Ramon Allones Club Coronas Limited edition 2015, this cheeky little smoke is in… And out. Another super fast seller in short supply before it even reaches the shops.

Fortunately our La Casa del Habano got them first 🙂 But have more or less sold out now although we do expect another small delivery any time now. Turmeaus shops should have them by Monday with any luck.

This is a great size, large enough on the ring gauge at 47 to deliver volumes of flavour and long enough at 5 3/8” to satisfy. It’s the last of the 2015 LE’s and I’m already a fan of this smoke.

Actually I think Ramon is one of my favourite brands. I get on well with all the vitolas except for the Gigantes which I could never quite fathom out despite most of my pals loving this cigar. Perhaps its just too long a smoke for me.

I loved the brand so much we have already had Orchant Seleccion boxes of Ramon Allones Belicosos (UK regional edition) and 898’s some years ago and I’m delighted to announce that this years Orchant Seleccion Havana cigar will be the Specially Selected. Just 64 boxes have been selected and will be adorned with the distinctive Orchant Seleccion gold bands and box dressing.

Selected for their superior quality, condition, appearance and blend, I expect to release these in late October. Read more background on Orchant Seleccion Havanas here.

Its been a short week for me as I wasn’t in on Monday and Tuesday taking a break for New Year and birthdays. 3 day weeks are a very relaxing routine 🙂 I enjoyed a Cuban Davidoff birthday starting with a 4000, followed by a Haut Brion and finishing with an Yquem (well actually… 2!) All splendid smokes but the Haut was quite remarkable. For such a small format cigar its packs a hell of a punchy full flavour. I absolutely love vintage Davidoff (actually I’m quite fond of the New World Davidoff too!) when stored correctly this brand of Cuban Davidoff ages to perfection and is a sublime experience for the cigar smoker with a sophisticated palate.

In Empire expansion news this week(!) I’m happy to report that Chester part three now has an alarm system, CCTV, phone lines, a beautiful paint job and a few wires hanging here and there for the new lighting scheme! Tub chairs have arrived and the doorway between the La Casa VIP bar area and the new shop has been opened (thank you Chester locksmith!) If all goes to plan the super chic, trendy and expanded Turmeaus will be open early October.

We have also agreed terms on another new Turmeaus oop North (secret location till contract is completed!) with a planned opening in November. More details to follow.

I’m not sure if there’s a mini boom going on in the UK market but C.Gars Ltd has never been so busy (TY customers!) both our retail and mail order divisions are dramatically up on last year. Well done to all the Team for coping. I can tell you its no mean feat having 99.9% on time delivery for 1000’s of orders a week.

My guess is that it’s a combination of new cigar smokers, existing cigar smokers being hacked off at anti smoking legislation and perhaps a bit of stashing cigars due to perceived shortages of cigars in the market as well as fear that if the US market opens up there will be even greater shortages. Whatever the reasons I will keep growing C.Gars and Turmeaus to satisfy our customers needs for the finest in cigars and customer service. If we ever fall short on service, the buck stops here so you can always contact me personally at [email protected] or co- Director Laura at  [email protected]. Huge business this may be but we are still a family business with an ethos of traditional values and personal service.

I’m off to Dortmund now for the annual Inter Tabak trade show and looking forward to the Davidoff Golden Bands Awards evening on Saturday. I’m still on their European Retalier Panel so it will be interesting to hear all the latest developments from this great brand. This is a huge trade show that I attend every year. Full report next week.

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing.

Mitchell

As the subject suggests we are eagerly awaiting the release of the long awaited Upmann No. 2 Reserva. We still don’t know when but the market intel suggests it should be fairly soon.

Reserva and Gran Reserva series are my favourite cigars as they are generally the best! and the No. 2 will be no exception. I smoked them at the Festival in Havana last year and they were sublime smokes. Presented in cabinets of 20 cigars we expect massive interest in this splendid cigar.

In herfing news from last week…

This was a full on herfing week starting in style on Monday with an office herf with friends and thoroughly good sampling of the Partagas Maduro No. 1 followed by dinner at the White House and a herf at Chez Orchant featuring H. Upmann Magnum 56 paired up with copious quantities of Robert Graham Dancing Stag single malts.

Wednesday herf was with friends in The Garden Room at The Lanesborough where we were back to old standards including the Orchant Seleccion 2010 Bolivar Belicosos and Partagas P.2’s paired up with Oban single malt and chocolate muffins (TY JtB!)

That got me in good herfing shape for the whisky and cigar tasting evening at La Casa del Habano Chester on Thursday which was a ridiculously sold out, two session event which ran from 6 pm until midnight! we sampled Partagas D.6’s and D5’s and followed them with El Rey del Mundo Tainos 2001 vintage (closest blend to a Dom Perignon that I can think of) the whisky line up was the Turmeaus Reserva Cask, Turmeaus Highland (coming to a bottle near you soon!) and The Hoebeg by Robert Graham.

The Wednesday Whisky Club members were out in force and enjoyed a very special club offer on Romeo Anejados, Our friend and International member Pal from Norway came over just to enjoy the evening and friends traveled from far and wide to make this another very special event.

I popped in to Turmeaus Liverpool on my way to Turmeaus Chester and am always surprised to see how busy these shops are. The range of cigars and whisky is quite breath-taking.

The builders are crashing away at the Chester Turmeaus additional premises and we now have a beautiful floor as well as all three shop fronts redecorated. The beautiful new cabinets and furniture are being handmade now and will be installed in the next few weeks ready to take delivery of some extraordinary whisky, rum, gin, champagne and of course more cigar ranges 🙂 Our seating capacity for cigar sampling will be increased and we will have an additional ‘whisky sampling by the dram’ bar.

Saturday late night and it was back to The Lanesborough with friends until… Very late 🙂 we went through a baggie of some excellent 1996 vintage Havanas including Cohiba Siglo V (unbelievable good smoke) Partagas 898 and Cohiba Corona Especiales. I love the Garden room, super comfortable and the best in service.

Next week, I’m off to the trade show at Dortmund and as ever will be reviewing the latest cigar and accessories to bring our clients the best products at the best prices.

I’ll be offline Monday and Tuesday and for those celebrating, I’ll take the opportunity to wish you a very happy and healthy new year. Oh! I better not forget to wish a very happy birthday to C.Gars Director and my better half – Karyn 🙂

Have a great week.

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Great to have a bank holiday weekend followed by a trip to Paris this week. In fact I think all weeks should be ‘3 day weeks’ to allow for maximum herfing time 🙂

As expected the bank holiday weekend was a complete washout and that looks like the end of the non-existent Summer. Shame, as I love smoking cigars al fresco but at least I can still enjoy my cigars in the office, shops, cigars lounges, car and lounge at home. ( I assume there is no legislation about smoking in my car?) I’m not likely to have any children in the back seat as I don’t have a back seat! I can’t believe that adults actually smoke in cars with children and to try and police anything like this would surely be ridiculous?

To celebrate my wedding anniversary my co-Director and better half Karyn and I went to Paris on Thursday (tres romantic!) well, I had a business meeting there so it was a good excuse to do a little sightseeing and a long lunch at my favourite people watching spot, Café Ruc. Happy anniversary Karyn!

However the day didn’t start off too well as we settled down at a pavement terrace café on the Champs Elysees, ordered espresso and lit up a teeny weeny Montecristo Media Corona only to be told by a rather snooty French waiter that cigar smoking was not allowed. Seriously I said? To which he took great relish in confirming. Zut alors! How terribly uncivilized I thought as I finished my coffee, lit up my cigar regardless and left a tip commensurate with the service I received.

No such problem at Café Ruc for lunch where I herfed my way through a Montecristo No. 2 followed by a Partagas SD No. 5 with a delightful bottle of Saint Estephe on a gloriously sunny and warm day.

Back to the office and a few hours work and I’ve managed to enter the first 100 auction Lots on our system ready for photography. I think I have around 200 + more to do over the next few weeks. I don’t think I have ever seen such a range of rare pre embargo cigars in any previous auction so this sale will be very special. I was also cataloguing some incredible Davidoff cigars from the 1980’s. I think just about every vitola in the range will be offered. When these delightful cigars have been stored/aged correctly they are the amongst the finest Havanas ever made. The quality of the stock I have examined is quite magnificent.

Tickets for the 30^th November auction and post auction cigar tasting event at The Bulgari and Sahakian Cigar Lounge will be available online mid-October.

On the Turmeaus front I am pleased to report that building starts next week on our third shop in Chester #woohoo. All three of our shops intercommunicate so the original shop specializes in new world cigars and pipe tobacco and has a pipe sampling area at the front of the shop, the middle shop is the beautiful La Casa del Habano with our superb Havana cigar sampling lounge and whisky sampling bar at the back of the premises. The new shop will dramatically increase our range and offering of single malt whisky, rum and other spirits and will also feature premium New World cigars that can of course be sampled on the new premises.

I’m having a lot of fun with the new Chester shop as I’m doing all of the design myself (as usual with assistance from my partner Ron in Florida) and I’m going for a very shabby chic look which I think my clients will love.

I’m heading over to Liverpool Turmeaus next week and then on to La Casa del Habano – Chester for the whisky and cigar tasting on Thursday evening which should be a great event as always. We’re featuring Montecristo and Partagas cigars and a flight of first rate single malts or Cuban rum (for the non-whisky drinkers) Last few tickets available for booking online.

A friend popped in to the office today to ask me to check some and authenticate Cohiba Maduro Genios he had been gifted by a friend who had visited Cuba. They looked a tad dodgy to me for a variety of reasons but we smoked a cigar each and whilst they were definitely Havana cigars they weren’t the real deal. I’m a bit startled that anyone would go to the bother of faking this particular cigar. Best to pay a tad more and get the real deal from a bona fide cigar specialist. I still get daily emails from people who have just come back from Cuba and met someone whose mother works in the factory and they have a box of Cohiba Esplendidos Etc. needless to say ‘all fakes’ and pretty bad ones at that. Usually with all stickers loose in the box ready to be stuck!

If you haven’t yet tried the Oliva Melanio range you’re in for a treat. I love these cigars. They are so well crafted and expertly blended. Smooth, sweet but full bodied. Perfect for the experienced cigar smoker and very appealing to the Havana cigar smoker as a change of pace.

I’m kicking back this weekend with a baggie full of Partagas SD4 and 6, Ramon Allones Specially Selected and Bolivar Royal Coronas. All currently smoking to perfection. Here’s hoping the weather brightens up a bit!

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Back to London after a lovely vacation in very sunny 30°F Spain and apologies I never bought the sunshine back with me. Hey Ho – it’s a bank holiday weekend so we should of course expect tons of rain as usual !

I’m a bit of a fussy bugger so I take a baggie of cigars with me wherever I travel in case heaven forbid I find myself in a location where I can’t find smokes immediately. So I crammed some humipouches full of Partagas SD4’s  and Monte 2’s and I was glad that I did especially as the D4’s were the sweetest batch that I have smoked in some time.

My change of pace holiday cigar was an Oliva Orchant Seleccion Chubby  which was delicious.  The Monte 2’s weren’t too shabby either.  My holiday treat cigar was a 1988 Davidoff 4000 which was sublime.

I love herfing in the sunshine and Spain seems to have smokers everywhere. I counted 5 cigar smokers at one restaurant terrace by the beach – how civilized. 🙂

The new Partagas Maduro No.1  has been more popular than we would have guessed and are now available in all Turmeaus shops and online of course. Bit of a flavour bomb to say the least. Snap them up whilst stocks last.

Our marketing department tell me that pipe and pipe tobacco sales are going through the roof this year – thank you dear customers 🙂 we guarantee best prices in the UK of course. If we are wrong let us know and we will gladly price match. We are adding new ranges all the time. Here’s a link to all the new products that we have recently added.

I’m super happy with our Chester shops, Turmeaus Tobacconist on one side and La Casa del Habano on the other side 🙂 The shops are so busy and popular with our clients that we have acquired the shop next door and will be expanding our whisky and cigar offering further with a planned opening date of early October. Chester is such a beautiful city with great bars and restaurants and my wife tells me the shops are fabulous! It’s worth a trip even if you are not from the area. We open late on Wednesdays as well and the La Casa lounge is the perfect herfing spot to sample all the latest Havanas.

I read on the excellent Cigar Aficionado website that there are more changes at the top of Habanos SA.  Always a shame to lose all that experience.  No effect to us little retailers though and Hunters & Frankau are doing a great job keeping our humidors filled with the finest Havanas.

Small stocks of Por Larranaga Sobresalientes  have been trickling through again and are back on the shelves. I think this is one of the finest regional editions from Havana although my favourite is still Punch Serie D’Oro No.1

This week’s best seller has been our latest sampler pack bit sad calling it The End of Summer but looking out of my window it could be right, great value and great smokes.

This week’s rant concerns the latest ridiculous proposals for massive health warning labels on just about every part of the cigar box. What a complete and utter waste of time. Hopefully common sense will prevail and we will end up with something sensible that we can all live with.

Well that’s just about another month done and I’m looking forward to the long weekend with a baggie full of Fuente Don Carlos,  Inka Robusto,  Regius Petit Robusto (What a bargain!) and a box of Bolivar Belicosos #yumm.

Next week’s herfing plans take me to Paris… let’s hope the weathers better than London !

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell