Casa Carrillo Encore El Futuro, New Drew Estate Deadwood Cigars, Dominique London Eminente Rum

Hello everyone! What a fantastic week it has been in Norfolk! We have even had some beautiful sunshine!

On Monday, we had lots of orders to pick, I had a fantastic team helping me and we all noticed how well the Casa Carrillo by E.P. Carrillo Encore El Futuro has been selling since I reduced the price! If the sales keep going on like this we will run out incredibly fast and we will not be getting them again so get yours as soon as possible! After picking all of the orders, I completed a Cuban cigar order – I have said many times about the issues we are finding obtaining Cuban cigars but we will always try. Meanwhile, Lewis has written an article about the Cuban cigar shortage, which you can read here.

On Tuesday, I spent the morning writing two articles for the C.Gars cigar library. The first is called Mitchellero Cigars – Why So Many Formats Keep Appearing in Our Best Sellers – You can read it here. The second is Half Corona Cigars Explained – Why They’re One of the UK’s Best Sellers – You can read that here. Afterwards, I found some spare time so I organised our pipe stock room, I shuffled them all along ready to get new pipes! 

On Wednesday, we received a brilliant delivery! Drew Estate have expanded their Deadwood range in the UK! I love the Deadwood SJ Coronet and now it is available as a Corona! We also received a New Deadwood called the Deadwood Leather Rose Petite Corona. These fantastic additions join the already popular Deadwood Fat Bottom Betty, SJ Coronet and Crazy Alice. On top of the new Deadwood cigars we have also received the Drew Estate Blackened M81 Maduro and S84 Shade to Black in a Coronet size. This excites me too as the M81 Maduro was one of my favourite cigars of last year.

Thursday was stock count day. This time it was my turn to do it all with Josh. It had been a while since Josh completed a stock count but he did fantastic and we were done with plenty of time to spare. During the stock count, I noticed we had a couple of boxes of Rocky Patel which weren’t online as singles. So I made sure I put them online as I try my best to get all cigars available as boxes and singles.

On Friday, I helped pick orders and then made a start creating the shop newsletters. I liked how almost all of the stores chose the Dominique London Eminente Rum as their Spirit of choice. I think by now all of the staff members have given this a try and loved it. It is very limited so once it’s gone it is gone! In the afternoon, I helped Ben complete a cigarette stock count – together we flew through them all, it’s the first time we have teamed up like that and we did incredible. 

I hope you liked this weeks goings on.

So long for now.

Oliver

New My Father Cigars, Drew Estate on Sale and Alec Bradley Black Market Back in Stock

Hello everyone! I hope you had a fantastic long bank holiday weekend! Just because it’s a bank holiday doesn’t mean life at C.Gars stops. If anything it means we are even busier!

On the bank holiday Monday, it was Robyn, Sharon and myself. Together we picked all of the priority orders which were placed over the weekend. As my loyal readers will know, Mondays are our busiest day and so to just have three members of staff it was tough. Once we picked the priority orders – Sharon and Robyn packed them whilst I carried on picking the regular orders. At the end of the day all of the orders were picked and I was shattered to say the least, but I knew the rest of the team would appreciate it.

On Tuesday, I was being a jack of all trades. I started by checking over all of the orders which was picked by the team on Tuesday and then I started packing orders that was left over from Monday. At one point everyone was either packing or booking the parcels on. By the end of the day we had everything sent out! We were all tired and relieved. Meanwhile, I also had the privilege of putting more cigars on special offer! My favourite ones to lower the price on was the Drew Estate Undercrown 10 All Dekk’d Out Corona Viva – This has been reduced from £25.49 to £17.99! A brilliant saving of £7.50! Which for a Drew Estate is fantastic. Have a look at our sale page to see what else has been lowered.

On Wednesday, I focused on the C.Gars cigar library. I created two articles – The first one is called Why Boveda Humidifiers Are Essential for Cigar Storage – You can read it here. The second is called Short Smoke Cigars – The Best Small Formats UK Smokers Are Buying – You can read it here. I also gave some feedback on cigar sales to Chris, next up will be what we do with these cigars next – this means they will either get more marketing, a drop in price or potentially we may discontinue them. I also received delivery of the latest My Father cigars to enter the UK market – The La Opulencia and El Centurion H-2K-CT. The La Opulencia is available as a Robusto and a Toro and uses Criollo and Corojo binders, Corojo, Criollo and Habano filler and wrapped in a beautiful Mexico Rosado Oscuro wrapper. The El Centurion H-2K-CT is available as a Corona or a Toro and features a hybrid H-2K-CT wrapper from the United States, the binders and fillers are 100% Nicaraguan grown. Get yours now!

On Thursday, I would normally be doing a stock count of all of our cigars but this time I got the week off! Lisa has done it with Sarah, who is usually in the packing department and so I started the day with picking and then worked through our out of stock cigars to see if there was any I could put back online, I was pleased to see us receive a box of the Alec Bradley Black Market Punk as they disappeared for a little while but they are back with the Torpedo, which was nice to see. Afterwards, I started working on my June cigar subscriptions. I have never been able to get so far ahead before but it is vital as Cuban cigars seem to be getting harder to source. So I need to make sure I get my Cuban cigars on order. 

On Friday, I started my day with order picking. Both Josh and I noticed a lot more orders for larger cigars, with the sun coming out it is the obvious thing to do. One order I noticed had a lot of Lancero cigars – Lancero cigars are one of my favourites as you get a lot of flavour from the wrapper compared to the filler. Afterwards, I had the joys of lowering even more cigars! Make sure you have a look at our sales page to see what I have done.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks blog.

So long for now.

Oliver.

Dominique London Pall Mall Store Now Open! Romeo y Julieta Cigars and Oliva Serie G Belicoso

Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying the beautiful British weather? I has been all over the place recently!

Monday was slightly different for me. First, the team and I got through all of the online orders – The team work has been second to none and everyone has been helping everywhere! Afterwards,  I became a teacher again – I am going to be away from Monday next week and so I need Lisa to take care of our cigar stock. She is fantastic at everything she does but this is something completely new to her but the bits she has been doing has been correct. So I taught Lisa how to gather the information of all of our out of stock Cuban cigars. Then I showed her what to do with that information. Hopefully we will be able to get your favourite Cuban cigars back, but Cuban cigars have been more difficult to get ahold of but we always try! Afterwards I showed her what we do with cigars that we can no longer get from our suppliers, again she perfected it. 

I also received another press release from the Dominique London Pall Mall store. Dominique London today announces the launch of its stunning S.T. Dupont Le Grand Dupont lighter, you can read it here. I uploaded it immediately as the opening was very soon!

On Tuesday, I focused on uploading articles for the C.Gars cigar library. I’m working through a list of article titles that is designed to be seen on Google searches. This week I wrote two! The first is called Why Robusto Cigars Dominate UK Sales – You can read it here. The second is called Romeo y Julieta Cigars – A Buyer’s Guide to One of Cuba’s Most Famous Brands – You can read it here. As much as I am given these titles, it takes a lot of time to research and then write the article. But I do enjoy it! Afterwards, I completed the finishing touches to the shop newsletters. 

On Wednesday, I started my day with order picking. I noticed a lot of people took advantage of our flash sale, it was a 5+1 on the Oliva Serie G Belicoso Aged Cameroon. It was a fantastic deal, sign up to our newsletters if you want to receive all of our incredible deals. Afterwards I focused on creating the leaflet that goes in my cigar subscriptions. Each subscription gets its own double sided leaflet, this means I have 6 sides to edit, but I have mastered them now. I also worked with my assistant manager Chris on lowering the price of some cigars. It always excites me to lower the price of cigars as usually nothing gets cheaper these days. Keep a look on our website as your favourite cigar may get a price drop.

On Thursday, It was a big day for Dominique London! The Pall Mall Store was finally open! You will find the most amazing cigars, accessories and spirits. I can’t wait to visit there myself. It really is the place to be in London! Here in Norfolk, I was back to being a teacher for Lisa, She practised what she had to do on a Monday. She nailed it perfectly and I am confident that she will stay on top of it whilst I am away. Afterwards, I completed my list of cigars to put on special offer – One the surprised me that I was lowering the price of was the La Galera Maduro Chaveta Robusto, this cigar is surprisingly good if you like a Maduro.

On Friday, it was our quarterly stock count. This is where everyone in our building stops and counts every product in our building. As always Lisa and I were counting cigars, this time though we had the help of 4 other people. Together we counted all of the cigars with plenty of time to pick the whole day’s worth of orders. 

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks goings on. I will be off next week so you will have to wait until the week after. 

So long for now.

Oliver.

New Dominique London Pall Mall Store, Everyday Cigars Explained, Goodbye Drew Estate Acid

Hello C.Gars! I hope you have all had a great week! 

On Monday, we were incredibly busy with online orders. As a team we all got together and picked them all very fast. Afterwards I became a teacher – As my loyal readers will know, I have been doing a lot more computer work since the Norfolk shop closed and I have been loving it. However , I am not going to be working every day and so I need to train someone else to be able to do it whilst I am away on holiday. So I spent time with Lisa, she already knew how to do some of it but there are bits that she finds intimidating and so I walked her through it all – how to create stock reports, how to contact suppliers about products and more. She did a very good job and I am confident she will be able to do it while I’m not around.

On Tuesday, I spent a lot of time creating not one but two articles for the C.Gars cigar library. The first one is called Everyday Cigars Explained – Popular Options UK Smokers Buy Regularly – I feel like this is a great article for those who want to smoke cigars everyday but are afraid of the price tag – You can read it here. The second one is called Cigar Shops in the UK – How to Find Trusted Retailers Near You – This one is a nice generic article about how to find a trusted cigar shop – You can read it here. The brilliant team here took care of online orders but I always like to help where I can. I noticed an interesting order from a customer who purchased some rather special Cuban cigars. He ordered three of each too, which either means he is a great friend to his friends or he knows what he likes and took advantage of our low prices. Either way I’m happy for him.

Wednesday seemed to be a very busy day for me. I started the day by helping the team pick online orders and then afterwards I was making sure all of our stock was online. A few weeks ago I reviewed some cigars that had been out of stock on our website for a while. After speaking with my Yoda Chris, it was decided we must take action, so I contacted all of our suppliers to see if we could get the stock and I also contacted our London Office to see if they had stock of some of the products. I was pleasantly surprised to see that London had some Davidoff Discovery Limited Edition 2022 Gran Toro – This cigar sold very well and to see they had some was very surprising indeed – Get them whilst you can as they have very limited stock! Afterwards I received a very good press release from Dominique London! They have confirmed that our new La Casa del Habano boutique on Pall Mall, in the heart of St James’s, will officially open at 10am on 26 March 2026! This is incredibly exciting as it is the UK’s first Dominique London store! You can read more about it here.

Thursday was stock count day. Lisa and I worked tirelessly to count all of our stock and we did it with plenty of time to spare. Afterwards I received some unfortunate news – Drew Estate have discontinued their Acid range in the UK! This is a massive shame as the Acid Blondie was incredibly popular and in some cases a lot of customers first ever cigar. So if you do enjoy the Acid range from Drew Estate get yours whilst you can! My personal favourite is the Green Candela – I can’t describe the flavour other than sweet, but it was lovely! Maybe I’ll get a few before they all go.

On Friday, After completing all of the online orders I was given a task to consolidate one month’s worth of Cuban out of stock into one handy spreadsheet. This meant going through all my old reports and combining them together, it was tough but I did it in a very good time. Afterwards I re-listed some Chevron cigars. We have always sold the bundles so I thought I would put the singles online to see if they were always wanted as singles. As the singles hadn’t been sold for a while, I had to re-do the pricing on them as the bundles had gone up unfortunately.  

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks going on in Norfolk.

So long for now.

Oliver.

This Woman’s Work

Is This Really a Man’s World?

‘This is a man’s world’, the words vehemently proclaimed by the prolific, enigmatic, culturally defining and captivating ‘Godfather of Soul’, James Joseph Brown.
A powerful, yet controversial statement that outlines the nature of the archetypal society within which many discoveries, developments and accomplishments have been achieved.

Even more commanding than that opening proclamation are the following lyrics that passionately state ‘but it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl’. In light of International Women’s Day (which in my humble opinion should be celebrated every day) I have decided to share my unpretentious perspective, highlight my appreciation and highlight the crucial and instrumental work being carried out by the great women of the CGars / Dominique London brand.

Yesterday at the St James Street branch of CGars, the company had the honour of hosting a book signing event for the well-renowned and globally celebrated Alexander Groom. The lauded author, researcher and successor to the ‘Cuban Cigar Website’ throne, founded by Trevor Leask, is considered by many within the cigar community to be the leading authority on Havana cigars. His 720-page dissertation, ‘El Habano Moderno: A Collector’s Guide to Cuban Cigars in the Modern Era’, an awe-inspiring body of work, serves as the ‘new-age bible’ for Habanos cigar enthusiasts worldwide. I was fortunate enough to share a brief moment with this ‘legend of the leaf’ and have him sign my own personal copy of his masterpiece publication.

The Woman of The Year.

It was at this event that I had the sincere pleasure of meeting the illustrious, highly decorated cigar expert, first-everHabanos Woman of the Year and founder of Dominique London Ltd, Dominique Gyselinck. A power couple in every sense of the term, the pair exuded an air of majesty and excellence that can be attributed to success — success in business as well as all other integral aspects of life.

I’m not one to mince words so I will just go ahead and say I found her to be a magnificent specimen of the quintessential ‘Boss Lady’. She was elegant, very well presented, stylish, polished and refined with an air of quiet super-confidence. She was far from meek but her comportment, more so than her words, commanded both attention and respect. As a result I paid her the toll of both and it was an honour to offer her the same quality of hospitality that I would extend to CGars customers on her behalf.

As the founder of her brand, she is not only a strategic leader but also a symbol of progressive defiance in a male-dominated industry. That being said, the majority of the employees I met on my travels to the different locations and outlets under the company’s banner were highly motivated, charismatic and influential women. I find it very significant that such an organisation with such a wide reach, that not only survived but flourished during the age of an international pandemic, has at its core a female-dominated workforce that encapsulates the necessity for mutual opportunity and respect between the sexes.

Reflections of a son.

It is by no means a coincidence that I myself was fortunate enough to be raised by a strong enterprising woman who, as well as being the foundation of security and welfare for a legion of family members she left behind in Nigeria in the late 1960s, was able to support my father, a Biafran War veteran and stenographer for General Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, in raising a family of four children.

One of her most impressive accomplishments in my opinion was the success of her own commercial cleaning contractor company, Almo Cleaning Services, that operated as the official cleaning contractor to Lambeth Palace, the formal London residence and administrative headquarters of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Her organisation held this contract and designation for no less than 13 years until her tragic and untimely demise in 2016 in a losing battle with liver cancer. She was however survived by myself and two exceptionally resilient, intelligent and hardworking daughters who embody her legacy.

Before she left this world she imparted her lessons of business management on myself and my partner. Together we continue to honour her memory by adhering to her ethos of decency, morality and hard work being the foundation of a fruitful partnership. It brings me immense joy to see Sadie, the mother of my four children of which three of them are girls, who just recently turned 40, achieving her personal goals, nurturing her children and building an entrepreneurial legacy by fostering a strong enduring culture of accountability and dedicated personal development in our home.

Birds of a feather.

I believe my mother would have greatly admired the likes of Dominique and the rest of the hardworking women of CGars / Dominique London as she would have seen herself and her struggles in these great professionals that remain an integral part of the brand’s success.

I couldn’t help but feel that protective, guiding, motherly energy from so many different women I have had the honour of meeting since becoming a part of this community. Whether it was for the purpose of training or just a genuine natural instinct to want to help me find my way, I’m sure without the excellence and attentiveness of these women, this company wouldn’t be what it is today.

Last thoughts.

It is for this reason that I implore you, all of you reading this humble tribute piece, to celebrate the women of CGars as the cornerstone of this fine company as you enjoy the fruits of their labour. Yes we men are here too, but we would be nothing without our female counterparts to whom we owe an abundance of gratitude.

To the masters of the universe and mere mortals alike, keep your spirits poured, your cigars alight and the continuous appreciation, celebration and liberation of women and their fundamental rights alive.

Joseph Okon