Our annual Burns night event was held at Boisdale Canary Wharf. The bar, restaurant and cigar library were all absolutely crammed full and the atmosphere was superb.

Well done Boisdale chef for having a Vegetarian Burns night menu which suited me perfectly! (Yes it included vegetarian haggis!!)

In between superb live jazz music the bagpiper came round to the tables and the address to the haggis (Below, if you can understand it you are a better man than me!) was recited in a most dramatic and entertaining fashion 🙂

Smokes enjoyed in the cigar library enjoyed included PSD4’s and Punch Serie D’Oro no.1 and post dinner smokes on the terrace included Monte 2’s and Romeo Wide Churchills paired up with our go to single malt whisky when we are at Boisdale: Clynelish.

Daniel Marshall popped over to the office for a smoke earlier in the week. Daniel designs and manufactures in the USA superior quality humidors that we are proud to recommend. Stylish, functional and reliable as well as very good value. The larger humidors are beautifully crafted furniture that will last a lifetime.
Check them out on this link.

We have bought in a huge quantity of Regius cigars made in Nicaragua and been able to completely re-price the range to offer incredible value for this premium handmade cigar. If you enjoy the ‘nic kick’ of a full bodied spicy cigar, you should try them as they won’t disappoint.

I understand that we have some great new Havana cigars due for release any time now:

Rafael Gonzales Perlas presented in packs of 5 – Could be the perfect daytime 25 minute smoke, measuring in at 4“ length and 40 ring gauge

Quintero Favoritas in boxes of 25 – Measuring in at 4 ½” length and 50 ring gauge

I can’t wait to try them out.

Next week I plan to herf at the magnificent Wellesley (Reviewed in my earlier blog) with smoking chums from overseas and I hear that the Corinthia hotel is also planning to create a cigar terrace in the near future. London is indeed a mecca for cigar smokers with a splendid choice of venues to enjoy our stogies in warmth and comfort!

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Address To a Haggis

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.
(sonsie = jolly/cheerful)

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’ need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dicht,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready slicht,
Trenching your gushing entrails bricht,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sicht,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmaist! on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve,
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
“Bethankit” hums.

Is there that o’re his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi’ perfect scunner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him ower his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his wallie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whistle;
An’ legs an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thristle.

Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinkin ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

Well we were expecting the snow and here it is, coming down and settling in London, looking very pretty but no doubt causing chaos (I am probably to blame as whenever I have a car valet, the weather turns awful!) but hey!… I did advise my newsletter clients to stock up and it looks like many followed the advice 🙂 So I will have to assume that lots of C.Gars clients are reading this blog stranded at home, smoking some great cigars and drinking some great Robert Graham Dancing Stag single Malt whisky! I’m stranded at the office where I have enough cigars and scotch to last me through (A lifetime or two!)

Last Sunday was spent testing blends on no less than 14 cigars at the cigar lounge in our fabulous Cambridge Robert Graham store. It’s a hard job but I was up to it 🙂 Great to work in the lounge as clients keep coming and going as they sample cigars away from the cold weather and in the comfort of our sampling room.

Last week, I met up with friends Edward and Eddie from Davidoff to check out the new Wellesley Hotel where we had dinner, drinks and smokes.

For the cigar smoker, this has to be one of the finest venues in the world and I am not exaggerating. Think 5 star luxury and then double it!

Giuseppe gave us a guided tour round the hotel showing us the restaurants, bars and suites, all of which are exceptionally classy, stylish and truly impressive but never mind all of that!! Let me tell you about the cigar terrace! Or should I say: Terraces! As there are two, one on each side of the entrance, luxuriously appointed with exceptionally comfortable seating, carpeted and with fireplaces and enough heat to not know it was close to freezing point outside.

The range of fine libations is mouth-watering, (The cask strength 1990 Bowmore was incredible!) the snack and dinner menu comprehensive, well priced and quite delicious, service as expected – Beyond compare. The walk in humidor could well be one of the most stylish and beautiful I have ever seen in my life. The range of regular as well as vintage, limited edition, aged and rare Havanas is the best I have ever seen – Truly breath taking. Congratulations to the owners, I know it will be a huge success and look forward to making this a regular herf spot with my friends and clients.

My herfing schedule also took me up North (Pre snow!) to Turmeaus Tobacconist Chester, we have completed the new lighting scheme so it now looks very bright and sparkly to say the least (Bring your sunglasses) and are planning a refurbishment of the back part of the store in the next few weeks (Not looking forward to the mess!) Enjoyed sampling a Partagas Petit Corona 1998 found in the walk in humidor as well as an Upmann Magnum 50 found with a great big bash in the middle of the cigars wrapper but still burned evenly and tasted quite splendid.

I remember years ago Magnum 46’s were one of my go to smokes and this reminded me of them. I never liked the Mag 50 when it first came out, could not quite understand the point of making a limited edition and then a regular production cigar and thought this will just cause a load of confusion (Which is does with my warehouse team!) but I think the Mag 50 may enter my weekly rotation based on recent smoking experiences of them.

Next stop was Turmeaus Retro Confectionery store in Liverpool where I had to do a little vanilla fudge sampling for quality control purposes of course. It passed with flying colours 🙂 and next stop was Turmeaus Tobacconist in Liverpool where I found a La Gloria Cubana Deliciosos jar tucked at the top of the walk in humidor. I just love those moments! Sampled my way through a Cohiba Genios from 2007 which was first rate. Full flavour, earthy and spicy as well as very full bodied. Not for the novice, that’s for sure but to be appreciated by the serious and experienced Havana cigar smoker.

Same evening I met with sales Team members of Turmeaus Liverpool & Chester and friends to head over to Thornton Hall on the Wirral for an evening of Cigars, Cognac and Chocolate.

First off was the Courvoisier Cognac tasting by brand ambassador, Rebecca, and very interesting it was too. I’m not a Cognac drinker but I must say it did compliment the cigar very well indeed. 3 Cognacs later and I may even be persuaded to enjoy it now and again with a smoke

Next was the chocolate demonstration and tasting. Good grief, I think I consumed twice my body weight in the most amazing handmade chocolate (Should have had an insulin shot on the way out!) the chocolatier/chef was absolutely brilliant, no nonsense presentation, clear and very interesting. I learned that I am ‘not addicted to chocolate but I am addicted to sugar’. Splendid, I’ll add that to my list of addictions.

Finally, our Hunters and Frankau representative spoke about the Hoyo de Monterrey brand (Thank you Tim) and we enjoyed a tubed Epicure 2 despite the rather dodgy weather. We then continued with some rather cheeky little Ramon petit Belicosos and a good quantity of single malts (Macallan Gold) until I can’t remember (Or don’t want to!) how late.

Next day and it was lunch with my old friend Rodney, in fact he’s one of my oldest cigar smoking chums as we probably started smoking cigars together in the early 1990’s! (Good grief I must have been about 12 years old!) we were enjoying smoking some Punch Serie D’Oro no.1’s whilst Rodders showed me his new website on his tablet and I have to say it looked pretty swish (The site not the tablet!) check it out. Rodders specializes in advising businessmen on law, accountancy, taxation and all other complicated stuff that mere cigars merchants like me find very confusing! So if I may plug his services and suggest you ask him for the C.Gars Ltd special offer package 🙂

Snow allowing I’ll be herfing for Burns night at the lovely Boisdale Canary Wharf next Thursday evening and look forward to seeing friends at the fabulous cigar library.

Have a smokey and snowy weekend (Send photos of your snowmen with cigars!!)

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

It’s great to get back to the usual routine after the holidays, especially as I am finally getting over the cold from hell which left me half deaf for the last week <groan>…

So, my offices and shops are a hive of activity as ever and it feels like my clients must have chomped their way through a lot of cigars and chugged through a lot of Scotch over the holidays if the first week of January sales are anything to go by 🙂

Royal Mail in their wisdom advise they we are no longer able to ship cigar matches. Despite all our matches being safety matches! Sooner RM is privatised the better as they have no common sense at all and in times of recession should be helping not hindering their customers.

So I’m afraid if you need cigar matches you will need to visit one of our shops across the UK. Could be worse I guess and at least you can of course get our website prices in store as well as sample a cigar and a dram in England at least. Never understood why Scotland doesn’t have the sampling exemption… Always thought Scotland was part of the UK but for some bizarre reason they have different laws.

My friend Ivo has come out with a cracking new cigar book that we were delighted to provide many images for. Bad news is that it’s in Slovakian! I’m trying to persuade him to do a translation to English! Ivo is a super huge Havana cigar aficionado and I had the pleasure of herfing with him in Israel a few years back.

We bid a fond farewell to our Kamila who was one of Michelle’s assistants at Kingsgate offices and also assisted us at many of our cigar auctions. Kami is expecting a baby in March and we all wish her the best and look forward to her returning in the future.

Tomorrow I’m checking out the latest cigar terrace in London with friends. The Wellesley promises to be THE best smoking venue in the UK and I can’t wait to see it. We wish the owners the very best of luck with their new venture. I understand that my old friends including Giuseppe and Pasquale from the Lanesborough cigar terrace are running the show and it will be good to catch up with them. Together they have a terrific knowledge about cigars and wine/spirits and I always enjoy chatting with them.

I’m heading off to Chester on Thursday to agree final designs on some refurbishment and improvements to Turmeaus Tobacconist on Watergate street. I bought this dead business many years ago and it has just got better and better every year. Our new tray display system in the walk in humidor has increased range substantially and clients are welcome to sample cigars in store.

Thursday evening I am at Thornton Hall for a cigar, Cognac and chocolate tasting evening. Can’t think of a better way of spending an evening! Especially as my team from Liverpool and Chester will be herfing with me 🙂. Friday I’ll be at Turmeaus shops in Liverpool doing a little quality control ‘testing’ 🙂

I’ll be in Cambridge Robert Graham shop on Sunday so if you want to join me to for a sampling session… I’ll be there from 10 a.m. 🙂 Has to be one of the loveliest sampling lounges in the country! Truly a specialist cigar and whisky shop with an unrivalled range of mouth-watering product.

On the 7^th February I’ll be hosting a cigar and whisky sampling featuring Ashton Mi Amor cigars and our latest single cask single malt whisky from the Dancing Stag range – Exclusive to Robert Graham Ltd. This Mortlach is the perfect partner to a good cigar. Places strictly limited and tickets are available here.

Have to make Boisdale Burns night herf arrangements pretty soon, drop me an email if you would like to join me and smoking chums.

My Inka brand of cigars from Peru are still breaking sales records for a new launched cigar and exclusive to C.Gars Ltd/Robert Graham Ltd. These characteristically rich and spicy handmade cigars are great value and if you mention my blog when ordering a bundle of 10 tres petits this week I’ll  include a Prometheus lighter for you to light them with!

Inka– Secret Blend cigars are selling so fast that we have already (again) sold out of some of the sizes and are hoping for a new enormous shipment to arrive later this month.

Hoping to release a new range of Torano cigars later this month… Watch this space.

… It’s good to be back to routine lol

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

That’s it! – Another year just about completed 🙂 and after a splendid Christmas, drinking way too much Champagne together with some outrageous vintage Havanas (Dunhill Estupendos and Davidoff 5000 to name a few) I’m looking forward to New Year’s Eve with some Bilecart Salmon 1989 Champagne and a Dunhill Havana Club that has been resting in my humidor since the 1980’s… Could be worse 🙂

I had a lovely day at Robert Graham’s new Cambridge whisky and cigar shop yesterday which seems to be a perfect meeting place for C.Gars, Robert Graham and even LCDH customers from Hamburg! Quite a few of whom are already enjoying the comfort of the sampling lounge (Now that we have a little background music and have figured out how the espresso machine works, finally!)

Record sales reported from all of our cigar shops this year and no surprise that our award winning whiskies are selling like crazy.

So my favourite cigars of 2012 were:

Bolivar Britanicas UK Regional Edition
Partagas Serie C No. 3 Limited Edition
Fuente Opus X Belicosos XXX – The best from the Dominican Republic
Cohiba Piramides Extra – New to the Cohiba range
Punch Medalla de Oro – UK Regional Edition
Inka Bombaso Maduro Azul – From Peru and immensely popular
Regius Robusto – splendid Nicaraguan fast getting a big following
C.Gars Ltd Nicaraguan Robusto – Exclusive to us and great value
Ramon Allones Petit Belicoso – UK Regional Edition
Quai’ D’Orsay Coronas – Orchant Seleccion
H. Upmann Half Corona – Cheeky little smoke!

Wow! That was a great year for new cigars, not sure if we can top that in 2013.

Well I’m just about wrapped up at the office and heading home for a few days off but the Team is online 24/7 as always to help with any advice or queries and our retail stores are open every day except New Year’s Day.

Wishing all our friends a very happy and smokey New Year.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Ho Ho Ho indeed and thank heavens for Christmas as it gives me the opportunity of realising just how good my Team in our London mail order office is. This has been our best year and our best Christmas season ever (Thank you customers!) but Monday was really a laugh as we had almost 2000 packages shipping out and we filled 2 complete Royal Mail vans!!!!!!

I have been zooming round a few of our shops in Cambridge, Liverpool, Chester and London to make sure they are giving the best customer service and check the condition of our cigars are as good as it gets (Easy week for me then!) Lots of happy customers and a very happy sales Team in England and Scotland so I reckon we’re in good shape.

Opening our Cambridge store this year secured our continuing position as the largest cigar retailer in the UK and we plan to expand further in 2013 as well as continue to improve our existing cigar and whisky shops wherever possible. So, if you don’t have a Robert Graham Ltd or Turmeaus Tobacconist shop near you right now… You may have soon 🙂

Biggest selling new cigar of the year was the Inka Secret Blend from Peru… Created by… Me 🙂 I’m going to continue to expand the range over 2013 and hopefully launch in the USA as well. Inka cigars are now available at all of our stores across the UK.

Our C.Gars Ltd Nicaraguan cigars kindly made for us by Torano have also gained a loyal following and we are happy to announce that we will be launching an excellent new range of Torano cigars in January… Exclusive to C.Gars Ltd.

Arturo Fuente cigars remain ever popular and it’s been an honour to be the official distributor of this top end brand of cigars.

Surprise newcomer Regius cigars from Nicaragua are also performing very well and gaining a loyal following. Great smokes at great prices. We look forward to introducing a C.Gars exclusive with Regius next year.

UK regional edition Havanas have been storming out every day of the year. Thanks to our friends at Habanos S.A. and Hunters and Frankau for such superb cigars.

Hottest accessories have been Palio cutters and newly introduced lighters – Perfect for the cigar smoker. Yup, we are the exclusive distributor but the products really are great!

We’re also exclusive distributor for Cigar Oasis humidifiers and Caliber IV hygrometers – Great products and great prices, and happy to say they are flying off the shelves this Christmas season.

So, all in all a banner year of the best products, the best Sales team in the Country and the nicest customers in the world 🙂… I think I deserve a Christmas drink! Luckily, I have plenty to drink thanks to the lovely Christmas presents from our suppliers 🙂 and Champagne will be accompanied by Por Larranaga Magnificos, followed by a Davidoff 5000 on Christmas eve and Dunhill Estupendos on Christmas day… Life is good 🙂

We are of course online 24/7 every day of the year so if you have any questions over the holiday regarding your orders, cigars or humidors, you are welcome to drop us an email and we’ll be happy to help.

Wishing all of our Team, suppliers and of course our retail and mail order customers a very merry Christmas

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Photographed below is a very happy Managing Director together with 10 of the Girls from the London sales Team at our Christmas dinner!