Just back from my 49th trip to Havana 🙂 . This time to enjoy the Festivities of the annual Partagas Festival. We had some confusion regarding the numbering of the Festival but my group of smoking chums finally concluded that it was the 20th Amigos of Partagas Festival as well as the 165th anniversary of the brand of Partagas.

165 limited edition Partagas 165 humidors have been made to mark the occasion with each containing 25 -109’s and 25 Sublimes, all specially banded and sure to fast become a collector’s item.

On this trip I had a wonderful tour of El Laguito (the Cohiba factory) where the quality control has hit new heights with draw testing machines just about everywhere I turned! Cohiba Behike of all sizes were being rolled including I am delighted to report – plenty of 56’s. I understand that BHK’s are also now being rolled at Partagas. I understand the integrity of the blend has been maintained in these incredible cigars regardless of which factory they are rolled at.

It was a hard 5 days herfing all over Havana including the Hotel Nacional terrace, Partagas VIP room, Robaina shop and Palacio shop. Staple cigar of the trip was Cohiba BHK’s in all sizes 🙂 but I also tried the Bolivar book cigars which show great promise.

Had a smoke or two with many characters including Valerio Cornale (LCDH Cayman) and Salvatore Parisi from Italy who has just completed his wonderful book (only in Italian at this time) Dinner with Colin Ganley (European Cigar Journal) and friends including Ajay from LCDH Teddington and Amir Saarony whom is working hard on his book about Partagas (can’t wait to see it!)

This years gala dinner was held at the Habana Libre Hotel (previously the Havana Hilton) and it was great to catch up with friends (Aficionados and Cigar Specialists ) from all over the world to celebrate the 165th anniversary. We enjoyed an excellent evening of entertainment as well as many splendid Partagas cigars and Havana Club rum. Massimo from Italy conducted a very successful auction with proceeds as usual going to charity (Cuban Health Service) Very grateful to Partagas for recognizing me as an Amigo and presenting me with a cigar book/box gift again this year.

Looking forward to trip no.50 in January and 51 for the February Festival del Habanos 🙂

Finally back to cold London and our offices where I continue to sample the UK regional edition Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres which is fast becoming our best seller of the year. No sign of the UK regional 2010 La Flor de Cano sadly so it looks like we will have to be patient till next year, though it will be well worth the wait.

Auction fever is now hotting up with just a week to go. Bidders expected to come to the event from all over the globe. If you can’t join us for a cigar and a glass of champagne- you can still bid online till Sunday midnight

We are delighted to have one final auction Lot generously donated by Jennie Churchill, the great granddaughter of Winston Churchill with all proceeds going to 2 most worthy charities. See the details here I’m looking forward to having a cigar with many friends at the fabulous Boisdale cigar terrace in Belgravia

If you would like to attend the auction pleased remember you have to register

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Greeting from sunny Havana where I am enjoying sunshine and cigars at the annual Partagas Festival 🙂 I could be the only person to actually bring cigars to Cuba as I couldn’t help but show off the UK regional Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres and gift out a few to my friends

I’m looking forward to the Gala dinner this evening at the Havana Libre Hotel and understand there should be some very special Partagas smokes to enjoy – full report to follow as soon as I am back in London 🙂

Great to see that our auction is being reported in Cigar Aficionado Magazine ( thanks CA!)

You can still get in on the action of the auction even if you are not in London for the event as our website accepts absentee bids – so you may still win a bargain or something super rare. Our dedicated Auction website is here

For bidders intending to attend the auction and enjoy some pre auction smokes,champagne and canapés- please don’t forget to register as we have to give Boisdale final numbers before the event. Bidder registration here

Have a smokey weekend

Saludos desde La Habana

Mitchell

We have finally closed the auction catalogue list today and the final printed catalogue has gone to press and will be distributed on Monday. We had to cut it off at 300 Lots which is a fairly huge auction 🙂 Full details on our auction website

Boisdale Belgravia was our chosen restaurant for a herf last night and it was good to make new cigars smoking friends on the terrace. A cold evening but the heaters and blankets did a good job at keeping us warm as we smoked our way through a baggie of Monte 2’s BBF and SD 4’s. And.. well done to the Boisdale chef for the best Gravadlax we have ever tasted 🙂

Herfed my way through a few Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 this week and they just keep getting better. Stash them in your humidor while you can as stocks are starting to get low on this fabulous UK regional edition

New ranges for Christmas being added to the website all the time and we have had cigar photographer Tillman Pretscher working in our offices all week together with our full time photographer Blanka who was busy photographing our ever growing range of humidors which now includes Daniel Marshall and Elie Bleu

Famous cigar roller Hamlet of the Romeo factory in Havana has been busy rolling dark and oily wrapper robustos for us with some splendid mature leaf for the last 5 days and we are grateful to Hunters and Frankau for sending him over to us as he is exceptionally skilled and a first rate roller. More details on this link

Our friend Kiminori Yagi from cigar Bar Bridge in Tokyo also came over to London for an office herf this week, always lovely to see him and I’m looking forward to herfing in Tokyo again in the near future.

Just a few days till my trip to Havana for the Partagas Festival 🙂

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Sorry for the cryptic blog subject but you may have guessed I’m a bit of a Beetles fan so it came as a pleasant surprise to find my Turmeaus Tobacconist shop in Liverpool get a mention in the fantastic new book by Jude Southerland Kessler.

‘Shivering Inside’ is a novel on the life of John Lennon December 1961- April 1963 and a great read. More details on this link

I’ve been racing around smoking Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres like a fiend this week! They really are a treat and it doesn’t get much better in terms of regional editions.

On Tuesday I had dinner and drinks at the Groucho Club on Dean street with my favourite film producer . I understand The Groucho is putting in a smoking terrace :- bravo 🙂 dinner was followed by a herfette at the Lanseborough cigar terrace till late… herfed through a good few Por Larranaga paired up with some Oban single malt.

Wednesday some friends from Indiana stopped by the office for a UK regional edition Havanas sampling session – paired up with the finest Robert Graham Ltd single malt whisky and then I headed off to the Haven in Whetstone for dinner followed by a bit of a herf at home with friends…you guessed it, yet more Larranagas

You would think that was enough action for a week but I zoomed over to Geneva on Thursday morning for the day. Perfect sunny and hot weather and a spot of al fresco lunch at a charming restaurant in on of my favourite cities. It always amazes me how many Gentlemen I spot walking along smoking a Havana in Geneva.

I visited some of the great cigar stores including Tabac Rhein who have recently moved a few doors further up to quite magnificent new premises, Gerard who has one of the most modern and chic cigar stores in the world and Davidoff …always very classy. Tried out the Swiss regional El Rey Del Mundo Elegantes which was very tasty indeed although I dare say it would be better if the humidity in the Swiss cigar merchants was a bit lower.

Our auction website is getting more popular by the day and I am guessing a lot of people will win bargains on the 30th November or be able to bid and win cigars that are rarer than rare 🙂 check out the 300 Lots of cigars on this link

2 weeks to go till the Partagas Festival in Havana, I can’t wait for some mega herfing and some sunshine (great combo!)

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

What should we smoke for Halloween? It doesn’t make any difference 🙂 however I can confirm that I’ll be smoking the same cigar that I have been enjoying all day every day for the last week.

Yes folks I am hooked on the Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres, these cigars are the bomb 🙂 great smokes that are just flying off our shelves. Could well be the fastest selling UK regional edition so far.

Dark wrappers, complex blend, easy draw and the perfect size (Gordito) I really should stop smoking them as there are only 1200 boxes that have been made (available by the single and box at all of our UK cigar stores)

I just got back from a visit to our Robert Graham Ltd stores in Scotland. Decided to give Squeezy Jet a miss and fly BMI. I can tell you it felt very civilized by comparison. Not sure about the dodgy hats the flight attendants were wearing though!

Our Scottish cigar and whisky stores are in the process of being filled up to the ceiling with whisky and cigars for the Christmas season – the range is already quite breathtaking.

Our Glasgow shop on West Nile street has just been refitted and now features a walk in humidor with a massive selection of English Market Selection Havana cigars in singles and by the box. I am very proud of the Glasgow store as its very small and ridiculously busy, probably due to the fabulous staff there (well done Linda!) and it was our last location without a walk in humidor, so finally job done!

Lemon of the week award goes to the first class train service from Glasgow to Edinburgh as they ran out of water and only had luke warm coffee – totally useless

Amusing video of the week award goes to this one how many out of time sequence shots can you count?!! Just too funny- perhaps they had a little too much scotch.

My Canongate store ‘ The Treasurer’ is probably the place I should base myself in due to the vast range of speciality chocolate they stock there- a dangerous place for a man on a diet! Pretty massive range of cigars too as well as our award winning independent bottled single malt and we are just about to release a Deanston and Tobermory which I can thoroughly recommend with a good Havana. You may have to go on a waiting list fast though as only 180 bottles of each will ever be bottled.

All Turmeaus and Robert Graham cigar stores have all UK regional edition cigars in singles and by the box and if you rummage around you can usually find some other rarer treats, whether it’s a mature box or just something a tad more special like Cohiba Behikes 56 or Ramon Allones Belicosos (both spotted at Edinburgh Rose street branch!) Oh! and a warm welcome back to the family business to Cailin Morrison (Ron’s son)

Eddie Sahakian of Davidoff London popped into the London office for a smoke with me a few days ago, always great to see him. I reckon Davidoff London is probably the best cigar store in central London, always well worth a visit.

Had a good evening at the Lanesborough cigar terrace on Wednesday with Tillman (very famous cigar photographer) Chris (very famous fashion designer) and Nick (very famous banker!) smoked salmon and 1st cru Chablis (rather lots of) and back to back Por Larranaga cigars – perfect evening. Nick told me how his Dupont Extend lighter was confiscated by security at the airport- how sad and pathetic are these security laws, I mean seriously, a little lighter ! Anyway, I sent him a replacement rapido so all’s well 🙂

Interest in our next auction continues to increase as do the Lots that we keep adding ! latest Lots to arrive included Davidoff Chateau Yquem 46 original cigars from a cab of 50 – quite beautiful. Check out the auction website here the catalogue is on PDF but all the Lots in the catalogue can be clicked on to get further details and photos as well as bid online. Very clever stuff 🙂

Turmeaus Chester had Hamlet the roller rolling custom blend Hermosos last week – haven’t tried one yet but I dare say it should not be too shabby as Hamlet is well known as a highly skilled grade 9 roller. A few singles knocking around for clients of C.Gars and can be purchased online.

I’m off for just one more Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres!

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell