I’m not quite sure if we are still in Lockdown or not?!  From the increase in cigar sales it seems that we may well be or it could be the sunny weather we’re expecting over the next week? Either way here’s hoping the CV19 nightmare is receding and the Lockdown is easing so we can all enjoy the Summer even if our vacations are cancelled for the rest of the year.

Karyn and I should have been herfing with friends and clients in New York City this week but obviously and sadly that had to be cancelled. Goodness knows when we will get a refund as the travel industry seems to be in a bit of a mess to say the least. We have had the best of times in NYC as its very cigar friendly but hopefully we will be back next year when life gets back to normal.

We are actually so busy our site was offline overnight for ‘essential maintenance’ whatever that means but we are back and faster than ever now! We finally raced through the 100,000 customer target on our database last week, in fact we are now over 103,000 customers! Pretty amazing when I think back to 1997 and our first Excel database of 43 customers. But then I also remember our monthly sales ledger of 60 orders a month which Laura and I were very proud of! Now we do upwards of 2000 orders a day and have over 70 brilliant staff working 24/7 every day of the year. A nice success story…

The good news is that Montecristo Supremos are expected to arrive into our humidors any time now. Measuring in at 5 ¼ length and 55 ring gauge, this Montesco vitola cigar delivers huge volumes of typical sweet and tangy Montecristo flavours. Presented in rather snappy yellow cabinets of 25 cigars with very tight allocations this is sure to be a very popular smoke. No sign of any other new releases at this stage but we are ever hopeful.

Supply lines for many cigar products from all regions are now starting to feel the squeeze as many factories have closed down and are only starting to slowly get back to production now. Fortunately we carry huge stocks and are still running at around 98% availability overall. If you have favourites that are out of stock, shoot me an email and I’ll gladly suggest alternatives. We expect supply to normalise by late July with any luck. I’m afraid one of the supply casualties is our own brand of Inka Secret Blend. The popularity of this range of cigars is incredible and despite our usual stock levels being 3 months worth we have all but sold out of them in the last month. We hope to be able to take in new stocks as soon as possible.

I seem to be spending half my time on Zoom meetings these days. What a brilliant app! I even did my first Zoom herf this week (maybe it’s a ‘Verf’!) this was a Davidoff Late Hour tasting with Sam Reuter from Davidoff as guest of honour and very ably hosted by Roy from Davidoff and my colleague Paul from C.Gars Ltd. It was great to put some faces to names of clients I have ‘known’ for many years.  I must admit I do love Late Hour, probably my favourite regular range of Davidoff. Deeply complex and packed with a kaleidoscope of superb flavours.

Looks like garden herfing weather (a Gerf!) this weekend so I have the following in the baggie:

Davidoff Late Hour Churchill (I love these cigars)

Partagas SD No.5 (amazing quality currently)

Regius Connecticut Toro (for something a little different)

Plascencia Alma Fuerte (this cigar is an insane smoke!)

Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Pointy (no sweeter blend that we sell)

….and a bottle of our bestselling Cigar Malt whisky (Gold medal winner)

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Greetings from sunniest London where we are still doing the ‘Lockdown Herf’, in my case the bar and humidor are open 24/7…nothing new there then. Between the weather and the Lockdown, cigar smoking is at an all-time high but what better way to stay safe, de-stress and relax from the crazy situation we find ourselves in?

I was asked for a photo for Smokers at Home website, check it out here, my pal Ranald from Boisdale is on it too. I’m on the last stretch of recovery from the post viral symptoms of Covid19 and working from home for another couple of weeks, then I should be fighting fit!

It’s odd not getting up in the morning and putting on a pin stripe suit to head to the office. It’s odd not being out most evenings to herf with friends and clients at some of the fabulous cigar terraces in London. It’s really odd not to be travelling up and down the country to our beautiful Turmeaus cigars and whisky stores and sampling lounges. I do miss it but I’m looking forward to getting back to normal whenever it’s safe to do so.

Zoom meetings have become the norm, Facetime and WhatsApp video calls great fun to see who on earth I’m speaking to but it does feel like an upside-down world for sure. I did my first Instagram interview ever (in fact I think it’s the first time I have used Instagram). Thanks to Abdullah for interviewing me, if you would like to follow him click here to get to his page. For latest photos of cigars, whisky and pipes follow C.Gars Ltd.

Per the subject line, I’m, afraid the time has finally come to increase prices. We were very lucky to have been able to keep prices the same for almost 2 years as last year’s Budget was cancelled but following this year’s Budget all cigar importers have increase prices and they are now being implemented in the marketplace. As ever, we do guarantee the lowest prices in the UK with our now legendary price match promise.

Occasionally I’m asked how on earth can a premium cigar be so expensive £10, £15, £20 or more for a cigar- madness?! ‘and I remember having the same conversation with a client 20 or so years ago and his reply went something like this: ‘are cigars really so expensive if you compare them say to a halfway decent bottle of wine? They usually last longer than it takes to drink a few glasses of wine and nothing can compare to the complete experience of relaxation from a fine cigar’.  certainly, makes sound sense to me. In fact, you can get some pretty decent premium cigars at less than a tenner still.

We have pushed back our Summer vintage cigar auction to late July and will put the date on the auction website early May. We are accepting entries from May 4^th onwards.

London – Mayfair, Liverpool, Chester and Knutsford cigar and whisky stores remain open albeit on slightly reduced opening times. Norfolk and London mail order warehouses and offices remain in operation 24 hours a day – 7 days a week to cope with the increased demand which it has to be said is quite staggering. If you have any query about your order please do email Customer Services as they are online 24 hours a day but please do include your full name and order number!

Okay, time to head to my office in the garden, I’ve got a good selection for this week (I need it as I’m back up to 5 a day!)

Partagas Serie D no. 4, 5 and 6 (yep …I love Partagas)

Alec Bradley Orchant Seleccion Twisty (for something a little different and an oh so sweet blend)

Davidoff Winston Churchill Late Hour Robustos

Fuente Eye of the Shark …bit of a treat

Cohiba Talisman … a lot of a treat

Have a smokey week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

So it looks like another 3 weeks of total lockdown and therafter who knows how much longer or if the restrictions will slowly and no doubt very thoughtfully be reduced. How long it will take to get back to any semblence of normality is anyone’s guess at this stage.

My recovery is going well, I’ve put back on the 10 Pounds in weight that I lost in hospital thanks to Karyn’s cooking! I’m taking good walks every day though nothing like I did pre Covid… that will take some time to build up to. I’m back to enjoying 3-4 good cigars a day and an occasional dram of Orchant Selection Cigar Malt (for medicinal purposes!) I’m lucky as I’m able to work from home with my study being a mirror image of my office, surrounded by some of my favourite very old Cuban photographs and with super fast WiFi its business as usual for me minus the herfing with friends and clients and the crazy travel schedule.

I miss visiting the retail stores, our HQ and sampling lounges but look forward to a better and safer day for everyone when we can all enjoy a dram and a herf together again. So the good news is that our retail stores are open with the exception of Norfolk at this time but obviously our sampling lounges remain closed. Our mail order division is still cracking away at 100% efficiency 24 hours a day. I’m very proud of our Team who are handling a huge uplift in order volumes as our customers stay at home. I think we hit the record of all time last week with over 2000 packages a day being shipped.

Shipping is slower than usual but 95% of orders are arriving on time. Has to be said that Royal Mail are doing an amazing job. The bad news is that Havana cigars prices will increase substantially at the beginning of May. We were fortunate that there was no increase last year and this one is pretty late but its going to be a fairly hefty increase this time round. We have good stocks and will try to hold prices for a week or two but invenitably they will be going up. At least you have a little pre warning to top up your humidors at pre increase prices.

No update on the release date for the well overdue UK regional edition , La Gloria Cubana Britanicas Extra. Its delayed I understand as so many cigar specialist are closed during the lockdown so it would not be fair to the UK cigar trade generally to release them now which makes sense to me.

The weather forecast is looking great this week, should be sunny and warm so its perfect garden herifng weather which I hope is some consolation if you’re stuck at home.

My rotation for the coming week includes:

Partagas Serie D no.5 – smoking so well now and a perfect 40 minute smoke for me

Davidoff Lancero Orchant Seleccion – what a treat.

Alec Bradley Orchie – the sweetest blended cigar I know of.

Inka Secret Blend Robustos (red) – always a good smoke

Montecristo Dantes – these are now smoking very well with 4 years box age

Regius Orchant Seleccion Hermosos – great ‘Nic Kick’

Trinidad Esmeralda – I love this new cigar

Trinidad Topes – I adore this new cigar!

…and a bottle of Stalla Dhu Speyside  😉

Stay safe and have a smokey week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell