So the long awaited UK regional Bolivar Britanicas came in… and went out 🙂 If I thought that the La Flor de Cano UK regional was the fastest selling regional of all time. It looks like the Bolivar may rapidly overtake them. Allocations were tight from Havana but we expect to have more available in the coming weeks.

All of our retail shops should have these delicious cigars in stock now but be warned they are selling like crazy. This is an old style Bolivar blend: bold and complex, full flavour rustic and earthy – not for the novice but the experienced cigar smoker will greatly appreciate the blend.

Danny from Turmeaus cigar shop Mayfair was delighted to welcome Ignacio Balmaseda, Cuban Corporate Director, Hunters & Frankau and Ana Lopez, Director of Marketing, Habanos S.A. last Saturday and I’ll be heading over there on Friday morning for a few hours serious herfing as we test out the Bolivar Britanicas matched up with some of our independent bottlings of Robert Graham single malt whisky.

Had a bit of an office herf last night again with Boli Brits paired up with some great Robert Graham Ltd single malt and the consensus was that the 1995 Clyenlish hit the spot best of all <hic>

Fabulous herf planned for May Bank Holiday at The Prince of Wales in Moseley Birmingham which I’m looking forward to attending and doing an informal QA on vintage Havanas. The herf starts at 3pm and you can see full details here.

Countdown till the next cigar auction on July 2^nd and we expect to have the catalogue online and in print as usual around 6 weeks before the event. Should be a great evening with plenty of smokes and drinks and the best of company.

Hunters and Frankau have announced that their Summer Cigar Party will be held at the Langham Hilton on the 31^st May and the UK regional Punch Gold Medal is expected to be introduced at the party. Good timing as I head to New York the next morning for a week of herfing fabulous Fuente cigars! Always a great evening for cigar smokers and always sold out fast so book soon to avoid disappointment.

Off to Dublin on Sunday to herf at The Decent Cigar Emporium on Grafton street and then heading to Glasgow and Edinburgh next Wednesday to sample some of our exclusive single malts.

It’s a tough job…

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

I am delighted to announce that we are now accepting orders for the long awaited latest and rather splendid Bolivar Britanicas UK regional edition. This is a limited edition of 3000 numbered boxes exclusive to the UK.

Stocks are expected to arrive very early next week and we will be shipping immediately thereafter.

I tested out the blend on the new Bolivar last month in Havana at the first tasting organized at the annual Festival del Habanos and I truly thought that this cigar was first rate.

The size is great at 5 3/8″ length and 48 ring gauge, the wrappers are smooth and dark colorado maduro and the flavour was full with hints of sweetness and spice throughout. Not one for the novice but the experienced cigar smoker will enjoy this cigar immensely.

Available at pre-release prices this week as follows:

Singles

Box of 10

Please order early as there has been huge demand for this cigar and there will be limited allocations. As ever we guarantee best prices in the UK.

I received this email from a good friend and long-time client of C.Gars Ltd and thought I would share it with my blog readers…

This photo was taken on Saturday 24th March after I’d just popped into the Mayfair Turmeaus shop to pick up a sampler I’d ordered. 

It was an amazingly sunny day with just a hint of haze to it.  Whilst in the shop I couldn’t resist picking up a Partagas No2.  I fired it up in the street outside the shop and me and Mrs B started to walk towards Green Park. 

Not very far down White Horse Street, Mrs B (an avid photographer) told me to stand across the road in a doorway as she said the light coming down the street was really impressive and a good opportunity to get a ‘candid’ cigar smoking moment shot. 

Of course, I obliged!  When I’m ‘fired up’ I don’t need much persuasion to pose with my smokey friend!

The magic of the moment was when a chap passed by and turned back to say, ‘That cigar smells excellent.’  I asked him if he smoked cigars but he told me he didn’t, although, he loved the look of the Turmeaus shop where I told him I’d bought the cigar. 

I did the decent thing and offered him a puff on this fine cigar and, to my surprise, he duly accepted.  He drew on it like he’d been smoking them all his life, taking in a good gulp of smoke, and then letting it ease out and up into the air. He took another puff and passed it back to me.

We shook hands and he went on his way saying he would check out the shop some time.

My point is, in my humble opinion, Cigar Smokers (and those who aspire to become one) are some of the nicest people you will ever meet (ok, maybe Al Capone might me an exception – I’m sure he was nice to his mother!), and a fine cigar can bring together complete strangers to share a sublime moment.

Ciao!

Mark B

The real Boss of C.Gars Ltd – Michelle (!)  our General Manager is finally back from her sunny cruise vacation tomorrow – thank goodness! So I’ll be back to my travelling and herfing routine from next week!

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Seems like Christmas was yesterday and it’s already Easter! Despite the increases, due to the recent UK Budget, we are just about as busy as Christmas, which proves to me that cigar smokers will not be deterred by the antismoking tax regime in the UK. So the bad news is that prices are up but the good news is that we still guarantee that we will offer the best prices in the UK, if we are wrong, we will gladly price match at time of order.

Our best seller continues to be the Montecristo no.4 – we literally ship stacks of boxes every day. Entry level Guantanamera Cuban cigars are very popular for a cheapie smoke and perfect for the novice.

I feel like I have been waiting forever for the new UK regional edition Bolivar Britanicas but I am cautiously optimistic that they will be released round about mid-April which would bring great relief as we have 100’s of back orders for these superb new Havanas. The shape is cool (similar to the old Romeo Celestiales Finos) but 2 up on the ring gauge, the blend is exquisite and the wrappers are simply… perfect (at least on the 2 that I tried out in Havana for the first tasting!) so we have to be a little bit patient but it will be worth the wait.

Montecristo Gran Reserva have received unprecedented demand for a new cigar and are more or less sold out at this time, well at least at our London stores, although you may well still find them in our Liverpool and Chester Turmeaus cigar shops. We are hoping to receive more stocks from Hunters and Frankau in the near future.

Cohiba 1966 has proved to be our best-selling limited edition of all time. These full bodied smokes will mature and improve for many years. They are available at this time at all of our cigar shops throughout the country but selling out fast.

Last chance I’m afraid to get some Sancho Panza Belicosos Orchant Seleccion in your humidor. This full flavour and full strength cigar is perfectly matured from 2008 and a delight to smoke. More for the experienced cigar smoker in all honesty and whilst the brand is not terribly popular these days, this is a shining example of how a Sancho should be blended.

I spent the evening herfing at the beautiful cigar terrace at the Lanesborough on Tuesday, packed to capacity as usual with a big crowd of cigar smokers. Despite the rain it’s great to have a sheltered terrace to enjoy late night smokes.

New stocks of Fuente have arrived and I have been genuinely surprised at how popular these cigars are now. I’m not just saying that because we are the importers – we literally can’t keep up with the demand for many of the vitolas, especially Reserva d ’Chateau which is selling like crazy perhaps due to the presentation which is very cool.

So, I’m looking forward to the 4 day Easter weekend and kicking back with some of my current favourite smokes including Monte Edmundo, Bolivar Belicosos and Flor de Cano short robusto to mention a few that are smoking to perfection.

If you are interested in a splendid single malt to go with a good cigar you simply have to try our Robert Graham exclusive Benrinnes 1988 it really matches up very well indeed.

If you need a last minute cigar and missed the postal shut off, our shops in West Hampstead and Mayfair will be open on Saturday and have a huge range. Our Robert Graham shops in Scotland are open over the weekend too 🙂

Have a smokey Easter weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

It’s been seriously sunny cigar smoking weather in Europe this week (not sure how long it will last!) so I hopped over to Paris for the day on Monday and dropped in on the lovely people at La Civette which is my favourite cigar shop in Paris. I always get a warm welcome and the shop and humidor are delightful. I smoked the French Regional Fonseca and Quai’D’Orsay with a glass of Bordeaux at Café Ruc opposite Hotel Du Louvre and enjoyed both of these fine cigars immensely.

If you are visiting Paris La Civette is a must for the cigar aficionado. Great range of singles and boxes as well as first class service.

You can find them at :

157 rue St Honoré
75001 Paris
Area: Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre

Tuesday I zoomed over to our La Casa del Habano in Hamburg to catch up with Christoph Wolters and herf my way through a load of his stock. Our store not only has an enormous range of Havanas and smokers accessories but we also have a breath-taking selection of rum including most of the fabulous Cuban rum. Our sampling room is a must for the Cuban cigar and rum lover, in fact you may never want to leave!. You can find our gorgeous Hamburg cigar store at:

La Casa del Habano Hamburg
Orchant & Wolters GmbH
Burchardstrasse 15
Chilehaus C
20095 Hamburg

Back to the office for the rest of the week (plus a few visits to our Mayfair and West Hampstead shops in between of course) and I’m getting very excited for the launch of the UK regional Bolivar Britanicas  which are now expected in April ( sooner the better!) we have a little competition going with our sales Team to prove that we can make this the fastest selling UK regional ever 🙂 Just 3000 numbered boxes and the minute they are available we will be selling and shipping them 24/7.

Our mail order division and retail shops have sold huge quantities of UK regionals and it can only be for one reason: the blends are quite superb. Let’s face it the UK is not famous for having the cheapest cigars in the world but we always seem to have the best IMHO. Our esteemed importers Hunters and Frankau are now out of stock of all UK regionals with the exception of El Rey del Mundo Choix De L’Epoque  a most delicious day time smoke. So… when our warehouse stocks are gone on the other UK regionals, I’m afraid there are no more. See the range here >>>

Auction season is soon approaching and we have already photographed almost 150 entries. Catalogue will be online and in print as usual around 6 weeks before the event. More details on the auction website This will be our 6^th Vintage Cigar Auction over the last 3 years and as usual Brian Ebbesen our Director of auctions will be taking the podium and knocking down some interesting smokes and a few bargains for some lucky winning bidders.

Pleased to see many of our clients heeded my advice about stocking up now before the budget increases kick in as prices will indeed be going up on the 1^st April ( not bad for an April Fool’s joke…sadly!)

2 more of my Team are at Hunters & Frankau Cigar School this week. Ian from Turmeaus Liverpool and Danny from Alfie Turmeaus – Mayfair. That means just about all of our sales Team retail and mail order have attended Cigar School and by my reckoning that gives me more trained specialists than anyone else in the UK… by a mile 🙂

So I’m wrapping up today with a Punch Serie D’Oro no.1  paired up with some fabulous Robert Graham  single malt whisky – Auchentoshan 1991  perfect finish to the day

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

As expected the Chancellor has bashed the smoker and the drinker… easy targets I suppose.

Duty on all tobacco products to rise by 5% above inflation from 18:00 on the 21/03/12 – You may think that it doesn’t sound like much but when you factor in that many of the cigar importers absorbed industry price increases last year and are unlikely to do so again this year, I think that the overall increase is likely to be HUGE.

Perhaps the reality will look like this: 5% duty increase plus 3.4% inflation, plus industry price increase and of course plus 20% VAT on the lot. We won’t know how much that will total to until we receive the updates from the various importers but it looks like 10-15% overall to me which for an already expensive market is fairly hefty.

No change to existing plans on alcohol duty – meaning the duty will rise 2% above the rate of inflation – so not quite as awful for our single malt whisky customers.

The short term good news is that we will hold our mail order prices for as long as our previous stocks last but the sound advice is stock up soon before the price increases filter through.

Our retail shops will also hold their Havana cigar prices until the end of this month and having just come back from a trip to Turmeaus cigar shops in Liverpool and Chester I can confirm that stock levels are as always up to the ceiling but… sales are brisk so take advantage of pre-budget prices whilst you can.

Auction time is getting closer and Cigar Journal gave us a nice write up HERE. Drop me an email for advice if you are a prospective buyer or seller.

UK regionals editions are in very small supply now with the last of all available now except for reasonable stocks of Juan Lopez Seleccion Suprema and El Rey del Mundo Choix de L’Epoque. See the full range HERE.

Last few cabinets of Punch Orchant Seleccion no.11 now released and available although our Mayfair shop seems to be selling more of these than anything else this week! If you fancy an awesome ‘anytime robusto’ go for the Bolivar Royal Corona Orchant Seleccion – dark wrappers and quite delicious. See the full range HERE.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell