The annual dinner and awards for the Association of Independent Cigar Specialists (AICS) were held at Boisdale in Belgravia last night and a great evening was had by all especially as we were enjoying UK exclusive regional edition Punch Serie D’Oro No.1 which are just incredible smokes. In fact the more the mature the better they become.

As I am Chairman of the AICS it was my pleasure to hand out the annual awards which included two for my staff in Chester (Fiona – long service to industry award) and Liverpool (Christine – Customer Service Award) so they received a beautiful certificate as well as a bundle of shopping vouchers which put a very large smile on their faces 🙂

The Cigar Specialist award went to Eddie Sahakian of Davidoff and the Supplier award went to Gift International – well done chaps ! Thanks to Boisdale for a fabulous evening…. as ever

Finally after a long wait we have completed on our new London warehouse acquisition and the builders are starting in the next few days so we are doubling our capacity for mail order fulfilment and hope to offer an even larger range and faster service (is that possible ?!!) this will be a state of the art fulfilment centre and my Team are all very excited about it.

Still a few more months of 2010 to go and lots more expansion plans yet!

If I forgot to wish a Happy Ramadan recently – my apologies and hopefully this is just in time before it ends! and a Shana Tova/Happy new year too 🙂

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

No sooner than I am back in the UK…. I am off herfing again ! This evening Boisdale, Sunday evening The Lanesborogh (a little celebration drink and cigar or two as my nephew Gabriel is having his engagement part in the afternoon) and then next weekend a fabulous evening at the wonderful Harts Hotel in Nottingham. PDF details here

A few places available for the dinner – drop me a line if you would like to join me and Simon Chase for an evening to remember.

Uk regional edition Por Larrañaga “Regalias de Londres” are due to hit our shelevs this month an we are very excited to test out the blend of this Gordito sized cigar 5 1/2″ length an 50 ring gauge- fabulous size cigar. If its as popular as the Por Larranaga Magnificos was there will be a stampede for these smokes!

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Smokiest greetings from Hollywood ☺ where I have been herfing with friends day and night for the last 3 weeks!

I have definitely smoked my way across Los Angeles now…. From Pokers Patio herf to herfing with the Guys at Ummba in Century City to Lenny’s herf in Bel Air- Richards herf at GHR to the Old Oaks Cigar & Wine Co (great place – thanks Barry and Dave) to the Santa Monica Pier herf (Thanks George – great idea!) to The Vogelzang Vineyard herf in Santa Barbara… and loads more in between this has been a month to remember.

I honestly can’t even count the amount of Padron, Fuente and Oliva cigars that I have enjoyed 😉 but it’s been a month of lots of laughs and good times.

Highlights included the bottle of 1960 Glenlivet Strathisla matched with Dunhill Seleccion Suprema no.1 at the Bel Air herf (TY LS) especially as our good friend and incredibly talented jazz musician Michael Lington joined us for the evening. Great food, scotch, cigars and company with pampering care of Woody and his barbers too 🙂

The Los Angeles Grand Havana Room herf was a fabulous evening (TY RS) and one of the best spots I have found in LA. Great service and a brilliant terrace which was perfect for an evening of dinner, drinks and smokes

The full day herf at the Vogelzang Vineyard was a delight. Santa Barbara has breathtaking scenery and the cabernet Sauvignon worked more than well with the Chateau Latour we smoked. Many thanks to Mary Beth and James for the incredible hospitality

As ever the Sunset Marquis has been my cigar friendly base. Famous person spotting is a daily event and there are even more this evening due to an pre Emmy Nomination party 🙂 This hotel is herfers paradise.

Thanks as ever to Barry for all his assistance co-ordinating my schedule, thanks to all my friends for their generous hospitality and thanks to my C.Gars Team for looking after business for the last month (which I understand was rather brisk in my absence – maybe I should stay overseas longer?!)

What a pleasure to meet up with so many old friends as well as make so many new friends. Apologies to anyone I was unable to hook up with on this trip but hopefully catch up if you visit London or on my next trip.

Back to the London office in a few days time to get into the design and build of our new offices and warehouse as well as two new stores due to open later this year.

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Happy birthday Fidel – 84 last week and looking rather good for a chap of his age. Incredible that he still wants to be involved in teaching the world about how to solve its problems but hey ho – as long as he’s happy – I’m happy 🙂

I’m in the USA for the rest of month and I understand the weather is better than London, so far – so good. 🙂 so, I arrived in New Orleans for the annual IPCPR/RTDA trade show after a 3 hour stop in Chicago which was a welcome break as one of my cigar buddies collected me from the airport raced over to Starbucks for a Frappucino and a couple of large cigars in the blazing hot sunshine before another 2 ½ hour flight to New Orleans.

Staying at the Hilton Riverside was perfect especially on the first evening as I needed somewhere to smoke, so I bunked into the Camacho party, fired up a nice big piramides and was promptly rumbled by Christian 🙂 who was as always more than welcoming. Camacho are great cigars and it’s a shame they are not in the UK. I’m terribly pleased that Christian has been so successful as I remember him well from the old ASC newsgroup days in the mid 90’s.

The annual show is a great opportunity for me to catch up with so many friends from suppliers to retailers to Guys who just like to hang out at the trade show and herf whist checking out what new products are being launched.

New Orleans was rather hot and very humid – to say the least but I must say that everywhere I went the ‘Southern Hospitality’ was very impressive indeed.

The show was quieter than previous shows I have attended but that just made it easier for me to zoom round and place orders 🙂 Of course my first stop was Palio as we are the Distributors for Palio and I just love these cutters as they are perfect. Light, sharp and stylish as well as great value and an incredible guarantee. Well done to Palio for winning the European Cigar Journal award (see photo) Moving on the various humidor importers and placing test orders in rapid succession I can tell you we will be filling all the new warehouse space rather rapidly!

My retail shops will be happy as I bought a few hundred Meerschaum pipes that seem to be ever so popular again.

We sell literally 1000’s of humidors a year through our cigar stores and our various websites, the numbers are almost mind boggling but we have always had a gap in our range at the mid to top end. With that in mind: If you want a custom made humidor of any size, shape, finish please visit our partner Arlin Liss who will create the humidor of your dreams large or small www.arlinliss.com mention C.Gars Ltd for a 15% discount as well as a free upgrade welcome pack.

If your budget doesn’t extend to a custom built humidor you will be pleased to hear that we are adding Elie Bleu to our range in the next few weeks. The Rolls Royce of humidors – truly pieces of furniture that should last a life time. Classic designs, funky colours, pop art – something for everyone who really wants something special

We are also delighted to be adding the Daniel Marshall range of humidors in the next few weeks. Daniel makes some wonderful humidors that combine quality with functionality as well as great value.

I had a smoke or two with my buddy Ludo from Xikar whose stand seems to be getting bigger every year as their range increases continually. Great designs, great guarantee and a great company all round – we are proud to be associated with them. I particularly like their ashtrays and cigar cases – completely different and very cool.

Strolled down Bourbon street to take in the atmosphere whist smoking a Belicosos or two and ended my last night at ridiculous’o ‘clock at Café la Monde eating doughnuts and iced coffee – adios diet – hello sugar rush 🙂 Thanks to brothers Joe and David for driving in from Houston to herf with me.

So my N’Awlins trip was mega fun and I’m already looking forward to next year’s show in Las Vegas.

Now off to the sunshine of Los Angeles 🙂

Have a great weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Check out the photo of our London shop below ! Comfortable outdoor smoking ( weather allowing !) how cool is that? and when the weather is lousy ( most of the time!) cigar sampling is encouraged indoors 🙂

I’m heading to Scotland for a few days at our fabulous Robert Graham empire in Glasgow and Edinburgh and to test out some of the new Robert Graham independent bottlings of single malt whisky My cigar malt is a treat with a Havana cigar

I’ve been puffing my way through a box of Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 this week. For the experienced cigar smoker who can handle and appreciate a heavy weight blend I truly believe it doesn’t get much better.

Next week I am heading over to New Orleans for the annual RTDA tobacco trade show and looking forward to meeting up with a lot of old friends for a lot of old (and new) smokes. As ever I’ll be sourcing some fabulous humidors and cigar accessories that will only be available to customers of C.Gars Ltd. I’ll be helping out for a while at the Palio stand as C.Gars Ltd is the official distributor.

Then I am heading to California for the rest of the month where I will be talking about cigars at a variety of cigar dinners and herfs. So if you are in Los Angeles …shoot me an email and lets meet for a smoke [email protected]

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell