A very happy new year to all friends of C.Gars, Turmeaus and Robert Graham 🙂

There was a really weird  if not bizarre article in the Financial Times about cigar smoking declining in the UK and dying out by 2026 a couple of days ago. My first though was great… I can set up a retirement date as that would make me around 61 years old 🙂 but then I thought nahhhh!… What on earth would I do with my time, it’s not as if I play golf lol.

So dear blog reader, I decided to do a little actual research as it seemed that the writer of the article had not done his research accurately (if at all!) Basic research would have suggested that he may get some more accurate feel for the industry by contacting C.Gars Ltd. As retailers both online and in our cigar stores we should have a good handle on whether the premium cigar industry is declining, surely?

I asked my marketing department for some stats relating to our business. Now you may think that the stats are only relevant to my businesses but by my reckoning we are the largest cigar specialist in the UK and whilst I think we are also the best cigar specialist, the reality is that if we are doing well and our sales are increasing, our contemporaries and competitors in the UK are also likely to be experiencing something fairly similar.

Well… The FT article partially blamed the smoking ban for their theory that cigar smoking is declining and will die out by 2026 but my Marketing Team stats show that our sales have increased more or less 20% annually since 2007 which would rubbish the FT article completely. We have opened new specialist cigars stores in Edinburgh, London West Hampstead, London Mayfair and Cambridge as well as relocated to better premises in Liverpool and Glasgow. Hardly any sign of a declining business or industry

Perhaps the writer of the article never bothered to visit any of the fabulous cigar terraces in London or elsewhere in the UK that always seem to be exceptionally busy when I visit them for a scotch and a smoke or two on just about any evening of the week. If the demand wasn’t there why would these businesses invest so much money in providing the facility? My favourites include: Boisdale, Ten Manchester Street, The Wellesley, The Bulgari, The Ritz  and the Lanesbourogh (now closed for refurb) to name a few.

Perhaps cigarette smoking is declining? I don’t know and I couldn’t care less as it’s a different business to the cigar trade. That said perhaps cigarette smoking is declining due to the whopping UK taxes and the huge amount of smuggling that I am guessing goes on?

But let’s get back to cigars and how the industry has, and is, changing and evolving. I should know as I have been in the cigar trade longer than most in the UK. Well, when I started in the 1990’s, the main premium cigar market was always Havana cigars and in fact it still is. But, the market for New World cigars (Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Peru etc.) has steadily grown over the last decade and I would say is going through something of a mini boom. We are not selling any less Havanas, in fact we are selling more, so who on earth is buying the New World cigars? You guessed it, it’s a younger generation of cigars smokers who want to experience cigars from all different New World brands as well as try Havana cigars.

Brands like Davidoff, Alec Bradley, Inka – Secret Blend and Regius to name a few, are growing in sales for us literally month by month. Novice cigar smokers aren’t afraid to try new cigars and experienced cigars smokers are also ‘mixing it up’ with their Havanas too.

I had a phone call on New Year’s Eve from a journalist from The Times newspaper who had seen the FT article and wanted to do her own article and get some information from me. Here’s the article which seems to reflect a more accurate picture. Well done to The Times newspaper

No need to panic then! I’m not retiring any time soon and despite what barmy legislation our successive anti-smoking obsessed governments may throw at us, I can’t honestly believe it makes any difference to the cigar smoker.

I’m no expert on the planned changes in legislation (I stopped worrying about this years ago!) but understand that our lovely cigar shops have to cover up any window displays from next year so we don’t show any tobacco products… OK – c’est la vie – so we will fill window displays with whisky instead. Will it stop anyone from popping in to their favourite cigar shop to buy their usual Montecristo or Davidoff to enjoy? I think not!

Then the news goes on and on about ‘plain packaging’ yes – no – yes – maybe. Who bloody knows! No really helpful data of consequence regarding effects on cigar smokers has ever been produced nor is it likely to. Like I say I have no idea about cigarettes – that’s a different business but I dare say it’s a law that should never happen to premium cigars and heaven forbid it does it still won’t make a jot of difference to the cigar smoker

Don’t read this as a rant, I find it all very amusing that lawmakers go on and on about bans and packaging and can’t help to think that perhaps they should be worrying and applying themselves more to real problems such as drugs and homeless people. Surely they are more serious issues. Isn’t this the UK? The country of cigar chomping Winston Churchill? And a democracy last time I looked where people should still enjoy a moiety of freedom of choice for cigar smoking which is of course a very legal product.

Our most popular cigars for 2013 included:

Cubans

Montecristo No. 4 (no surprise there… heehee)
Montecristo Edmundo and Petit Edmundo
Romeo Short Churchills
Cohiba Robusto and Siglo VI as well as the new Piramides Extra which is hugely popular
Partagas SD No. 4 and Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No. 2 – our two most popular Robustos
Ramon Allones Specially Selected and Bolivar Royal Coronas – making a strong challenge to the two robustos above
Cohiba BHK52 and 54 – more popular than we would ever have imagined
Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial – a surprise newcomer in our best seller list
Bolivar Belicosos – always a firm favourite for the campana smoker and always superior quality from C.Gars ltd as our stock is all 6 years + matured

Can you see a trend? Well, a bit of a trend at the very least – short and fat smokes, big volumes of flavour from large ring gauges. 40 minute + smokes

New World

Fuente – fabulous range, something for everyone. Superior quality without any doubt
Inka – Secret Blend – need I say more ?!
Davidoff Nicaraguan – storming off the shelves
Alec Bradley – great value and superior quality Mundial range is a huge hit with our customers and the Fine and Rare range isn’t too shabby either
Regius – popular since the day we launched and uber popular with the addition of the Turmeaus limited edition Robustos and Culebras
Torano regular range as well as the C.Gars Seleccion robustos and petit coronas – could this be the best value premium cigar available? It’s a good contender that’s for sure.

We finished 2013 as our best year ever so my thanks to my Team at C.Gars London and Norfolk as well as our retail Teams at Robert Graham and Turmeaus shops. My thanks to our fabulous suppliers for all their support but most of all my thanks to our 40,000 regular UK customers (up from 32,000 previous year)

I’m looking forward to an even busier 2014. More range and more special release cigars, perhaps an auction or two and perhaps a new cigar & whisky shop or two. As ever, it will be an exciting year… That’s for sure 🙂

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

I’m back to our London office! and just in time according to the weather forecast!

I spent the last week visiting Robert Graham cigar and whisky shops in Edinburgh, Canongate, Edinburgh Rose street and West George street Glasgow where I was on duty in the walk in cigar humidor 🙂

We only moved a couple of months ago from West Nile street to our new flagship premises in West George street and the shop was heaving with customers morning till night. Quite a sophisticated cigar clientele as well as a lot of novice smokers that were very interested in chatting with me about Havana and new world cigars.

I can’t remember working in any of our retail cigar stores for many years so it was very interesting to see ‘what was hot and what was not’!

Without any doubt Montecristo outsold everything by a mile… No surprise there. But, brands such as Alec Bradley, Regius, Fuente and Davidoff were immensely popular particularly with new cigar smokers who like to mix it up and try Cubans and new world cigars.

Sales of Inka – Secret Blend were staggering and outsold all the non-Cubans put together. I am guessing it’s a combination of quality as well as price. I started the week with a mountain of Inka cigars and ended it more or less sold out!

It goes without saying that the popularity of our award winning range of Dancing Stag whisky was overwhelming and we were restocking the shelves by the hour! The Bowmore 1990 and Hoebeg were the most popular and I would be surprised if there is a single bottle left now.

Chatting with loads and loads of customers over the week reinforced what my Partner Ron and I have always thought… Customers love the fact that we are an independent family owned and run business. Passionate about whisky and passionate about cigars. Personal and old fashioned best service online and in store.

2013 has been our best year ever by a long stretch and we have certainly come a long way since we started C.Gars Ltd in 1997 and took over Robert Graham in 2003 from the Graham family.

We never had any doubt that we could resurrect the brand successfully and we have worked tirelessly to do so. Now operating from 5 specialist shops and our websites specialising in the finest single malt whisky and premium cigars with a fabulous experienced Team and planning to expand our range of award winning Independent bottlings of single malt as well as open more retails locations in 2014.

C.Gars mail order and Turmeaus cigar shops are also having their best ‘season’ ever. Our shops in London Mayfair, Liverpool and Chester as well as our offices in London and Norfolk report record sales of cigars and accessories, in fact we have never sold so many humidors in a year in our entire history. So much for smoking ban! Clearly cigar smokers are resilient and don’t like to be told what to do, or rather what not to do.

We have some exciting plans for 2014 including our new Norfolk premises and our new super duper C.Gars website. More whisky range and even more cigar range at the best prices in the UK… Guaranteed.

I’m heading home to chill out with a bottle of Dancing Stag Bowmore 1990 and a couple of boxes of La Flor de Cano Gran Cano cigars. But if you need any advice, we will still be online 24/7 over Christmas.

So it’s very Happy Holidays from all of the C.Gars and Robert Graham team 🙂

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell

Oh my goodness, this could be the best cigars I have enjoyed this year! Partagas Gran Reserva arrived in our humidors this week and are flying out of the humidor.

The cigar not only tastes incredible but has the most enticing oily colorado maduro wrappers I have ever seen, far better than the Montecristo or Cohiba previous Gran Reserva. We sold out in around 2 nano seconds but 

expect some more availability very soon so keep those orders rolling in 🙂

Here are few of the Turmeaus special editions…Still plenty of time to order Christmas prezzies and we keep adding new sexeeee products daily!

Book style cigar cabinet made specially for Turmeaus in Cuba and containing 16 beautiful robustos rolled by Arlety at our London offices in October.

 

Regius Culebras – Turmeaus Limited Edition – crazy low price!

Length: 5 3/4″
Ring Gauge: 39
Flavour: Medium to full
Packaging: Box of 9 cigars (3 x 3 cigars twisted together)

Rich and earthy cigars with a background of spice.

Only 400 boxes made, 200 for the USA and 200 for the UK

These cigars have been created for Alfie Turmeaus Tobacconist est. 1817 and exclusively selected by Havana Cigars Specialist Mitchell Orchant. (That’s me/the blogger!)

Handmade and long filler premium cigars.

The Culebra is a collection of 3 cigars, twisted by the Torcedors (rollers) made for factory rollers to smoke in order to distinguish them from the straight cigars intended for export.

The cigars are made with a Nicaraguan binder and filler and 3 different wrappers:

1 – Cuban seed Oscuro wrapper from Jalapa Nicaragua
2 – Cuban seed Rosado wrapper from Jalapa Nicaragua
3 – Connectict seed from Talanga Honduras

Regius Robustos – Turmeaus Limited Edition – crazy low price!

Length: 4 3/4″
Ring Gauge: 52
Flavour: Medium to full
Packaging: Box of 10 cigars

Rich and earthy cigars with a background of spice.

Only 400 boxes made, 200 for the USA and 200 for the UK.

This limited edition has been created for Alfie Turmeaus Tobacconist est. 1817 and exclusively selected by Havana Cigars Specialist Mitchell Orchant. (That’s me/the blogger!)

…and take a look at these new lines:

New range of ‘My Father’ cigars on this link yes I know, rather odd name! But regardless, they are pretty good smokes!

Alec Bradley Fine and Rare cigars… Some of the best New World smokes out there superb presentation as well as great value.

Need a stocking filler? Cigar review notepad may do the trick.

And if you need special dram for the holidays check out 30 year old Jura 🙂

Our offices are operating 24/7 to get your orders out on time and so far so good 🙂 Well done London and Norfolk C.Gars Team.

Whilst hard at work I have been ‘sampling’ my way through the 2007 UK regional edition Por Larranaga Magnificos the maturing process this cigar has gone through is incredible. Its soft and refined, sweet and balanced. Quite possibly one of the best cigars ever to come out of Havana.

On the late shift I need more of a pep you up smoke and I’ve opted for the Davidoff Nicaraguan Toro… BOOM! This is one full bodied puppy!!! Try them… They are incredible.

Our shops across the UK stock comprehensive ranges of cigars and whisky and we look forward to welcoming you. Wherever you are and whatever you need… We have you covered. Largest range in the UK. Best prices in the UK and  best service in the UK. If we ever fall short the buck stops here and I’m always available to personally help my clients [email protected]

Next week I’m off to Scotland and look forward to welcoming clients to our wonderful Robert Graham shops in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

After the crazy travels of the last few weeks, it’s been a pleasure to be back in the London office this week which can best be described as an absolute hive of Christmas order activity! I love the Christmas season as the buzz is amazing with three times the normal volume of orders.

We work to full shipping capacity normally so the increased volume is quite a challenge to manage! Our team work is legendary and all orders are being fulfilled fully and rapidly so I reckon Santa Claus will be making on time deliveries 🙂

But how do we do it? Well, we are the only cigar specialist in the world that I know of that works 24/7 – every day of the year, so when you place your order… Its picked and packed and ready for shipping within an average of 6 minutes! Our London and Norfolk warehouses are crammed with stock , everything you see on our websites is actually available and I dare say we must have the largest range and stocks in the UK… As well as more retail cigar shops than anyone in the UK.

Managed to take a break and herf at Ten Manchester Street with cigar smoking chums Dov, Joe and Tim on Tuesday evening. Starting off on the splendid heated terrace and then moving into the sampling room for what ended up to be a very late night herf.

Service as good as ever (TY Paula and Maurizio) perfectly mixed old fashioned cocktails (I lost count they were so good!) and copious amounts of La Flor de Cano Gran Cano cigars were enjoyed immensely.

Ten Manch as we like to call it has become a firm herfing favourite location with a good crowd of regulars as well as hotel cigar smoking guests and of course everyone gets chatting over a good cigar or two.

We expect the long overdue releases of the Partagas Gran Reserva any day now. I tried this cigar back in March at the Habanos festival and it was sublime. I can’t wait to revisit it. Tasting notes from the two cigars I smoked at the Festival: Full and true Partagas flavour/blend. Refined and smooth medium strength with an incredibly good draw for a double corona.

We also have new stocks of the fabulous UK regional edition La Flor de Cano Gran Cano – in store and online. Buy them while you can as they are flying off the shelves.

I love UK regional editions, they are such awesome smokes. Checkout the range since the beginning of the regionals program here. We still have availability of most of the cigars as we hold back such huge stocks and release them in small quantity year by year. My favourites include the Por Larranaga Magnificos and Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 as well as the incredible Ramon Allones Belicosos which started the whole regional edition cigar program.

Next week we will be releasing  two cigars specially made for Turmeaus tobacconist. Regius – Culebras and Regius robustos. I did the blending of the cigars and think they will be very popular indeed. Just a couple of hundred boxes of each made and available next week in all of our stores as well as online.

If you are following the success of the Inka – Secret Blend cigar range that I created you’ll be happy to see the newly launched Cristales sweet as sugar blend, handmade and long filer 100% Peruvian. Measuring in at 6” length and 41 ring gauge, unbeatable value, superb smoke or a great gift.

We’re still struggling with the huge volume sales for the Inka –Secret Blend brand of cigars which has fast become our bestselling range of non-Cubans. They can’t be beaten for value and are great quality. The Minis are the only handmade mini on the market that I know of and are a great little whiff when you’re short of time and the Bombaso is big enough even for a big mouth like me 🙂 (60 ring gauge!)

We’re introducing a big new range of Dalmore single malts in store and online in the next few days including the delicious ‘Cigar Malt’ which works very well with a cigar obviously 🙂

OK so I’m kicking back for a few hours tomorrow and have my humipouch crammed with some BBF’s, PSD4’s, LFDC Gran Cano as well as some Punch Serie D’Oro no.1. I’m  pairing them up with a bottle of Robert Graham Christmas Malt to get me in the spirit so to speak 🙂

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Our Winter Auction was held on the 19th November at Boisdale Canary Wharf and was as expected a resounding success. Bidders joined us from all over the world to enjoy the pre-auction herfing as well as the evenings event. The auction was held in the main dining room and literally packed with bidders.

Our consultant auctioneer Jonathan Humbert did an exceptional job of knocking down almost 350 Lots in just under 2 ½ hours which was quite a task! Well done Jonathan – great to have you on the Team!

The auction had a 96% sales rate which is pretty high by any auctioneers standards and record prices were achieved for rare Davidoff and Dunhill Havana cigar Lots. Plenty of interest in Pre embargo cigars, Cohiba and Limited edition humidors generally continuing the trend that we have seen over the last few years.

We keep all sold prices on our auction website search facility as a useful resource for both sellers and bidders, aficionados and connoisseurs and it’s interesting to see how values have increased on so many cigars whilst a few have stayed static.

I think bidders are clear that they demand good quality stocks, clean boxes and good provenance in which case they will pay the market price or perhaps above market price for certain items.

The event was followed by the Spectator Cigar Smoker of the Year Awards dinner – more details here and here. 

The food and wine were superb as were the Fuente and Alec Bradley cigars we enjoyed over the course of the evening.

Big congrats to all the Award winners 🙂

Thanks to the C.Gars Auction Team including Jonathan, Michelle, Eliska as well as my wife Karyn and daughter Tasha for all their help before during and after the Auction.

My thanks to Ranald, Susanna, Nathan and Valeri and all the Boisdale Team for such a splendid event.

So the update for successful bidders is if you haven’t collected but have requested shipping… The Lots are now on the way to you. For Sellers – Sellers reports should be in your inbox in the next 24 hours.

No doubt the attendees enjoyed the evening as much as I did… And we look forward to doing it all over again next year 🙂 we start accepting auction Lots for our Summer auction at the beginning of February.

As if the Auction wasn’t enough action for me in a week, I zoomed off to Havana for the annual Partagas Festival! Relaxing with a pre-flight massage in the Virgin lounge and then meeting up with the boys from The Wellesley in Upper Class, the only thing that was missing was cigar smoking!

Smoked a Partagas Short at Jose Marti airport whilst waiting for the suitcases to come though (there is a smoking ban but no one seemed bothered) and my regular driver had a bottle of rum ready in the car which was perfect with a Partagas P2 as we headed off on our usual run around of Havana. 

First stop was the Melia Habana (Robaina shop) one of my favourites as they take great and very professional care of my cigars. I grabbed a rum from the bar and took a look in my locker to decide what to smoke. Settled on a box of 2001 Partagas Presidentes. first cigar was too perfect for words, the cigars were covered in plume, the draw was excellent and the flavour was old style full flavour, earthy and spicy Partagas.

Sadly the good experience ended with that first cigar as the rest of the box was terribly disappointing in terms of construction and draw. Joys of the 2001 lack of quality control I guess. Hey ho… Consoled myself smoking Cohiba Behike 54 and 56 as well as Cuban regional edition El Rey del Mundo Infantes over the next few days. All of which had excellent construction thankfully.

Visited the Partagas shop (factory closed down but shop is open), always good to see Hamlet the roller (he rolled for us in London a couple of years ago) who is managing the shop now together with the lovely and attentive Grecia.

Full range and stocks of cigars at Partagas. Melia Habana, Palacio, Melia Cohiba, Nacional in fact everywhere I visited and the El Laguito factory looks like it’s at very full production with large and beautiful tobacco leaf. So no signs of any shortages although a few vitolas of this and that in the UK seem to be coming and going… and coming back again.

The gala dinner was held at the Tropicana and as usual was a superb evening. I had a great table of friends including Amir Saarony who wrote the incredible book on Partagas. The auction which raises money for the Cuban National Health service appeared to be very successful and I was happy to help it along with a few bids for able auctioneer Massimo di Giovanni. The Tropicana show followed the auction and was awesome… As ever.

Herfed over the next couple of days at
La Fontana (superb food and service to match)
Sloppy Joe’s
La Dominica (odd name for an Italian restaurant!)
La Ferminia (Cigar Club bash)
Espacios (very cool place)
and Melen Bar (great place)

I’ve actually lost count of how many times I have been to Cuba! Probably around 70 times over the years but I never tire of my trips. Great cigars, rum, music, weather and very friendly people… Who could ask for more.

Finally back in C.Gars London office for a week or two before I head round all the Turmeaus and Robert Graham cigar and whisky shops around the country can’t believe Christmas is only a few weeks away! Our shops are crammed full of cigars and spirits, gifts and accessories and of course we guarantee the best service and value in the UK… After all, we are the largest cigar specialist in the UK 🙂

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell