  also popped into the office for a sampling session and we discovered that not only do we like cigars and single malts but also share a passion for the Blues. Great news as I haven’t met anyone that is into Blues music for a loooong time. I think Nick and I will be smoking a few more Havanas together in the near future

Friends visited from Chicago and Pennsylvania this week and we have been steadily sampling our way through the Fuente range of cigars and thoroughly enjoying it

Also managed to squeeze a Lanesborough Hotel cigar terrace herf in last night- packed busy as usual with cigars smokers which is a joy to see. I treated myself to a Partagas 150th anniversary dalias followed by a Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 UK regional – 2 perfect smokes to say the least

Robert Graham single malt range continues to grow and we are looking forward to releasing the following in the next week all of which work exceptionally well with a good Havana cigar:

Robert Graham Ghost range Glendullan 1998
Robert Graham Dancing Stag Range Auchentoshan 1991
Robert Graham Dancing Stag Range Strathisla 1997
Robert Graham Dancing Stag Range Linkwood 1997

Email to reserve as these are very limited production

I’m back to my daily rotation of D4’s BBF’s and Monte 2’s but looking forward to the next Orchant Seleccion release ( top secret as ever!) in the next week or so. Just 27 cabinets of one of my favourites Havanas personally selected and doubled banded for some fortunate aficionados to enjoy. Email for more details [email protected]

Have a Smokey bank hol weekend

Peaceful puffing

 Mitchell

Despite the rather lousy London weather this week its really rather nice to be back in the office after almost 5 weeks overseas. The jet lag has been fun … not. But as I’m used to working till 3 a.m most nights it hasn’t made a great deal of difference although my cat seems to think its breakfast time every time she sees me. How that cat has not got a smokers cough yet is a miracle as she insists on sitting next to my keyboard when I am at the computer and smoking as always (that’s me, not the cat!) so if you get any funny emails from C.Gars Ltd… the cat typed them 🙂

As ever in my absence Michelle and Laura did a better job of running the business than I ever could do! And Michelle always likes to do some improvements whilst I’m away to surprise me so this time I found gorgeous new carpets in the office and lovely new office chairs 🙂 as well as even more new additions to our London shipping team – welcome new Girls 🙂

Our humidor has been steadily filling up with auction entries for the Winter auction which I’m looking forward to. I promise it will be a far warmer event than the last Winter auction when I nearly froze 80 bidders to death in the arctic conditions at Boisdale Belgravia cigar terrace ! The next auction will be held in a private dining room at Boisdale Canary Wharf with smoking on the heated terrace as well as sampling in the cigar library.

We had the pleasure of the company of three of our Norfolk sales team visiting our London office this week for some cross training as well as them attending Hunters and Frankau Cigar School. Great to see our lovely Sharni who is head of client services and David and Elliot who take care of IT / Ecommerce – these kids know more about computers in their little finger than I will ever learn in a lifetime, they are so intelligent. It’s such a pleasure to have such a young, vibrant and enthusiastic team.

I actually wonder if there is another Havana cigar merchant in Europe that has dedicated in house clients services personnel as well as ecommerce staff? All trained as specialists in Havanas so they actually have a good general knowledge on their subject.

I dare say we have more trained Havana cigar specialists in our Group than any Havana cigar merchant I can think of. Perhaps that one of the reasons why the Group has grown at such a constant and fast pace. We have a long way to go still though.

Sharni contacts almost every client in the UK following up their orders and checking if they are happy with the quality of the products as well as the service they have received, She receives tons of praise – you can see a few of them here – but this is a fraction of the messages we receive daily. Any comments, including any constructive criticism you can be certain that Sharni can resolve any problem… fast. Got a comment? Have a chat with Sharni at [email protected]

Our Operations Manager (in training!) Lawrence is getting his feet firmly under the desk. His passion for cigars is inspiring, his general knowledge increases daily and he never ceases to amaze me particularly this week when Ignacio from Hunters and Frankau (Cuban Director) popped in for a smoke and Lawrence started rambling away to him in Spanish! Lawrence will be at the London office for the next few weeks and then he’s setting up our Mayfair outpost for a few months before returning to head office. Lawrence writes a pretty decent blog too on our whisky site

I had a mammoth sampling session yesterday featuring 7 LFDC Shorties back to back – results? Fabulous – doesn’t get much better for a daytime smoke and of course they are exclusive to the UK market. Yes I am bias but I have smoked many regionals from all over the world and I genuinely believe that the UK gets the pick of the crop.

Today started off in style with a Fuente Opus X and is continuing with Behike 52 54 and 56… it’s good to be back!

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

I’ve been in the lovely sunny USA now for over a month and spent most days and nights herfing with all different friends, clients and crowds, – cigar tastings – wine tastings – herfs – crawls – dinners, quite a relentless schedule that I have nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed. I think I need a holiday now!

I’ve been smoking  my way through tons of Fuente cigars and can’t wait to expand the range over the next month. If you want to try some great NC alternatives you have to try Fuente.

I’ve been watching the news about the riots in London on American TV news channels. If I would not know better from friends in London and around the UK I would have thought that the entire country was engulfed in flames. Talk about rubbish misleading journalism.

As ever I have been very busy buying and selling some of the collectible top end St DuPont lighters which is always good fun and wrapping up final details on some of the massive orders I placed at RTDA/IPCPR in Vegas last month. Looking to buy or sell? Drop me an email and let’s do some bizz.

We are as expected once again completely and utterly out of space in our London warehouse and no doubt will end up expanding yet again in London or Norfolk fairly soon. We are going to be all set for our Christmas season early this year and in some style 🙂 Undoubtedly the largest range of cigar smokers accessories in the UK and more locations to buy them from than anyone in the UK. Add to that the best prices and the fastest delivery and we think we have finally found the recipe for customer satisfaction  (and shareholder dividends!) well done to Michelle, Laura and their respective Teams – how on earth do we manage to ship so many orders every day??!!!!! Come a long way since 1997 !!!

It’s almost impossible to keep up with the explosion in humidor sales, the more I increase our range the more we sell. My personal favourites are Daniel Marshall I don’t think you can find better quality or value. Unique styles designed by Daniel and made in Beverly Hills.  Of course I’m bias ! especially as I met up with Daniel at Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills last week for a smoke or two 🙂 Daniels humidors can of course be found on our website and will soon be stocked in our Hamburg and Mayfair cigar stores.

Our pipe shop clients will be happy to hear we have some fabulous new Meerschaum pipes on the way to all the shops in a couple of weeks time and we have just commissioned a new range of our own brand budget pipes to be made.

I couldn’t understand why I have received so many emails from clients chasing me for release dates for new cigars such as Partagas Serie E, Montecristo Gran Reserva, Cohiba 1966 LE as I checked with Hunters and Frankau and we understand that Cohiba  may be released in September and Monte Reserva in November but fear not as they seem to be all over the USA already !!! and I have seen loads of them.

Quite incredible if not shocking how many people can be duped into buying fakes.

Some actually look quite good and others rather awful. The usual story is ‘ I have a contact who knows someone in the factory and he / she gets me bundles ( no boxes of course as they are ‘pre release’) of these cigars and they are only $12 Bucks a stick’ I mean seriously, give me a break. Need I go on further? Call me old fashioned but I don’t by my Louis Vuitton bags on the streets if you get the analogy. Why do people take a chance and buy these fakes. If something seems to be too good to be true – trust me, it is too good to be true. lol

Winter cigar auction http://www.cigarauctions.co.uk/ date now set for 28th November in a private dining room at Boisdale Canary Wharf and should be the usual exciting event. We are accepting Lots from Tuesday of this week onwards. Always happy to advise and give free valuation service, simply drop me an email on [email protected] as ever bidding will be available online if you can’t make the auction.

OK so time to sign off and pack my suitcase ready to head back to Blighty where at least I’ll be able to smoke some great Havanas again 🙂 not sure when I’ll get back into the office, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on jet lag but I’m always on the end of an email for advice or just a chat about the last cigar you enjoyed… or didn’t !

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell