Did you catch the Brit Awards last night? We may have problems in our economy but Britain still has talent!…and three cheers for Duffy, she certainly deserved the three awards.

Hmmm… cigar related content: Tom Jones looked cool, as ever and I remember seeing him enjoy a large Havana at the old Churchill cigar bar and divan some years ago!

Bolivar Belicosos have long been one of my firm favourites and the best years production I can remember in the last decade has been 2007. The blend, the wrapper, the construction …all perfect.

I’ve decided that the next exclusive “Orchant Seleccion” will therefore be the BBF from 2007 and will be personally selecting the 64 boxes (2 master cases) at Hunters and Frankau’s humidor in the next few days for release by the second week of March

After the long selection process is complete, these perfect boxes will receive the “Orchant Seleccion ” treatment including the extra gold “Orchant Seleccion ” bands on the cigars and the box as well as gold engraved plate showing the limited edition number of the box. Each box is signed and in due course may well become a collectors item.

Orchant Seleccion Havanas are made available periodically and when first released are priced the same as our regular English Market Selection cigars. They are limited to 64 boxes and they are never re-released.

If you would like to be put on the list for more information about these cigars just drop me an email at [email protected]

My thanks as ever to Simon Chase and John Darnton of Hunters and Frankau for their kind assistance with this project.

I have just realised that I have been involved in the Havana cigar business in one form or another since 1994 ! The changes I have seen in the UK cigar trade as well as the cigar industry in general have been quite incredible over the years as has the meteoric growth of C.Gars Ltd. I have to say though that I have been a very lucky cigar merchant to have been supplied by Hunters and Frankau and had the support, expertise and assistance of John and Simon.

Smoke less ! smoke the best!…EMS….English Market Selection. In all honesty it just doesn’t get any better than EMS

Time for a strong Cubita and a BBF 🙂

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Many thanks to my clients for the overwhelming response to last weeks offer of Sancho Panza Gigantes Orchant Seleccion. They are all sold out now and the lucky buyers will be receiving their allocation over the next week or so. These full earthy flavour cigars have matured perfectly for over 10 years.. Not for the feint hearted! but great with a bottle of red 🙂

I may do an Orchant Seleccion sampler box next or perhaps my favourite Bolivar Belicosos. If you would like to be on the “Alert” list drop me an email. If you want to suggest what the next Orchant Seleccion should be please do let me know.

I’ve had a busy week smoking my way through the UK exclusive regional edition Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 and La Gloria Cubana Gloriosos. Havanas really don’t come much better than these two cigars. The look great and they smoke great. We are currently filling over 1000 back orders for these wonderful Havanas so if you ordered them you can expect them in the next few days or so.

If you haven’t ordered them… you are missing out on something special!

I took the squeezy Jet over to Geneva for lunch on Wednesday (as if I have not seen enough snow already!) and enjoyed a delightful long/decadent lunch at Brasserie Lipp where cigar smokers are very welcome. We enjoyed the Swiss regionals ( Bolivar Legendario and Juan Lopez Maximo) which were both very good smokes indeed …. although not a patch on the UK regionals! So if you’re in Geneva visit Brasserie Lipp http://www.brasserie-lipp.com/ you won’t be disappointed.

Looking forward to a Davidoff Mouton Rothschild from 1989 matched up with a bottle of Bilecart Salmon from 1989 with my valentine tomorrow 🙂

Peaceful puffing and happy valentines

Mitchell

Happy Valentines Day

Dare I say “Greetings from snowy London” where my CIGAR car got stranded in ice and snow for 40 minutes on the way to the office this morning. My immediate thought was “how many cigars do I have stashed in the car in case this is a long delay?!” I am happy to say I enjoyed one of the brand new UK exclusive La Gloria Cubana Gloriosos whilst I tried to figure out how on earth to get my car moving again.

So I can now confirm that we have La Gloria Gloriosos in our humidor…..finally and they are as good as the pre releases that I tried. It’s been an awfully long wait but believe me …well worth it

 
All back orders will now be shipped but we only have a small allocation so if you need to stash some away, do it fast as these puppies won’t be around for long.
 
Singles: http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/gloria-cubana-gloriosos-p-6415.html
 
Boxes of 10: http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/gloria-cubana-gloriosos-p-6414.html
 
Fancy treating yourself to something special? Check this out http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/vegas-robaina-alejandro-1997-hunters-frankau-p-6481.html Exclusive to C.Gars Ltd from Hunters and Frankau. Vegas Robaina Don Alejandro (English Market Selection/Revisado) from original launch batch JM ( Jose Marti Factory) OESC (April 1997) double banded and certificated by Hunters and Frankau – box of 25. You can also try them in singles of course http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/vegas-robaina-alejandro-1997-hunters-frankau-p-6475.html
 
Moving to my favourite subject of vintage Havanas 🙂 I am emailed many times daily to ask if all the vintage cigars I sell are listed on my online store. The simple answer is NO! a very small sample selection is on my online store only.
 
If there is something you are looking for or you have a wish list please email it to me and I will gladly help as best I can.
 
You have to bear in mind that C.Gars Ltd has 15,000 clients on our database and our website gets up to 2000 visitors a day so we could not possibly offer one or two vintage boxes on the website as we would likely have 100 buyers for each box! Consequently we match buyers with boxes…over email … [email protected]
 
Lots of clients in the UK having humidification issues with their humidors at this time.Quite possibly due to the weather. Lots of central heating=keep topping up the humidifier. However if you want an easy life buy the Puck ! http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/puck-humidity-system-cigars-capacity-p-5817.html it’s inexpensive and it works. It’s also now our best selling humidifier
 
Have a lovely weekend
 
Warmest wishes from icy London

Photo with thanks to Stogieman

I am still not certain about all the regional editions that Habanos S.A. come out with. There seem to be so many and whilst some are great, others are fairly average in overall smoking experience terms.
 
There seems to be little rhyme or reason as to who gets what and why. For example the Baltic’s got the El Rey Vikingos which was an incredible cigar and the production was quite limited whilst Spain got the exceptional Vegas Robaina Maestro with a fairly large production number. The recently released Ramon Allones Phonecios for Lebanon (Promo cigars) is honestly one of the best Havanas I have ever smoked and beautifully presented in a cabinet of 30 cigars.
 
I do however think the UK regionals are first rate smokes especially the Ramon Belicosos which in fact was the first of the regionals in 2005.
 
The UK’s Por Larranaga Magnificos was a ridiculously successful and popular cigar too. All sold out now but there will be a special limited edition humidor (100 numbered units only) available soon. Email me if you want to be put on the waiting list sales@cgarsltd.,co.uk
 
The UK exclusive (1200 odd boxes only) Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 which was released last Monday and was our best selling Havana of last week, looks like we will be sold out this week although we are hoping Hunters and Frankau will be releasing a further allocation fairly soon.
 
I’m not sure if I am proud of this or not but I actually puffed my way through 16 sticks of the new Punch last week. I was completely amazed at how good this cigar is. In fact apart from a Ramon Phoenicios kindly gifted to me by Simon Chase of H&F at a lunch (Hurlingham Club  http://www.hurlinghamclub.org.uk/View.aspx?node_id=1&portal_id=1&page_id=4 lovely!)  last week, I have smoked nothing but the UK Punch.
 
So the question is do you swap your Monte 2  or Partagas Serie P for a Punch Serie D’Oro no.1? Well at the very least I would say try them. Don’t be fooled, these cigars will not stay around for long. I have one client who would buy all 1200 boxes if he could… but he can’t as we won’t allow him. If you try one new cigar this year, try the Punch Serie D’ Oro no.1 It is just delicious http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/punch-serie-doro-p-6441.html for boxes and http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/punch-serie-doro-p-6443.html for singles
 
It’s an experience… it’s different… and it’s a damn good smoke. Well done Habanos/H&F… this cigar is a real winner.
 
The La Gloria is expected out in the UK next week (I know….. I know you have heard that before) as I reckon C.Gars Ltd and Hunters and Frankau must have run out of all excuses for not releasing this cigars by now!
 
There are 2009 regional editions for the UK I am told but I think I’ll get excited about them a little closer to the time.
 
Thanks for the massive response to my last blog mentioning the Orchant Seleccion Sancho Panza Gigantes. The first 20 boxes that I signed  sold out before we even had time to put them on the website! Yes I know, great value, vintage (1998) and good smokes as well… great combination. If you want to be put on the list for the next 20 boxes I make available drop me an email at [email protected]
 
So, January zoomed past and I can’t believe it’s almost time for my annual trip to the Festival del Habanos 2009 in Havana of course. I’ll be heading to Havana with my partner Christoph on the 25th and we will be holding a cigar tasting or two at some fine venues. This year we will be sampling Dunhill Estupendos, Don Candido and Don Alfredo which no doubt our guests will be looking forward to.
 
Valentines day is looming and if you need any advice or gift ideas, have a surf around the website or call one of my Girls ( Mishie, Laura, Marci, Eli, Mirka) who will be happy to help and advise 07000 088 088 ( 24/7 as well !)

Valentine Cigars

 
Have a lovely weekend and keep your humidors full as we are expecting a load of snow in London next week(-:
 
Peaceful puffing
 
 
 
Mitchell