I have declared this week a Bolivar week 🙂 One of my very favourite brands (For certain sizes at least) and have been enjoying an excellent rotation as follows:

Breakfast smoke with espresso – Bolivar Corona Junior
Lunch time smoke with a glass of wine – Bolivar Belicosos Finos cabinet Selection 2009 vintage. A sweet full flavoured smoke.
After dinner smoke with a dram of single malt the perfect choice Bolivar Petit Belicosos by my fireplace. Sheer heaven. Full flavour and full strength. The Single malt is perfectly balanced with this powerhouse limited edition from 2009
…and in between it had to be Bolivar Britanicas one of my favourite regional editions and exclusive to the UK (Sold out by our importers so you would need to hurry to stash some away) Great shape, great size and perfect Bolivar old style blend, full flavour, medium strength, earth and spice.

I love the flavour of Bolivar and I love the depth and dimension in the blend, when they are good they are great.

To make my Bolivar week complete, I enjoyed lunch at 5 Hertford Street with a good friend who graciously gifted me the Chinese regional edition Bolivar Distinguidos. Helluva smoke 🙂

Michelle is taking a break for a couple of days, no doubt exhausted after a week of photographing well over 300 Auction Lots for our June 10^th sale .

We have a superb selection of Aged, Mature, Vintage, Limited edition, Pre Embargo, Dunhill and Davidoff boxes, cabinets, humidors and jars to knock down on the evening and I’m delighted to announce that Balvenie have kindly offered to do another excellent whisky tasting as part of the evening. Add Boisdale Canary Wharf wines, canapés, hospitality as well as C.Gars Ltd English Market Selection Havanas and I think it’s fair to say that we are going to enjoy a wonderful event.

Tickets available on this link.

Cigar auction catalogue will be online and in print around 4 weeks before the sale.

Inka – Secret Blend Petit Coronas and robustos have completely sold out yet again – Sorreee but will be arriving next week. If you can’t wait, try Bandolero great value and great smokes!

I’m overseas late next week again herfing in a sunnier climate (I hope) then back for a few days and off to Peru to test out some new blends and approve new packaging for additional range of Inka – Secret Blend cigars (Finally happy to report that we have received our trade mark for this brand… All very Dragons Den 😀)

My Twitter account and my Facebook account are in competition to see who can get the most followers so if you are not already following me… You know what to do 🙂

We have whisky and cigar tasting evenings planned at Robert Graham – Cambridge for May and June, if you would like to be put on the mailing list, drop me a line [email protected]

Taking pre orders now for ‘Partagas – The Book’ expected at the end of this month. Order early to avoid disappointment.

Following the Budget, prices have been increase but not by much as we have absorbed the price increase as much as we possibly could. Don’t forget, we guarantee to offer the best prices in the UK. We have HUGE inventory and deliver rapidly. We are also online 24/7 – Every day of the year so if you need any advice or suggestions or want to tell us something that we are doing well or something that we can improve on we are always happy to hear from our clients and friends. [email protected]

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

First quarter of the year gone already! If ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ I must be having a marvellous life as it seems that Christmas was a few minutes ago and we are already making business plans for Christmas 2013!

One of my marketing Team at our Norfolk office decided to do an April Fools on our Facebook site claiming that I have been invited to appear as a judge in the next series of the Apprentice! Needless to say… I am not! Thanks for all the emails congratulating me lol

I spent the long Easter weekend herfing through a good variety of superb smokes including:

Juan Lopez Orchant Seleccion no.1
Helluva smoke, rich and sweet, cool and easy draw.

Davidoff Puro D’Oro Sublimes
This small format cigar packs quite a punch, I’m becoming fond of Davidoff smokes (Oh and Year of the Snake cigars coming out next week! Which will fit nicely into the Elie Bleu Year of the Snake humidors :))

Punch Serie D’Oro no.1
Still may favourite regional edition of all time.

Cohiba Magicos 2007 vintage
Outrageously good cigar with the benefit of 6 years in the humidor now.

Trinidad Fundadores 2002
13 years age on this cheeky smoke has made it a firm favourite.

Our ‘new’ Cambridge shop doesn’t feel new anymore and has been well integrated into our Group. The cigar and whisky sampling lounge has proved very popular indeed as has our specialist range of whisky and tobacco. Cambridge was crying out for a cigar specialist and we are very happy to have expanded to this location.

We have a cigar and whisky tasting planned for June 12th at Cambridge, drop me a line for details. [email protected]

I’ll be at Robert Graham Cambridge this Sunday from noon – Pop in for a coffee sampling session with me 🙂

Glasgow is our smallest whisky and cigar shop but one of our most successful. After quite a few year in West Nile street we are planning to relocate in the Summer to a flagship store for the Group. In fact if all goes to plan this will be the largest cigar shop in the UK with a walk in humidor breath taking in design and astonishing in range as well as our full offering of Robert Graham Dancing Stag award winning single malts of course and a very comfortable whisky sampling lounge. More details to follow…. And then coming to a location near you ☺

Our latest release is this first rate single malt in Robert Grahams’ Dancing Stag range: Miltonduff 1998 Limited edition of 420 bottles and great value at £46.50 a bottle. I love a good Speyside with my cigars and this one is the perfect complement especially with the delicious Cohiba Maduro Genios that I’m smoking now from 2007 vintage.

Inka Robustos in blue and red as well as more Poderosos and petit coronas are due to arrive in the next few days. I am somewhat staggered by the success and popularity of the Secret Blend range. I plan to release the premium line of Aztec Secret Blend later this year which I believe will become the most popular premium brand of non-Cuban cigars in the UK.

A few places still available for June 10^th Cigar Auction on this link.

Last few days to stock up before our online prices increase, we’ll be keeping the increase as small as possible and as always guarantee the best prices in the UK (Don’t blame me… blame the Chancellor!)

Have a smokey weekend

Best from snowy London

Mitchell

Happy Easter – Happy Passover, as long as you are enjoying it with a cigar or two…. It’s all good 🙂

Clocks have gone forward, Its very sunny and bloody freezing. Splendid. British Summer Time has begun! So if we could now just have a huge increase in temperature we would be able to enjoy some al fresco herfing. But I reckon it won’t be too long, until then you can always sample indoors at some of the fabulous cigar terraces in London or at my cigar stores in Mayfair, West Hampstead, Chester and Cambridge which all have small comfortable smoking areas. Liverpool is a tad small though you are still welcome to sample in store.

The exception is the barmy laws in Scotland where no sampling exemption exists for cigar shops. And to make matters worse I read this fairly mental article in the Scotsman a few days ago, well I hope common sense prevails and the brilliant law makers don’t tar cigar smokers with the same brush as cigarette smokers but that remains to be seen.

I can’t remember ever seeing a child in any of my cigar shops asking ‘Gimme a Monte 2 mate’ or I’m desperate for a puff of a Partagas P2 Boss’! in fact we don’t allow ‘minors’ into our shops in the first place and I can’t remember seeing any kids smoking a premium cigar in my life (Except me when I had a puff of my Dads cigar a long, long time ago!)

I’m not pro cigarette smoking for sure, but I am pro ‘freedom to choose’ especially if the product is legal. I am anti ‘legislation for legislations sake’ as its generally a complete waste of time and public money, perhaps the SMP’s are trying to justify their existence by trying to ruin some other peoples existence. What next? Fizzy drinks? Chocolates? Sweets? They should all come with health warnings and plain packaging surely lol. I actually saw a packet of nuts in the supermarket the other day with a label ‘This product may contain nuts.’ Seriously… You couldn’t make it up.

In 2 years time, small shops I understand have to cover up their tobacco display and specialist shops will not be able to have any visible tobacco from the shop windows. Awful for security of staff working at my shops – That’s an obvious one. Is it an attempt to make our shops seedy like 1970’s sex shops in Soho?! It won’t work and any fool can see that. Not for cigars anyway (I know nothing about cigarettes nor do I care for them) The more the Government tells people ‘You can’t do something’ the more they will want to do it.

Case in point is the 2007 Smoking in public places ban. What difference did it make? To cigars smokers I dare say it made no difference at all and if the growth of C.Gars Ltd is anything to go by it probably fuelled our expansion.

Perhaps our brilliant MP’s should kick back with a cigar and a dram of the water of life and contemplate the more important issues that they should justify their miserable existences by working on such as the dire state of the economy, the homeless problems and law and order. No one will thank them for making trade more difficult for the last few cigar specialist in the UK. They are not doing anyone any favours.

If you read Russian there’s a great article in Hecho a Mano – cigar magazine You can always use Google translator if your Russian language skills are not up to par but I think that a lot gets lost in the translation 🙂

Auction time approaches on the 10^th June at the fabulous Boisdale Canary Wharf. Checkout the photos… Just a little tease 🙂 Some very interesting Lots to be knocked down on what will be a memorable herf and sale. You can book tickets for the evening on this link Catalogue will be out around 4-5 weeks before the auction online and in print as usual.

Inka Secret Blend cigars remain our biggest success sorry of the year so far with HUGE popularity for the new small chubby Poderoso size maduro wrapper cigar. Can’t go far wrong for just over six quid a pop I guess. Lots of sweet full rich flavours in this Puros from Peru.

In fact the whole range has been so popular we are now literally organizing import over import so as one import is flying in the next order is already placed. I expect robustos to be available again in the next week or two 🙂 Oh.. and the whole brand and range is exclusive to C.Gars Ltd (Turmeaus Tobacconist and Robert Graham Ltd shops) as I created it. 🙂

We now have our new prices of Havana and other premium cigars from all of our importers and our website prices sadly will increase in the next few days. We will as always keep increases to a minimum but you can still top up at pre Budget prices (Not for long!) we will always guarantee to offer the lowest prices in the UK and if we are wrong we will gladly price match… Can’t be fairer than that 🙂

Oh and finally for all the people emailing asking what are the best cigars to invest in now? Here is my definitive answer. We are not investment advisors and we are only cigar specialist but these are the cigars that I have stashed away for the future 🙂

Cohiba 1966
Cohiba Maduro Genios and Magicos from 2007
Romeo Escudos 2007
Romeo Hermosos No.2 2004
Punch Serie D’Oro No.1
Montecristo 520

Get’em while you can and don’t forget, in the collectors market English Market Selection (EMS) cigars always have greater cache than any others as provenance is better established.

I’m offline from tonight till Tuesday night but our phone lines are on 24/7 and our sales Team reply to emails [email protected] 24/7 if you need any advice.

Happy days 🙂

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Looks like a hefty increase in tax on tobacco compliments of our Chancellor (Has anyone else noticed how he looks a bit like the Joker from Batman?!) I am guessing that by the time ‘Inflation +5% +VAT Etc goes through it could be almost a 10% hike in prices.

I’m not sure what the point of a 1p decrease in tax on beer is? Seems pretty stupid to a simple cigar merchant like me. Prices on whisky will be increasing. I read that tax on spirits has increased by 44% since 2008.

I’m going to hold prices on our own Dancing Stag and Robert Graham single malt whisky as long as possible but you may want to stock up the bar sooner rather than later!

Fortunately 1000’s of my clients have been stocking up like crazy (Double the usual daily orders!) over the last 2 weeks in expectation and the blow is softened at least in the short term. We will hold our prices for as long as we can but price increase is sadly inevitable.

I had a great day at Robert Graham Cambridge on Sunday with our sampling lounge packed from the minute we opened till closing time. It may have been the power of Twitter! Sampled a few drams of my favourite award winning Highland Ailein Mor and smoked my way through a couple of Cohiba Piramides Extra… My kinda Sunday 🙂

Had a lunch herf at the Wellesley Hotel on Tuesday. Cold day but you wouldn’t know it on the beautiful carpeted heated terrace (Not just heated but even a fireplace on each terrace!) delicious food as usual and the finest service in London.

Smoked my way through a Cohiba Maduro Magicos and Genios from 2007. Highly recommended. In fact I love the Wellesley so much, I’m heading back there on Thursday evening 🙂

I was invited to a fabulous dinner at Boisdale Canary Wharf on Tuesday evening with Andrew Neil as guest speaker. I always admired him but after last night I think he may well be the best journalist/political commentator I have ever heard speak in my life. Absolutely brilliant.

The dinner was held in the Gallery Room and I reckon there were around 40 attendees and I met a great bunch of guys at the table.

Barclays Wealth Management Team also gave talks about the economy which were very interesting indeed. My thanks to Ranald for the kind invitation.

Boisdale Canary Wharf has a comprehensive menu (Even for fussy veggies like me!) a great wine list, a huge whisky bar first rate service and a superb cigar terrace. It also has a super ‘Cigar Library’ with a huge range of premium cigars and a comfortable sampling room. Who could ask for more?

Boisdale Canary Wharf is of course the home of our Vintage Cigar Auctions and the next Auction will be held on the 10^th June. Our first auction was back in 2009 at Boisdale Belgravia (One of my regular haunts!) but we outgrew the cigar terrace there and moved to BCW.

Cigar Auction update will be on the Auction website and the catalogue will be online and in print around 4 weeks before the event. An evening of great smokes, eats and drinks is assured as usual and no doubt some bargains may be bagged at the auction. Tickets for the event on sale in in the next day or two. Book early to avoid disappointment.

Our first allocation of Romeo Reserva has more or less sold out now but we are hopeful that another allocation will be on its way fairly soon.

We are now taking pre orders for my friend Amir Saarony’s book Hoping to start shipping in April. It’s a must read for every serious cigar aficionado. Truly magnificent with mouth-watering photographs.

My latest Orchant Seleccion Juan Lopez Havana cigars were a massive hit last week. Matured from 2008, this sweet flavour and medium strength corona gorda is quite delicious. Last few cabs available now.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

This blog comes to you from the smokey world headquarters of C.Gars Ltd 🙂 In cloudy Kilburn lol! Not that I’m complaining about the weather today (For a change) as I have just returned from a meeting in bloody freezing Basel, Switzerland.

Even with my best gangster hat and coat on (Think Enzo the baker from Godfather film) I was freezing and struggling to hold my cigar with my gloves on!

So dear blog reader what on earth was I doing in Basel (Or ‘Basil’ as the British Airways lady kept announcing, as in Basil Fawlty!) Well, those jolly nice people at Davidoff kindly invited me to join the Retailer Panel for Europe together with 9 other cigar specialists from Germany, Holland, Belgium and Austria. Fortunately the whole group spoke perfect English and we all got on very well indeed.

Meeting up at the hotel with our friends from Davidoff of London, Eddie and Edward Sahakian on Wednesday evening and introducing myself to the other retailers at the hotel we promptly headed off to Acqua for dinner. If you are ever in Basel, you have to visit this restaurant as it was absolutely splendid. Ambience, menu – First class. Service – Absolutely brilliant. Highly recommended.

Dinner was followed by smokes at Puros y Mas which is a delightful cigar shop with a fabulous walk in humidor as well as a superb smoking lounge upstairs. So we sipped single malt and smoked Davidoff cigars till rather late in the evening or should I say early in the morning.

Thursday morning was an early 8 a.m. start (Good grief – These Swiss boys know how to get up early in the morning, bit of a struggle for me as I usually work a late shift!) and off we went for a series of confidential presentations at the Davidoff offices. More details to follow when the info is declassified 🙂 Save to say we are big fans of Davidoff cigars and sell them online and in all of our stores. Here’s the huge range available by the box and in singles.

I smoked my way through a variety of regular and limited edition Davidoff cigars over a long day and every cigar was quite… Perfect.

Blends were full and sweet, construction was without any doubt as good as it gets, wrappers were silky smooth. All in all 100 pointer smokes that we are happy to recommend to our clients. We plan to increase our in store range over the coming months and will also hold a few tastings in our Cambridge flagship store.

My thanks to Albert and the Davidoff Team for the hospitality and a wonderful 24 hours in Basel.

Headed to the airport with the Sahakian chaps and tried to check in, only to be told that the B.A flight was overbooked and I should spend another night in Basel and take the morning flight! After I stopped laughing (as I thought it was a joke) and went suitably bonkers, fortunately they managed to ‘find’ me a seat on the flight that I had booked some months ago. Excellent for the blood pressure I’m sure.

Headed back home to decompress with a Romeo Reserva and a wee dram of Ailein Mor clearing up over 2000 emails from the previous 24 hours. Good grief, we are one busy little cigar merchant.

I think we may well be madly busy currently due to the expected HUGE tax increase on tobacco due in next week’s Budget. Its sensible to stock up. Cigars have never gone down in price in a Budget! We have enormous stocks of premium cigars in our 2 warehouses and 10 retail cigar shops and will hold prices as long as possible but inevitably they will be increasing very soon after the Budget.

The new import of Inka – Secret Blend cigars from Peru (Very proud to boast that I created this brand!) arrived last week including the new size Poderoso maduro and as predicted the cigars are literally flying off the shelves. In fact I think we have now sold out of the robustos! Fear not, we have another huge import on the way 🙂

So , they came in and they went out!… Finally we received first allocation of  Romeo y Julieta Churchill Reserva which were first introduced to the cigar trade at the 2012 festival over a year ago. Well done to all the clients who pre ordered at the silly low introductory price and apologies to all the clients who are on back order. We hope to have more stock in the next week or so. These cigars are very tasty indeed possibly the best of the Reserva series though the others aren’t too shabby. I’ve put a sampler pack together of all of the Reserva cigars (Cohiba, Montecristo, Partagas and Romeo) which will likely be very popular. These really are Havana cigars at their best. View the Reserva Sampler here.

I’m very happy to introduce my latest Orchant Seleccion Havana cigar, selected by yours truly from Hunters and Frankau finest EMS stocks. Just 27 cabinets of 25 Juan Lopez Seleccion no.1 cigars from 2008 vintage will be made and double banded and branded Orchant Seleccion. Selected for their excellent blend integrity and condition, these delightful corona gordas have smooth colorado wrapper, a good draw, medium strength and an array of sweet flavours from the first to the last puff. Available in singles and cabinets whilst stocks last which won’t be for long. My thanks to Sean Croley at Hunters & Frankau for all his kind assistance with our Orchant Seleccion cigars.

Well that’s another week done and I’ll be in Cambridge this Sunday at our fabulous Robert Graham cigar lounge sampling some Dancing Stag single malt and sampling some fine smokes from one of the two huge walk in humidors. Open from noon – Come and join me for a sampling session with pleasure.

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell