Just back from a week in very sunny and hot New York – but this was no vacation as it was a serious herf and crawl of the best spots for a smoke in NYC 🙂

I think I found them all ! and met up with a lot of old friends and quite a few new friends along the way.

I must profess to not really understanding New York’s smoking ban. All I can say is that there are more places to smoke there than in London hence I love NY 🙂

It was a bit of a gangster gathering with my business partners arriving from all over the world including Ron Morrison from Robert Graham Ltd, Guy Hancock from Decent Cigar Emporium and Drew Panico from LCDH-Merida.

Our first stop in the morning was always De La Concha for our morning smokes. I tried a variety of Davidoff cigars,  all of which were well crafted and enjoyable. The staff at DLC were always very friendly and knowledgeable and this is a great place to herf whilst watching the world go by.  After DLC we would take a walk through Central Park and have another smoke there.

Club Macanudo  is a very classy cigar club- food drinks- cigars, atmosphere and ambience. Could I ask for more? I think not- highly recommended

Velvet Cigar Lounge was a cosy but interesting place to herf- friendly crowd of smokers, very pleasant service – we’ll definitely go back there again.

Carnegie Club Saturday evening with a Sinatra tribute show ( and 11 piece orchestra! ) that was brilliant

Nat Sherman’s  could well be one of the best cigar stores I have seen anywhere in the world – truly classy with an rich history. First rate cigar lounge and lovely hospitality. My thanks to Aaron Sigmond for that

Florio’s for lunch is always on my agenda and Larry the owner always takes great care of us. Table outside-lots of wine- food- more wine- more cigars-Sambuca-more cigars. Yes we can herf in Florio’s till we fall off our seats , in fact I think we did !

Dinner at Prime Grill was first rate and yes- you can smoke cigars in the outdoor dining area. Splendid! Over to Grand Havana Room for the evening. GHR has to be one of the best cigar clubs in the world if not ‘the best’

The main event of the week was the New York City Cruise Herf on the Jewel attended by almost 100 friends including famous sports and TV personalities, cigar industry friends, old pals from back in the ASC days and loads of our clients 🙂

Goodie bag issued on arrival 🙂 Open bar for all as well as a few bottles of great Scotch and plenty of great wine too ( thanks Yehuda and Josh!)

Kosher catering & Italian catering ensured everyone was well fed!  BIG thanks to Jack

Brian and Ron Shapiro and Oliva Cigars very kindly assisted with the event by providing Alberto the roller who made some splendid fresh Nicaraguan cigars as well as giving out some first rate Oliva Serie V which everyone was raving about.

SMOKE magazine’s editors enjoyed the evening and ensured everyone had the current edition.

The other cigar magazine was supposedly attending too but forgot :

1 /how to cancel
2/ how to use a phone
3/ how to use a computer
4/ their manners
5/ all of the above ( I think this most likely)

No worries – they have had their last invite from me lol

Four hours of herfing whilst the boat went to the Statue of Liberty and we had the best views of the New York skyline whilst Sinatra music played in the background – I didn’t hear too many complaints! In fact, I think that was a herf to remember I can’t believe the range of cigars that are in the New York cigar stores – it’s never ending so at least with us all not being able to enjoy a single Cuban cigar for the whole week we were still able to have a fabulous time.

Back to the office on Monday to catch up and it’s sure to be busy as the new Limited editions for 2010 have just arrived in our warehouse and will be in all of our cigar stores by Tuesday latest:

2010 Limited Edition Cigars Just Arrived!!!
Limited Edition cigars are made from specially selected tobacco leaves that all have been aged for a minimum of two years.

2010 marks the arrival of three new ‘Edition Limitada’. Montecristo Grand Edmundo, Partagas Serie D Especial and Trinidad Short Robusto.

2010 Habanos Limited Edition Sampler – 3 cigars £59.99

Montecristo Grand Edmundo Limited Edition 2010 – Box of 10 £199.00
Montecristo Grand Edmundo Limited Edition 2010 – 1s £20.99
Size 5 7/8″ length x 52 ring gauge
This is the first time that this vitola has been made available outside of the Cohiba brand and arrives in Montecristo ‘s 75th anniversary year.

Partagas Serie D Especial Limited Edition 2010 – Box of 10 £179.00
Partagas Serie D Especial Limited Edition 2010 – 1s £18.99
Size 5 ½” length x 50 ring gauge
The big brother of the ever popular Serie D No.4. The Especial continues the tradition of rich, earthy, flavour-packed aromas that cigar enthusiasts have come to expect from the brand. It also represents a return to the original format of the pre-war Partagas D No.3.

Trinidad Short Robusto T Limited Edition 2010 – Box of 12 £209.00
Trinidad Short Robusto T Limited Edition 2010 – 1s £17.99
Size 4″length x 50 ring gauge

This subtle, smooth and refined smoke represents a very welcome addition to one of the most exclusive brands in production today.

All also available via this link

New and special from C.Gars Ltd 

La Gloria Cubana Delicious
5″ length and 48 ring gauge 2009 Cuban regional edition of 2000 jars made.  Limited stocks available.
Presented in handsome white ceramic jars of 25 with humidification units in the lids.
Very clever and classy way to store cigars.
La Gloria Cubana Delicious – 1s singles at £22.99
La Gloria Cubana Delicious – Jar of 25 at £550.00
Medium strength, cool draw, and as the name suggests – DELICIOUS!
http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/cuban-cigars-gloria-cubana-cigars-c-317_44_398.html

We have our Cuban roller making custom blends all week in London, email me if you would like some. As usual I think I will stick to a full flavoured robusto sized cigar. They certainly seem to be the most popular.

For your diaries : Monday the 14th is the Cain launch that we have organized at Dunhill in London. If you haven’t got a ticket, sorry but the event is already over sold. Monday 21st is our Vintage Cigar Auction at Boisdale. If you haven’t already registered to bid you need to do so click here Don’t worry there is no cost to register! Lots are on this link. Colour catalogue now available on request [email protected] or see the auction Lots online here

Have a great weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

The boys arrive in style in a stretch limo

Guy, Mitchell and Drew looking serious putting together 70 goodie bags!

Mitchell with his 2 ‘assistants’ Karyn & Tasha’ who were in charge of the Guest List  🙂

Mitchell and Guy with Jay and David in the background

Robert Lockwood from Smokes Magazine

Ron Morrison – director and whisky connoisseur at Robert Graham Ltd

Mitchell doing his usual 1 minute speech!

Mitchell Guy and Drew

 View from the open top tour bus

Dinner at Abigail’s – splendid!

We decided to give Guy a lesson or two in kosher food  🙂

One big happy family

Guy and Mitch ready for our morning De La Concha herf

Mitch and George herfing at De la Concha

Herfing at Club Macanudo

Herfing at Club Macanudo

Herfing with Joe and Eric at Velvet Cigar Lounge

Velvet was getting rather smokey 🙂

Herfing with Bill, Eric and Sig at the fabulous Nat Sherman store

Nat Shermans

Nat Shermans

When is an LGC a Robaina?-as debated in Florio’s in Little Italy

Good grief is it really Friday already? Michelle and Laura were both on vacation so I have been pulling double shifts on what has to be the busiest week of the year so far!

I have never seen so many orders for a cigar in my entire career – yes I am talking about Cohiba Behike  Clearly they are ridiculously popular because they are ridiculously good – grab them while you can

La Gloria Cubana Deliciosos are now available in singles and jars of 25. Small quantity so order early to avoid disappointment. They should be online on the next 24 hours or if you can’t wait you can email me on [email protected] to reserve. The LGC is a Hermosos no.4 sized cigar i.e. 5” length and 48 ring gauge with a super sweet flavour characteristic. Highly recommended

Our Vintage Cigar Auction has been getting a ton of media attention all over the world and we are looking forward to the evening on the 21^st June.  Here’s a link if you wish to register as a bidder and attend the auction at Boisdale Belgravia. If you wish to browse the lots  and bid online click here. Finally the 171 Lot colour catalogue will be out next week and if you want a copy drop me a line [email protected]

We are organizing an exclusive launch part for Cain Cigars at Dunhill on the 14^th June- very few tickets remain available for this first tasting in the UK of Cain cigars matched up with some Champagne, Scotch and canapes from 6.30-8.30 pm. Email for further details

I’m off to New York next week to smoke some fabulous Oliva cigars- looking forward to seeing old friends and meetings some new friends 🙂

Have a smokey weekend

 

Peaceful puffing

 

 

Mitchell

 

Oh what a night 🙂 The Hunters and Frankau launch party at the Goring hotel attended by over 150 cigar aficionados last night.

  

A slick H&F event with copious amounts of Krug champagne,chocolates made by Damian Allsop and of course loads of Havanas 🙂

  

The evening started with the UK exclusive regional edition El Rey del Mundo Choix de L’Epoque and continued with the new Cohiba BHK 52 which was part of a gift box containing another one of each of the 3 sizes of Behikes.

  

Thankfully the weather wasn’t too bad and the rain stayed away so we could enjoy our cigars with a little background music from a Cuban band who were excellent whilst the cigar roller was rolling some fresh Havanas.

  

Jemma Freeman gave a lovely welcome speech and kindly recognized her UK Cigar Specialists and Simon Chase gave a great speech about the history of Cohiba as a brand as well as Behikes

  

James Suckling from Cigar Aficionado was busy smoking a Behike whilst doing his video blog and if you haven’t read the latest CA you need to as James wrote a brilliant article on Behike

  

I love these events as its a great opportunity to meet up with some of the top Havana Cigars Specialists including Edward and Eddie from Davidoff, Lawrence and Johnny from Sautter ( and Dessie was at the part too- always lovely to see him) Ajay from La Casa del Habano London and many others.

  

If you were one of the 30 or so chaps that booked early through C.Gars Ltd – your ticket price included 2 additional Behikes and your goodie pack is now on the way to you so you will hopefully be enjoying it over the weekend 🙂

  

On to Boisdale in Belgravia for dinner and smokes with friends after the party….and a BHK 56 which I can confirm is ‘the bomb’

  

Grab Behikes whilst you can – they will be at all our retail shops by tomorrow latest but they are sure to sell out fast as allocations were tiny

  

A BIG thanks to Hunters and Frankau – truly a class act

  

Peaceful puffing

  

 

Mitchell

Last week was another busy one with a visit to have a dram or two on Wednesday with my ‘ twin’ Ranald Macdonald of Boisdale. Why is he my twin? Well we have the same birthday and we both love Havana cigars and single malt Whiskey – of course we are not quite identical twins and I am much younger 🙂 Nice to bump into journalist James Leavey as well and smoke a couple of Monte 2’s with him. 

Thursday I was back at Boisdale Belgravia for lunch with Jemma Freeman from Hunters and Frankau. We enjoyed some excellent Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 (UK regional edition and one of my favourite Havanas) It was great to catch up with Jemma and learn more about all the exciting and exclusive new releases planed for the UK market exclusively over the next couple of years – and they are VERY exciting 🙂

This week we have the long awaited Cohiba Behikes launch at the Goring hotel where 150 cigar aficionados will be enjoying the 3 new Cohiba ‘BHK’ cigars with some suitable first class libations. Guess where I’ll be going for dinner after the launch? – Boisdale where else !- and maybe over to the Lanesboro for a late night smoke and nightcap.

Our vintage cigar Auction catalogue should be more or less complete by mid week and online for clients to start bidding on. Hard copy catalogues will be available by the end of this month. Around 150 Lots of various brands, vintage and size will be available, some with incredibly low estimates so some bargains may well be had – just like the last auction.  Happy days 🙂

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell