Seems like we just got wrapped up with the Spring Auction and its already Summer Auction time again!

Over 360 Lots will be online from Tuesday May 19th and the auction will end on June 1st

Here’s a link to the auction website

We have added an excellent new ‘zoom’ feature so you can see the cigars up close and personal 🙂 but we are of course always happy to provide specific condition reports by email and you need only drop us a line at [email protected]
We have loads of new sellers for this auction and a mouth-watering, high quality selection of cigars under the following categories:

– Jars of cigars
– Mature cigars
– Vintage cigars
– Gran Reserva and Reserva Edition cigars
– Limited Edition cigars
– Limited Edition Books
– Limited Edition Humidors
– Dunhill cigars
– Davidoff Cigars
– Pre Embargo cigars

Our Summer auction is being held with the kind co-operation and assistance of our colleagues Edward and Eddie Sahakian from Davidoff of London and many of the finest Lots in the sale can be viewed at their fabulous cigar store at 35 St James’s.

Clients frequently ask me when I think the supply of vintage cigars will start to dwindle?  but I honestly see no sign of the market or supply slowing down.

We previously held 2 auctions a year (Summer and Winter) and knocked down around 600 Lots in total but we will already have knocked down over 600 Lots between the Spring and Summer auctions so we reckon by the time we have completed our winter auction we should be up to almost 1000 Lots, which is quite a hefty increase.

The online auction works a bit like eBay… think of it as CBay! You can bid up to the last second if you wish and if you have a fast connection you may bag a bargain.

Our Winter auction date is now set for the 1^st December and will follow the same format as last year’s auction in so far as it will be held at the fabulous Boisdale Canary Wharf at 3.30 pm and is part of the spectacular Spectator Magazine Cigar Smoker of the Year Awards event.

The auction will be conducted by resident C.Gars auctioneer Jonathan Humbert and we look forward to welcoming him back to the rostrum.

If you came to the last event you won’t want to miss this one! Tickets £250 each and will include luxury Champagne reception, three course dinner with fantastic wines, Cognac and malt whisky on the terrace after dinner plus seven hand rolled cigars per guest AND a goody bag.

Last year tickets completely sold out so we strongly advise reservations are made early. Ticket to dinner entitles guests to attend the Vintage Cigar Auction. Contact for ticket sales: [email protected]

Those wishing only to attend the auction please see http://www.cigarauctions.co.uk or contact [email protected]

Auctions are great for buyers and sellers. The market is transparent and market prices are established clearly. We leave all of the sold Lot results on both of our auction websites permanently as a resource and its terribly interesting to see ‘what’s hot and what’s not’

Without doubt interest in pre embargo Havanas is at an all-time high and demand for Davidoff and Dunhill as well as Gran Reserva and Coleccion Habanos books seem to have no limit.

Of course we buy and sell limited edition and vintage Havanas all year round (not just by auction!) in fact auctions are a small part of our overall vintage cigar sales yearly. I like to think of myself as a bit of an old fashioned cigar merchant. We take huge stock positions in many cigars every year and we lay them down for a further 3/5/7/10 years until we feel they are at their peak and ready to release into the market again. Our walk in humidors are bursting at the seams with the finest Havana cigars, literally from floor to ceiling. I am indeed the ‘kid in the candy store’!

I’m often asked, what should clients invest in? It’s a question I can’t honestly answer as I’m not an investment advisor, just a cigar merchant. Cigar brands and vitolas come into fashion and sometimes go out of fashion and then come back again. What I can comment on is past performance and if that is anything to go on, the brands of Cohiba, Partagas and Montecristo will always remain the most popular for collectors and investors.

Cigars such as the Cohiba 1966 Limited edition are incredibly popular for many as a lot of people see their future values going up to £100 per cigar, similar to the 2004 Cohiba Sublimes Limited edition. I don’t know if that will happen but I do know that the presentation is beautiful and the cigars have a blend of exceptional merit. We have a few hundred boxes stashed away in our Directors Reserve humidor.

This week’s travels took me to Nice in the beautiful South of France. Squeezy Jet fly there from Gatwick (mad early 6 am flight!) and I think it took me longer to get from home to the airport than the actual flight took! C’est la vie. I was asked to do a valuation on a small but delightful collection of Davidoff and other vintage cigars by a new client. The weather was magnificent, hot and sunny and I had an hour to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine and an H. Upmann Connoisseur A before boarding the flight back to London and getting back to the office mid-afternoon. I must be crazy but I do love my job 🙂

Popped over to my Father’s last night for a mini herf and over a bottle of Boisdale Champagne enjoyed some 2005 Montecristo No. 2’s. My Dad moaned on and on and on… and on about how they are not as good as the Monte 2’s he smoked years ago but he had to admit that they were still a  bloody good smoke! (He went through 3 cigars so they can’t have been too bad!)

My diary was clear on Friday (very rare) so I’m up in Scotland visiting Robert Graham shops in Rose street and Canongate – Edinburgh and enjoying a few cigars and single malt’s with my partner Ron.

Have a smokey weekend,

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

So what do you reckon – are cigar tastings a good idea? Personally, I love them – especially when our evenings are a combo of fine single malt whisky and premium cigars.

Well I’m biased as I own a very successful retail whisky business and award winning Independent whisky bottling  line (Treasurer cask strength range, Dancing Stag range and Core range of Hoebeg. Ailein Mor and Caerban)

I think our clients and friends love these evenings too as they are a very civilised and sociable way of sampling, herfing and meeting new friends who share the same passion for whisky and cigars.

We’ve had a program of tastings across our numerous locations over the last year but we’re planning to step it up and make them more frequent over the coming months.

I attended a splendid evening at our Cambridge store this week with the kind support of Hunters and Frankau – the UK’s Havana cigar importer and distributor (thank you Tim!)

Cambridge events usually sell out within a day of being announced and this was no exception. 30 girls and boys enjoyed a cosy evening at Robert Graham on Sussex Street and the earlier arrivals had a bonus Inka Secret Blend cigar before getting tucked into an H. Upmann Half Corona and a Hoyo de Monterrey Grand Epicure Limited edition.

I was a bit concerned about the Hoyo as I didn’t like this cigar when it was first released. But, I may have just been having a bad day as this huge ring gauge, dark and oily beast was a thoroughly enjoyable smoke. Rich, smooth, bold, balanced and sweet. Perfect construction and a perfectly even burn. Needless to say, I am grabbing a box to take home for the weekend 🙂

My Cambridge Team of Cailin, James and Mimi are truly a delight to work with… Thanks you chaps (and chapette!)

We sampled some delightful Treasurer and Dancing Stag single Malt whisky which paired up to perfection with the cigars. Check out the ranges on these links:
Treasurer
Dancing Stag

Thanks to everyone that attended and thanks for all your thanks emails! ( that’s a lot of thanks going on!) Hope to see you at our next tasting which will be a Davidoff evening at Cambridge.

A few of the chaps were debating what region works with a cigar and clearly we fall in two separate camps – those that enjoy Islay/peaty Scotch and the rest, like me, prefer Speysides. Call me a heathen if you will but I think all that peat (read that as TCP!) drowns out delicate flavour and taste of a good cigar. I’ve been debating this with our Director of whisky Ron Morrison forever and he will hear nothing of it! He loves Islay whisky. Oh well, each to their own.

So I’m trying to work out how to increase the tasting evenings and I reckon we need more sampling lounges in our cigar shops. Hmmm… How do we fit them in I hear you thinking! Well, we need to buy a few more shops alongside our existing shops! Easier said than done unless I ‘make them an offer they can’t refuse’ as we say in the Mafia (that’s the cigar Mafia of course!) watch this space… New Turmeaus cigar sampling lounges coming soon 🙂

Founder/Co-Director of C.Gars Ltd – Laura Graham advises me that at long last she has signed the lease for additional premises in Norfolk! Hurrah 🙂 We have been busting out of our huge warehouse for the last year and Laura is planning to open a lovely retail showroom, pipe and cigar specialist with sampling area in the next few months. I think it’s about time Norfolk had somewhere to sample. Well done Laura.

They may be small but they are cool and yes you can sample cigars at our shops in Mayfair, West Hampstead, Liverpool and Chester.

I zoomed over to Bologna in sunny Italy for a little client and friend herfing activity this week. Tough day herfing some 1970’s Dunhill cigars and 1980’s Davidoff but it had to be done 🙂 thanks to Davide and Luca for a lovely days herfing.

My Inka Secret Blend cigar import arrived and we have a pretty good range in store and online again staggering sales again exceeding expectations. Should I really be surprised? Great blend and great value and only available from C.Gars Ltd.

La Invicta cigars are re-launched and may I say a large step up from the previous version both in blend and presentation. Good value and a very tasty Honduran cigar indeed.

Cigar Auction fast approaching! Lots will be up and available to bid on from 19^th May and auction ends 1^st June. Here’s the website. Over 350 Lots (that’s a huge auction!) including some incredible pre embargo Havanas that even I have never seen before and no doubt will never see again. Delicious Davidoff and Dunhill. Aged, rare and mature cigars. If I do say so myself this is a very impressive catalogue.

Wrapping up for the week now and chilling out this weekend with Hoyo Grand Epicure and BBF’s from 2007 and perhaps a wee dram of Treasurer Deanston.

Next week I’m off to the South of France for a few hours and perhaps will shoot up to Scotland too!

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Still can’t seem to anticipate the demand and stock requirements for our best-selling range of Inka – Secret Blend. The sales are just staggering . Thank you dear customers 🙂

It’s gratifying to know I hit the spot on blend and price for this fabulous range of cigars that I created exclusively for C.Gars customers. We have just received another HUGE import that I hope will last a month or two! Sweet blend and sweet pricing, who could ask for more? If you would like to see a different size or presentation, drop me a line and I’ll work on it . How’s that for personal service!?

Did you see the TV documentary on Amazon.com? I was quite mesmerized and found it terribly interesting especially as my first cigar website (I think the first in the UK) was online back in 1994 and though we ain’t the size of Amazon, our business has become a bit of a giant in the cigar world and is still growing at a rather scary pace.

I have co-director and creator of C.Gars, Laura to thank for this monster creation we know and love as C.Gars because without her genius we would never have gone online in the first place bringing UK cigar clients the best service as well as guaranteed lowest prices. I remember a long, long time ago we used to use ‘never knowingly undersold’ as our marketing line and then we had to remove it when John Lewis legal department wrote a friendly warning letter to us! Have a laugh and read more on this link here.

The business has changed so much over the last 20 years it’s hardly recognizable. We are now working on different pricing structures to bring even better value to our customers and we are looking on further expansion as well as larger sampling lounges at our retail cigar stores in the North of England, where we have our Turmeaus Tobacconist shops (second oldest UK cigar specialist established way back in 1817!)

I remember when we started out only selling Havana cigars and then over the years introducing different ranges of New-World cigars. It was almost unheard of for a Havana cigar clients to try anything else. These days a massive amount of our clients order Havanas and New-World  cigars at the same time and the increase in interest for cigars made in Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic and other regions seems to be growing month on month. I think it’s great to ‘mix it up’ and experiment with different cigars.

This week didn’t get off to the flying start expected as I missed my Tuesday flight to Italy due to the bloody train strike in London. Oh well , c’est la vie, I spent the day working from home and puffing my way through too many Partagas SD4’s to remember. This is such an awesome ‘anytime’ smoke for me, great size and great blend. Current stocks have fabulous dark and oily wrappers (thank you to those nice chaps at Hunters and Frankau for selecting these dark and oily beauties for C.Gars) they look good enough to eat. 🙂

Wednesday and I hopped on to the Eurostar to Paris for lunch at Café Ruc by Hotel du Louvre. Beautiful sunny and hot day, bottle of wine and herfed through French regional edition El Rey del Mundo and Vegas Robaina. Sorry, can’t remember their names as I gave up trying to memorize all the regional editions a few years ago! The ERDM was a petit piramides and I had to cut it down by almost half to get a draw on the cigar. The Robaina had a perfect construction and they were in fact both very nice smokes.

I buy my lunch smokes from La Civette, beautiful shop and humidor and very friendly service.

Back to the office on Thursday for a filming session for a TV program which was a lot of fun. I’ll blog details if it ever gets on to the TV!

Friday is monthly meeting time with my Partner Guy from the Decent Cigar Emporium in Dublin so we’re having a pre-bank hol weekend herf and sampling session in the office with a few friends. Civilized way to end the week I reckon.

We ran a 48-hour special on Saint Luis Rey Serie A in cabinet selection. New price was just £199 for a half cab of 25 cigars or £399 for a cab of 50. Needless to say that we sold out in around an hour! These are smashing smokes, corona gorda sized 5 5/8” and 46 ring gauge. Well matured from 2001 or thereabouts. I have good stocks of SLR as I have always enjoyed this brand (as does my Father and did my Grandfather.)

I’ve been friends with the owner of the brand for a long time and always like chatting to him about cigars as he’s terribly knowledgeable. SLR is a bit of an anomaly as it’s the only brand that’s sort of independent in the UK market. Quality is good as is blend and construction generally. If you are subscribed to the C.Gars newsletter you can take advantage of the next SLR release which will be at killer pricing again. 🙂

Just wrapping up the next auction catalogue, looks like it’s a huge sale with around 350 Lots being offered from the 19^th May on the auction website. The catalogue will be at the printers early next week so if you want a printed catalogue as well you just need to shoot us an email.

Looking forward to the long weekend and if the weather holds up, we should be able to get a bit of topless motor herfing in as well but it’s the UK so it will likely rain!

My weekend baggie includes:

Partagas SD No. 4’s – see above notes!

Regius Culebras – for a bit of fun and Nic kick with my morning espresso.

Davidoff Puro D’Oro Gorditos – yes, yes I know the big story is Davidoff Nicaraguan! What can I tell you I just love the Puro D’Oro blend.

La Flor de Cano Gran Cano – one of my fave UK Regionals; Tasting notes? fugedaboudit I just bloody love them!

Bolivar Belicosos – I just can’t get enough of them. Well aged stocks that are smoking like a dream. Now this is how a Havana cigar should taste!

Another damn train strike for next week… Hopefully I won’t miss another flight! Oh and a cigar tasting event at our Cambridge store on Thursday… looking forward to herfing with old and new friends. 🙂

Have a smokey holiday weekend!

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

I hope everyone enjoyed the Easter/Passover break… I know I did 🙂 Armed with a rather large baggie of smokes to top up my home humidor the scene was set for some serious herfing! To name a few cigars:

– Bolivar Belicosos 2007 – the best  vintage since the early 1990’s , think sweet, sweet, sweet and complex tobacco flavours.

– Ramon Allones Petit Belicosos – UK regional edition – this cigar has matured to perfection with rich, bold full spicy flavours.

– Punch Serie D’Oro No. 1 – UK regional edition – truly my favourite of all the regional editions I have tried ( and that’s a lot!) one for the connoisseur.

– Partagas SD No. 4 2013 – darkest maduro wrapper leaf, aesthetically perfect with a return to form for this cigar in terms of a true Partagas blend.

– Saint Luis Rey Serie A cabinet selection 2001 – not a good vintage in general but 13 years age on this puppy has done it a power of good and they are smoking like a dream.

– Davidoff Puro D’Oro Gorditos – for a change of pace. I love this range of cigars. Unique in character, strong yet smooth and satisfying.

– Inka – Secret Blend Robustos (rojo red) – handmade long filler Peruvian puros, perfect from the first to the last puff. Part of my best selling range of New World cigars.

– Alec Bradley Prensado – I rarely smoke a Churchill size cigar but this one is the bomb. Full spicy flavoured and beautifully crafted, no wonder it’s so highly rated.

The weather held out thankfully and friends and I enjoyed the new smoking deck at chez Orchant to the max.

Back to work last week and I was on the road again zooming up to Liverpool by Virgin train from Euston. Well done to Virgin for redeveloping the previous awful first class lounge to an excellent standard but a big raspberry to them for blocking my website on their free wifi! What the hell is that all about? Cigars are still legal in the UK the last time I looked!

Turmeaus Liverpool is always such a pleasure to visit and my manager Christine and her Team offer the friendliest of customer service. We enjoyed a delightful cigar tasting evening with friends of Turmeaus from Liverpool at the pub smoking terrace next door to the shop and our thanks go to Scott from Tor Imports for providing such excellent cigars to sample.

Cigars that were sampled:
La Flor de Antillas Robusto (Cigar Aficionado No. 1 Cigar of the Year 2012)
Smooth, medium bodied, handmade Nicaraguan cigar.
La Flor Dominicana Chisel Gorda (Best Dominican Republic Cigar 2013 – Cigar Journal)
Amazing cigars using a blend of Dominican tobaccos for the filler and binder.

The cigars were excellent, the company was just brilliant, we all had a great laugh from start to finish. I really should spend more time up North as the crowd are an absolute riot to herf with. The pub should be pleased with the evening as I drank all of their Macallan and Glenrothes!Turmeaus Liverpool is always such a pleasure to visit and my manager Christine and her Team offer the friendliest of customer service. We enjoyed a delightful cigar tasting evening with friends of Turmeaus from Liverpool at the pub smoking terrace next door to the shop and our thanks go to Scott from Tor Imports for providing such excellent cigars to sample.

Next morning and I was driven over to Turmeaus Chester by Alfie (as in ‘Alfie Turmeaus’) who helped create our new exclusive range of pipe tobacco. Checkout Alfie’s tasting notes on the product notes:

– 1817 Blend (named after the year Turmeaus was established)

– Alfie’s Blend

– Orchant Blend

– Morrison’s Blend

I wasn’t able to stay for the tasting event in the evening at Chester but I understand the cigars were a great success and the long ash contest a lot of fun! Thanks again to Scott from Tor for his support and Bar Lounge for hosting the evening on their delightful cigar friendly terrace.

Cigars that were sampled:
Nub Sun Grown 466
Soft spicy tones, rich, full-bodied Nicaraguan cigar.
Cain Daytona Robusto
Ultra smooth, medium-bodied Nicaraguan cigar.

Friday and it was back to the airport to shoot up to Robert Graham Edinburgh for the day. Canongate, Robert Graham is quirkier than ever as we have put a huge range of one off vintage single malt and blended scotch whisky bottles and miniatures and Rose street is looking very cool now that the walk in humidor has been completed.

My Partner Ron and I sampled our award winning Treasurer Littlemill 1985 which was outstanding with a Trinidad Robusto Extra cigars.

Back to London office for a few hours to meet with colleague Gennaro Lettieri of Tabacalera del Oriente (the factory in Tarapoto, Peru that makes Inka – Secret Blend cigars) we chatted about our plans for International roll out over the next few months of our cigars over a bottle of Dalmore cigar malt and Secret Blend cigars that had been matured for a year since rolling. They were bloody excellent (that’s my official tasting notes!)

So, to our dedicated followers of Inka – Secret Blend cigars from Peru, I find myself once again apologizing that some of the sizes within the range have sold out yet again. We just cannot keep up with the demand for these cigars that I created almost two years ago now. We do have another large shipment flying over as I’m writing this blog so our range will be complete and available again very soon.

Secret Blend will no doubt continue to grow in popularity due to the quality of the tobacco and the rich, sweet, pure taste characteristic of the blend I created. You can only buy Inka cigars from us as we cut out any middle man margin to bring the best possible value to our customers.

Now thinking back to  when I was briefly in secondary school and how useless I was at Geography (as well as most other subjects) it greatly amuses me to award raspberry of the week to HSBC, the bank that continually asks us if our payments to Tabacalera del Oriente in Peru have anything to do with Cuba! Even I know that Peru is nowhere near Cuba lol. Too funny. Actually seems to be a lot of paranoia out there about Cuba at this time which seems a shame. Still nice to know that the UK has a good trading relationship with Cuba.

I’m almost out of breath thinking about what a busy week I had! And I’m doing it all over again this week with trips to Italy and France. Tough life and all that…

Cigar Auction time is getting close with catalogue due to be online and in print on the 19th May and auction finishing on the 1st June. We have just about finished cataloguing almost 350 Lots of aged, rare, mature, limited edition , books, humidors, Davidoff, Dunhill and pre embargo cigars. Something for everyone’s taste and a few outstanding gems. No doubt a few bargains to be won as always.

Plain Packaging! 

You may remember the success of the Hands Off Our Packs campaign which generated a huge response at the time of the original Plain Packaging Consultation.

In advance of the imminent publication of the Consultation with draft Plain Packaging Regulations, and given the Parliamentary process which will follow it, FOREST have now launched another campaign which targets No. 10 directly.

The link you need is http://noprimeminister.org.uk/ and it is very straightforward and can be completed in about a minute.

It would be very helpful if you could send this information on to your employees, friends and family on the basis that the more signatures are generated the better.

Have a smokey week,

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Following my last blog and rant about the ‘Chantler report’ on standardized packaging for tobacco in the UK, the results sort of came back like this:

The Minister announced the findings of the Chantler Review and declared the Government’s intention to take the policy of standardised packaging forward.

The Minister said that she is ‘minded’ to proceed with introducing regulations to provide for standardised packaging. However, before reaching a final decision, and in order to ensure that that decision is properly and fully informed, she intends to publish the draft Regulations, so that it is crystal clear what is intended, alongside a final short Consultation in which she will ask, in particular, for views on anything new since the last full public Consultation that is relevant to a final decision on this policy.

Under questioning she said that she will publish the draft regulations and the Consultation document, together with an Impact Assessment, this month and expects that the policy will be introduced during this Parliament. She did however say that there needs to be a sensible transition period and would not be drawn on when Standardised Packaging would actually appear on the shelves.

As ever, none of this make much sense to a simple cigar merchant like me as standardized packaging has already failed abysmally in Australia where tobacco sales have increased. The reality is the UK will just have more illicit trade of tobacco robbing the exchequer of much needed tobacco tax revenue and no doubt many more businesses will go to the wall and many more jobs lost.

Could be a repeat of the UK smoking ban in 2007 which murdered the pub trade just as the recession started to take grip. Pubs closed and continue to do so, jobs were lost, tax revenue was lost. Bravo politicians… Another genius piece of work that has failed. Did the nanny state smoking ban make any difference to the smoker? Not a jot… You couldn’t make it up.

I commend the brilliant politicians that want to reduce underage smoking but I repeat; children don’t smoke cigars or pipes. At least I have never come across a child coming into one of our specialist cigars stores asking for a Monte 4! Under 25’s (we use Challenge 25 scheme) are not even allowed into our shops!

So legislate as much as they want but leave cigars and pipe tobacco exempt and the hell out of this madness.

Michelle, my “Man Friday” returned from a fabulous vacation in Czech Republic with the obligatory cold caught on the plane back just in time for me to head off to New York on Thursday for a long weekends herfing activity. I relaxed in the Virgin lounge and had the usual facial and massage (hey – I’m metrosexual!) and a glass or two of Champagne before hopping on to my Upper Class seat. Now either the seats are getting smaller or I am getting bigger but considering my diet (the 5 + 2) is working very well, I reckon the seats are smaller. Good luck to anyone much taller than me on the flat beds!

I love NYC – so civilized and cigar friendly. I checked into my hotel on the Avenue of the Americas, changed into my smartest suit to look like a toff and headed to Grand Havana Room to meet with a few friends. Well, more than a few friends actually as I reckon there must have been around 15 or so of us doing some serious herfing.

GHR was crammed full, I was amazed at how busy this huge cigar lounge was. Armed with a baggie full of Inka – Secret Blend and Davidoff cigars and having a constant refilled glass of Mac 12 and Balvenie 12, it’s fair to say that a bloody good and late herf was thoroughly enjoyed by all ☺

Friday morning and I settled into my usual routine of herfing at De La Concha cigar shop/lounge. DLC is an “Olde Worlde” cigar shop and a very charming one indeed. Plenty of seating and I always enjoy sitting at the front by the window so I can watch the world go by. It’s so funny as numerous people walk by and look in with either looks of disgust at people smoking, smiles or in the case of a number of Asians; smiles and waves!

I herfed my way through a load of Davidoff Puro D’Oro sizes that we don’t seem to have in the UK (probably due to the barmy taxes that would be applicable on the size/weight of the cigars) such as the Notables and Gigantes. I love the blend of Puro D’ Oro, here are our notes:

Puro d’Oro features 100% Dominican tobaccos to make up its wrapper, binder and fillers. Inside, you’ll find a smooth, elegant blend of Dominican long leaves all bound by a Dominican binder. Davidoff’s exclusive Yamasa wrapper creates a unique flavour of coffee and spicy notes as the oily wrapper leaves a heavy feel on your palate.

Smooth, earthy flavours – medium bodied cigars.

The small range in the UK can be found here.

Saturday and I headed for Carnegie Club for the late show which is a tribute to Frank Sinatra, a couple of friends joined me and we had fun doing a bit of a blind tasting on the planned USA release of Inca – Secret Blend (not to be confused with the UK Inka – Secret Blend cigars) followed by Davidoff Perfectos.  Sinatra music, smokes and Scotch… My kinda evening.

Sunday was time for a chilled out afternoon at Club Macanudo and time to herf some serious Fuente cigars 🙂 In fact I was back to backing Opus X Perfect for a Sunday afternoon.

Headed back on Monday evening after another herfette at De La Concha and then off to the Virgin lounge at JFK for a bit of pre-flight pampering. Fortunately the aircraft was different for the return flight and the seats/beds more comfortable.

So thanks to my bunch of smoking chums that took very good care of me in NYC – Peter, Jay, Jeff, Leo, Rodney, David, Ricky, Howard to name a few. I can’t wait for my next trip.

Back to Blighty and straight to the C.Gars London office for coffee and a Montecristo No. 2 … it tasted sooo good after 4 days of New World cigars 🙂 Sweet and creamy, medium strength and a perfect draw. Still one of my favourite Havanas… After all these years.

Inka Cristales are now re-launched with an even sweeter Peruvian blend that is outrageously good and very cool new packaging – check them out on this link.

Can’t believe it’s Easter/Passover next week! The year is flying by. Looking forward to a little time off and if the weather holds up (it’s beautiful in London now) some herfing on the deck.

Have a smokey weekend,

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell