By my reckoning this was the 16^th out of 17 of the February Festivals I have attended. I was in Havana for the first one but too poor to buy a ticket to the gala dinner! It’s been quite amazing to see the Festival develop, change and for the most part improve over the years and this year was no let down.

So I went through my usual routine with plenty of pre-flight pampering in the Virgin lounge at Gatwick followed by a few glasses of Champagne to get me in the Festival mood. Sat myself down on the plane next to a Cuban young lady who seemed to be dancing to iPod music throughout the flight (very entertaining – maybe she was happy to get out of London’s cold weather?!)

Service on Virgin Atlantic was excellent as ever and I should probably take this opportunity to apologise for snagging a load of extra Fab lollies that were sort of left in the galley looking lonely and needing to be eaten (apologies Mr Branson – I was indeed the ice lolly thief.)

Arriving at Jose Marti was at least as entertaining as usual with a 2 hour wait for our suitcases but we gave up stressing about the slow pace of service in Cuba many years ago 🙂 Fortunately our friends that met us at the airport were well prepared with a bottle of Santiago 11 year old rum and a few Cohiba BHK 54’s left over from our November trip so we livened up fairly fast. Lucky I had a few BHK’s in Havana as there was no sign of them in any of the cigar shops.

In our usual ‘let’s hit the ground running’ style we headed straight over to a cocktail reception at the Habana Libre Hotel which was delightful as I bumped into a zillion friends and clients from all over the world whilst knocking back a Mojito or two and herfing a Piramides that was one of the smokes being handed out.

I changed hotels this year from the Nacional where I usually stay to the Saratoga and it was in fact a very welcome change. Best service I can remember in Cuba and super comfortable suite. The bar was comfortable and smoker friendly of course and the Wi-Fi worked pretty well. Good thing it did work as I had no data on my phone for the whole trip (note to Cuba: – please settle data bill with EE so I can work on my next trip – thank you.)

The top floor pool area rapidly became a firm favourite herfing location as we watched the smoke pollution billowing out of the local power plant and looked over the streets and buildings of Havana. An amazing array of new buildings, old buildings and collapsing buildings. Capitolio Building and the National ballet still closed for renovations.

We herfed our way round all the usual places including the Melia Habana, Partagas, Habana Libre, Melia Cohiba, 5^th and 16^th in Miramar and Palacio and whilst all humidors seemed pretty well stocked there was no sign of Cohiba Behike anywhere so I smoked through my stash of 54’s from last November. Lots of talk about lack of wrapper leaf and likely shortages until at least this April but when I visited El Laguito there was no sign of any shortage and the quality and size of the leaf was quite superb. There was also plenty of rolling of Behikes! (Maybe they are all coming to the UK market as we have great supply! – TY Hunters & Frankau)

We are lucky in the UK as our importer Hunters & Frankau keep huge stocks, as do we. That way we can usually iron out most stock shortage situations.

Nice to bump in to Naomi Campbell and Paris Hilton at the Habana Libre. Paris is super pretty in real life (more so than in mags/on TV!) I wonder if she knew that the hotel was originally the Havana Hilton?!

I managed to find a few decent antiques and magazines to add the collection and enjoyed mooching round the Convention Centre bumping into many old friends. Not sure why they don’t put the air conditioning on though? – it was pretty darn hot and humid!

The Gala Dinner was the usual incredible event at Pabexpo, apparently attended by some 1400 people! This year was a mega Montecristo 80^th anniversary celebration and we were treated lots of Monte’s including: Petit No. 2, Media Corona (surprisingly good), Edmundo, Churchill Anejados and 80^th Aniversario (outstanding).

We understand that the 80^th Aniversario Montecristo will be with us at some stage which is very exciting. I will try to keep calm though as we are still waiting for the Upmann No. 2 Reserva that was introduced to us at last year’s Festival!

Great and rather non-stop entertainment (too loud as usual) and some pretty decent Havana Club Seleccion de Maestros rum and a very warm welcome from Jorge Luís Fernández Maique, the commercial vice president of Habanos S.A.

The Habanos Man of the Year award for communications  was an interesting one as two of my friends were nominated with Gary Heathcott winning and Colin Ganley being the runner up as such. Well done to both of them.

The Auction was successfully and very well handled by Simon Chase and as you can see from the image, the 6 Lots were quite breath-taking. Simon reminded bidders that the Embargo was still firmly in place and punishing the economy and all proceeds were donated to the Cuban National Health Service.  The auction total raised was 662,500 Euros… Well done Simon.

The rest of the trip consisted of a lot of cigar herfing, rum drinking and finally catching the flu… Marvellous.

So, another great trip to Havana and I’m already looking forward to the November Partagas Festival. My thanks as ever to Hunters & Frankau as well as the Cuba C.Gars Team (Arturo, Zaffie, Mike and Hector) for 5 days of non-stop herfing and laughing.

Back to Blighty and a very hectic schedule ahead including the official opening event at our La Casa del Habano – Chester on the 17^th March. The tickets are more or less sold out now and this will be a very special evening for C.Gars Ltd. Sean Croley from Hunters & Frankau will be cutting the ribbon as our guest of honour. Canapés from our favourite restaurant Bar – Lounge (thank you Neil), Chocolates from Rococo, Fabulous Ron Mulata and cigars from our humidor 🙂

I’m also looking forward to the opening of our Norfolk Turmeaus premises on the 24th of March (tickets available here). The Norfolk opening is a particularly sentimental one for me and co-Director Laura as C.Gars Ltd was ‘officially’ founded in Norfolk way back in the mid 1990’s but it was mail order cigar business only at that time. So to finally be opening a Turmeaus there is pretty cool for us. We are looking forward to welcoming Brian Shapiro of Oliva cigars as our guest of honour and will be sampling some ridiculously good Oliva cigars complimented by Mulata rum and Mojitos. Norfolk is such a beautiful county and I could never understand why there wasn’t a specialist but now there is! Our premises adjoins our main warehouse and offices so you can imagine how comprehensive the range of cigars, tobacco accessories and humidors are.

Our next Vintage Cigar Auction will be held at the delightful Bulgari Hotel in Knightsbridge on the 15^th June. We are accepting entries at this time and all enquiries can be emailed to Laura and her auction team at [email protected]

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

I’ve been attending the IPCPR tobacconist trade show in the USA for the last 17 years. It has always been a brilliant opportunity for me to meet suppliers and chat with other retailers as well as clients of ours. From exceptionally humble beginnings 2 decades ago Laura and I have managed to create a colossus of a cigar and smokers accessory business and the US trade show has been a monumental factor helping in that growth as it always gave us the opportunity to bring in ranges of humidors and accessories that no one else would have in the UK. Better still as importers we passed the savings on to our customers and ensured best value as well as best range in the UK.

As the business grew and grew we expanded our cigars range from Havanas only, steadily into New World cigars and introduced some incredible ranges to our clients such as Fuente, Padron, Oliva, Dunhill and Davidoff to name a few.  As the popularity of New World cigars grew we started to add boutique and other high quality brands such as Regius, Inka, Nat Sherman, Tatuaje and many others to bring our clients a huge choice of cigars from all the different tobacco growing regions.

At last year’s show I was ‘wowed’ at the Padron exhibition stand by the Padron 50th anniversary humidor – I think this is possibly the single most beautiful humidor I have ever seen. The cigars

are called ‘ The Hammer’ and measure in at 6 ½” length and 52 ring gauge.

50 perfectly crafted cigars per humidor made with the finest tobacco aged for 10 years. Available in natural or maduro wrapper and a unique bold full flavoured blend make this possibly the finest cigar I have ever smoked from Nicaragua. Demand was high as we expected but Padron kindly allocated a small number of humidors to C.Gars.  We are keeping number 321 humidor for display in a flagship store we are planning to open later this year.

What a lot of fun I’ve had opening specialist cigar stores over the last 15 years. C.Gars started out as a mail order- internet cigar merchant and I remember when we bought the first cigar shop in Liverpool that everyone told me I was mad to do so! Well that store was on its knees thanks to the previous owner and pathetic management but we turned it around and Turmeaus Liverpool will celebrate its 200th anniversary in style in 2017. 🙂

I then moved on to open a Turmeaus in Chester, followed by Turmeaus Mayfair. Last year we opened our beautiful La Casa del Habano in Chester and we are soon to open a rather swish Turmeaus Tobacconist in Norfolk.

Whilst all this has been going on I was also the owner and Managing Director of Robert Graham Ltd, another business that was on its knees and hanging on with its last very sad looking whisky and cigar store in Glasgow. Well, long story short, we turned that one around as well, opening additional specialist whisky and cigar stores in Edinburgh Rose street, Edinburgh Canongate, London West Hampstead, Cambridge and of course our incredible flagship in the heart of Glasgow.

Robert Graham Ltd has also won a raft of awards for many of the incredible range of Independent bottled single malt whiskies we created so I’m very proud of that achievement. I am still involved with this fabulous business but have taken a back seat to concentrate on Turmeaus tobacconist expansion and handed the reins over to new managing director Steve Johnstone who will no doubt continue the solid growth and family run ethos of the business for the future.

The tobacco industry is extraordinary in terms of crazy legislation that seems to be never ending (despite being targeted at cigarette smokers but affecting cigar and pipe smokers) and products that are introduced but arrive late in the market, in tiny quantity or not at all ! We are still waiting for the Upmann No.2 Reserva introduced at last year’s Festival in Havana but absolutely no sign of them surfacing as yet ! I wish they would do as they were an outrageously good smoke when I tried them.

Some very good news though insofar as the Hunters and Frankau 225th anniversary Ramon Allones humidor will be released on time and is expected 3rd week of June. Tons of interest in this magnificent humidor and no doubt splendid cigars. I’ll be tucking a few of these away in my retirement fund !

A few events for your calendars 🙂 :

Monday 23rd February – Single Malt Whisky and Havana cigar tasting evening at La Casa del Habano –Chester

Tuesday 17th March – Opening party and Cuban rum tasting evening at La Casa del Habano – Chester. Guest of honour is Sean Croley, Sales Director of Hunters & Frankau

Tuesday 24th March – Launch evening for Turmeaus Tobacconist – Norfolk. Guest of honour is Brian Shapiro of Oliva Cigars

Wednesday 13th May – Cigar tasting evening at Turmeaus Chester featuring Alec Bradley Cigars. Guest of honour is George Sosa

Thursday 14th May Cigar tasting evening at Turmeaus Liverpool featuring Alec Bradley Cigars. Guest of honour is George Sosa

15th June Vintage Cigar Auction 2pm at The Bulgari Hotel Knightsbridge

Lots are already arriving for the next cigar auction and we expect to have a good range of Pre Embargo, Davidoff, Dunhill, Limited Edition, Aged and Rare Havanas knocked down my resident C.Gars auctioneer Jonathan Humbert. If all goes to plan the format of the next auction will be completely different to all previous auctions as this will be a live auction but we are adding additional technology so internet bidders can bid online right up till the hammer falls. More details to follow.

Okay so I am constantly asked what is my favourite cigar and what am I smoking now ? well I can do no better than tell you that I don’t have a favourite ! Yes, I have regular smokes on rotation such as Bolivar Belicosos and Montecristo No.2 but it’s all down to vintage (much like fine wines) when it comes to Havana cigars. I love just about anything from 2007 but I also love trying out some of the great new Havanas such as the incredible Cohiba Robusto Supremo Limited Edition, Partagas Serie D No.6 ( great breakfast smoke) and Trinidad Vigia ( never had a Trini I didn’t like !)

That said I also mix it up a bit these days with New World cigars for a change of pace. My exclusive Orchant Seleccion range by Oliva are on the daily rotation and are selling like mad so it looks like I got that blend just about right. Perfect sizes and unbelievable value for a premium cigar. I honestly don’t think you can find a better value premium cigar in the UK

 

Orchant Seleccion By Oliva Chubby  £99

Orchant Seleccion By Oliva Skinny  £69

Orchant Seleccion By Oliva Shorty  £89

I’m also enjoying Inka – Secret Blend, the brand and blend I created from 100% Peruvian tobacco. Nothing else like it on the market and a huge success story for C.Gars Ltd.

Not long to go before this year’s Festival del Habanos in Havana. I reckon this is the 16th Festival ( out of 17 held ) that I will attend. This year the featured brands are Romeo y Julieta and Montecristo ( celebrating the 80th anniversary of good old Monte !) and I can’t wait. I think around 2000+ attend the Festival and it’s always good to catch up with friends from all over the world at the Mecca for cigars.

That’s me wrapped up for another week, I’m kicking back this weekend with a box of 2011 Cohiba 1966 Limited Edition and a bottle of Glendullan ( The Ghost!) 1999 …. What a combo 🙂

Have a smokey valentines weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

My La Casa del Habano in Chester is as expected becoming more popular by the day and our tasting event last week was a standing room only affair as it was so over booked!

The tasting featured Dalmore and Jura single malt whiskies paired up with Romeo Petit Churchills and Rafael Gonzales Perlas.

The Cigar Malt from Dalmore was absolutely delicious and the Havanas complimented them perfectly.

We’re having a lot of fun with our ‘Open Tasting Evenings‘ where you can roll up for a 45 minute session for a Tenner, enjoy sampling the cigars and whisky and have an informal Q&A session with me and the Chester team.

My thanks to Dalmore and Hunters & Frankau for their kind support and a warm welcome to Sara , the newest member of our Turmeaus and LCDH Management Team in Chester.

Our next tasting event will be held on the 23rd February but pre booking is essential as we won’t be able to sell tickets on the night due to the overwhelming demand we received at the last event.

The first vintage cigar auction of the year was a resounding success and a good excuse for me to smoke my way through some Romeo and Montecristo Anejados as I sat glued to my computer screen watching the bidding for some 9 hours!

A bit of a bidding war going on with some of the Lots producing spectacular results (especially Partagas Lusitania cabinet of 50 from 1997 sold at £2710!)

Dunhill prices at well above estimates as in previous auctions so no sign of any decline in interest. Davidoff prices selling within the estimate range generally and ever popular.

Pre embargo lots sold very well with more interest than we have seen in previous auctions and spectacular prices achieved for Henry Clay.

Cohiba prices as expected were very strong with no end to the demand for this fine Havana cigar brand especially in Limited Edition.

Roughly a 99% sale rate

Top selling Lots – sold prices without fees (in Sterling)

PRE EMBARGO – Romeo y Julieta  Coronations de Lux – Pre embargo cabinet of 100 cigars £10000

PRE EMBARGO – Punch Double Coronas – cabinet of 100 cigars £9000

Cubatabaco Humidor  of 25 cigars from 1985 £7610

PRE EMBARGO – Ramon Allones Trumps cabinet of 50 cigars £5260

PRE EMBARGO – H. Upmann Cabinet de S.W.F. cabinet of 50 cigars £5000

Davidoff Dom Perignon – JM NIUC 1987 Box of 25 cigars £4960

Cohiba Sublimes Extra Coleccion Habanos – 2008 £4517

Davidoff Dom Perignon – 1980’s box of 25 cigars £4500

Cohiba Corona Especiales Diplomatic 1989 cabinet of 50 cigars £4010

PRE EMBARGO La Corona  coronas cabinet of 50 cigars £3810

PRE EMBARGO Por Larranaga Nacionales –cabinet of 50 cigars £3610

Rafael Gonzalez Seleccion Suprema –cabinet of 25 cigars made for Davidoff £3610

All sold prices are on the website as a resource http://www.onlinecigarauctions.com/index.php and  our Summer auction is already being planned for mid-June.

We are now accepting entries and are happy to advise by email [email protected]

I reckon we have had just about all the new release cigars that were due or overdue and the choice is amazing!

Montecristo Churchill Anejado

Romeo Piramides Anejado

Trinidad Vigia

Partagas Serie D No. 6

On the New World cigar scene, these new Alec Bradley cigars are selling like crazy over the last few weeks, a puros from Nicaragua that’s bursting with sweet flavours. Available online and in all Turmeaus and Robert Graham shops.

The Orchant Seleccion Oliva cigars remain our most popular New World cigars so far this year and the feedback is that we have hit the spot with blend as well as sizes and prices. Checkout the sampler pack on this link

For something a bit different I would recommend trying La Estancia. The wrapper and binder are tobaccos from Nicaragua, whereas the filler is a blend of Cuban and Nicaraguan tobacco. The first two sizes launched are a Robusto and a Corona. They look like ridiculously good value for a premium cigar and well worth adding one to your next order.

And finally… We just received a huge import of Inka – Secret Blend, so all sizes are available again another best-selling exclusive from C.Gars and available at Robert Graham and Turmeaus shops.

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell,

It’s been a terribly hard week for me as my G.M  and Man Friday, the lovely Michelle has been on vacation so I have really had to get back to a serious work schedule in the office.

At least that was the plan 🙂 … Until I popped into Turmeaus Mayfair on Wednesday and foolishly announced it on Twitter whereupon a few of my regular smoking chums decided that they would ambush me in the cigar sampling room and we should do an impromptu sampling session of Orchant Seleccion by Oliva cigars!

Needless to say 2 hours later we had thoroughly tested all 3 sizes, accompanied by a bottle of Dancing Stag Ben Nevis single malt whisky (by Robert Graham) and this rather dedicated focus group were very impressed with the results.

We decided that the Skinny was the breakfast smoke , the Shorty was the mid-afternoon smoke and the Chubby was perfect as a late night smoke. My chums cleared out / purchased almost all of the Orchant Seleccion Oliva stock in the humidor so at least I can pretend I was working hard!

Well that was a good warm up pre-pre-herf for our Thursday evening Burns Night herf which started with a pre herf at the office where we sampled some H Upmann Connoisseur No. 1 together with a bottle of Dancing Stag Bowmore 1990.

No one buys Connoisseur No. 1 anymore and we can’t understand why? (not fashionable? No new sexy name or size?)  the cigars are a Hermosos no. 4, one of my favourite vitolas measuring in at 5” length and 48 ring gauge, They were absolutely delicious, full flavour, medium strength and perfect construction.

We moved on to the main event with dinner at the fabulous Boisdale Belgravia. Complete with the Burns night piper and the address to the haggis (sorry to my overseas readers who this must sound very strange to!)

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o the puddin’-race! Aboon them a’ ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye worthy o’ a grace As lang’s my arm. The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill, Your pin wad help to mend a mill In time o need, While thro your pores the dews distil Like amber bead. His knife see rustic Labour dight, An cut you up wi ready slight, Trenching your gushing entrails bright, Like onie ditch; And then, O what a glorious sight, Warm-reekin, rich! Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive: Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive, Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve Are bent like drums; The auld Guidman, maist like to rive, ‘Bethankit’ hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout, Or olio that wad staw a sow, Or fricassee wad mak her spew Wi perfect scunner, Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view On sic a dinner? Poor devil! see him owre his trash, As feckless as a wither’d rash, His spindle shank a guid whip-lash, His nieve a nit; Thro bloody flood or field to dash, O how unfit! But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread, Clap in his walie nieve a blade, He’ll make it whissle; An legs an arms, an heads will sned, Like taps o thrissle. Ye Pow’rs, wha mak mankind your care, And dish them out their bill o fare, Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware That jaups in luggies: But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer, Gie her a Haggis

Well, dinner was splendid as always (both food and service – thank you Boisdale!) but the usual fast affair as we really wanted to get to the cigar terrace to herf. By this time our group had swelled to 13 members which was a pretty good crowd. We whammed through another focus group for Oliva Orchant Seleccion and the results were the same with as the previous afternoon with everyone enjoying them and loads of orders placed (I was working hard – really!)

I then treated the boys to a box of Bolivar Belicosos from dress box with my favourite code TEB – JUN07 – 2007 vintage. The cigars were simply sublime, like nectar, sweet and full flavoured. Medium strength, perfect draw, colorado wrappers and everyone raved about them. Goes to show, I can still pick a winner after all these years 🙂

The herfing continues next week at our gorgeous La Casa del Habano in Chester where I will host an open tasting evening featuring Dalmore and Jura single malt whiskies and some of my favourite Havana cigars. If you came to my evenings in December you know what a fun time we have!

La Casa is due to receive the new Montecristo Churchill Anejado any minute now and I can’t wait to try them. If they are anywhere as good as the Romeo Piramides Anejados we are in for a treat.

Online Auction site is live and bids are already being entered. Massive range of aged and rare Havanas and some of the most beautiful Pre Embargo cigars we have ever offered. Check it out on this link http://www.onlinecigarauctions.com/index.php

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Just back from sunny Florida to awfully cold London and yes, you guessed it, I was working on our long overdue US version of Inca-Secret Blend cigars. Well the good news is the cigars have finally arrived on the other side of the Pond ☺ and we hope to be rolling out the first batch in the next few weeks if all goes to plan (which it rarely does!)

We held yet more focus group taste testing’s with a variety of friends and if the fact that everyone was nubbing them is anything to go by, I think the market will receive my cigars very well indeed; full flavour but light to medium in strength, smooth, creamy, floral but sweet. Perfect construction and colorado maduro wrappers. All tobacco 100% from Peru. Filler, binder and wrapper – a true puros that is sure to please. All tobacco aged minimum 3 years so no aggression or harshness in the character of the blend from the first to the last puff. More details to follow once released.

As luck would have it new cigar releases arrived whilst I was abroad and were already flying off the shelves by the time I got back:

Trinidad Vigia – great size at 4 1/3” length  and 54 ring gauge.

Partagas Serie D No. 6 – short at 3 ½ “ length and 50 ring gauge but packs a punch and perfect when you’re pushed for time and want volumes of flavour burst.

Romeo y Julieta Piramides – my favourite of the three new Havanas, 6 1/8” length and 52 ring gauge with all tobacco aged for 5-8 years. Very smooth and full flavour.

And… My Orchant Seleccion cigars by Oliva look like they may be a contender for fastest selling new world cigar this year with demand quite staggering for the Shorty. Skinny and Chubby are not too far behind!

Excellent quality and value new Dunhill Aged Reserva Especial Trilogia has just arrived as well. Guaranteed best price in the UK (like all cigars I sell!)

Check this out for cool presentation and they ain’t too shabby a smoke either. C.Gars Ltd loves Alec Bradley cigars!

First auction of the year due to go online in the next hour or so. Check out almost 300 Lots of cigars on this website.  A wonderful catalogue of Aged and Rare, Davidoff and Dunhill, Limited and regional Havana cigars.

Viewing at our offices Monday to Friday by appointment please [email protected]  Our online auctions have been hugely popular over the last 2 years and we are already filling the catalogue for the June auction. Its works much like eBay… Think of it as cBay for cigars!

Mouth-watering Pre Embargo cigars on offer including boxes of 25, cabinets of 50 and 100 – simply breath taking, perfect condition and provenance.

You can bid from now – today, right up to the last second – make sure you have a fast connection ☺ happy to help with shipping too and storage if required.

Checkout this new online cigar magazine – its brilliant! Well done Nic Wing ☺ already famous for his London Cigar walks and a fabulous ambassador for the UK cigar trade.

Okay that’s the news for now as I have to ‘really work’ this week as Michelle is on vacation in the sunshine!

I’m off to Turmeaus Liverpool and La Casa del Habano Chester next week and looking forward to herfing with our friend up North 🙂 Tuesday evening we will hold another open tasting evening at La Casa with a good Havana cigar sampling and some great single malt whisky. If you subscribe to my newsletter you’ll get the full details. Pre booking essential.

Always online 24/7 for any advice regardless of whether you wish to order.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell