Seems like Christmas was yesterday and it’s already Easter! Despite the increases, due to the recent UK Budget, we are just about as busy as Christmas, which proves to me that cigar smokers will not be deterred by the antismoking tax regime in the UK. So the bad news is that prices are up but the good news is that we still guarantee that we will offer the best prices in the UK, if we are wrong, we will gladly price match at time of order.

Our best seller continues to be the Montecristo no.4 – we literally ship stacks of boxes every day. Entry level Guantanamera Cuban cigars are very popular for a cheapie smoke and perfect for the novice.

I feel like I have been waiting forever for the new UK regional edition Bolivar Britanicas but I am cautiously optimistic that they will be released round about mid-April which would bring great relief as we have 100’s of back orders for these superb new Havanas. The shape is cool (similar to the old Romeo Celestiales Finos) but 2 up on the ring gauge, the blend is exquisite and the wrappers are simply… perfect (at least on the 2 that I tried out in Havana for the first tasting!) so we have to be a little bit patient but it will be worth the wait.

Montecristo Gran Reserva have received unprecedented demand for a new cigar and are more or less sold out at this time, well at least at our London stores, although you may well still find them in our Liverpool and Chester Turmeaus cigar shops. We are hoping to receive more stocks from Hunters and Frankau in the near future.

Cohiba 1966 has proved to be our best-selling limited edition of all time. These full bodied smokes will mature and improve for many years. They are available at this time at all of our cigar shops throughout the country but selling out fast.

Last chance I’m afraid to get some Sancho Panza Belicosos Orchant Seleccion in your humidor. This full flavour and full strength cigar is perfectly matured from 2008 and a delight to smoke. More for the experienced cigar smoker in all honesty and whilst the brand is not terribly popular these days, this is a shining example of how a Sancho should be blended.

I spent the evening herfing at the beautiful cigar terrace at the Lanesborough on Tuesday, packed to capacity as usual with a big crowd of cigar smokers. Despite the rain it’s great to have a sheltered terrace to enjoy late night smokes.

New stocks of Fuente have arrived and I have been genuinely surprised at how popular these cigars are now. I’m not just saying that because we are the importers – we literally can’t keep up with the demand for many of the vitolas, especially Reserva d ’Chateau which is selling like crazy perhaps due to the presentation which is very cool.

So, I’m looking forward to the 4 day Easter weekend and kicking back with some of my current favourite smokes including Monte Edmundo, Bolivar Belicosos and Flor de Cano short robusto to mention a few that are smoking to perfection.

If you are interested in a splendid single malt to go with a good cigar you simply have to try our Robert Graham exclusive Benrinnes 1988 it really matches up very well indeed.

If you need a last minute cigar and missed the postal shut off, our shops in West Hampstead and Mayfair will be open on Saturday and have a huge range. Our Robert Graham shops in Scotland are open over the weekend too 🙂

Have a smokey Easter weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

It’s been seriously sunny cigar smoking weather in Europe this week (not sure how long it will last!) so I hopped over to Paris for the day on Monday and dropped in on the lovely people at La Civette which is my favourite cigar shop in Paris. I always get a warm welcome and the shop and humidor are delightful. I smoked the French Regional Fonseca and Quai’D’Orsay with a glass of Bordeaux at Café Ruc opposite Hotel Du Louvre and enjoyed both of these fine cigars immensely.

If you are visiting Paris La Civette is a must for the cigar aficionado. Great range of singles and boxes as well as first class service.

You can find them at :

157 rue St Honoré
75001 Paris
Area: Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre

Tuesday I zoomed over to our La Casa del Habano in Hamburg to catch up with Christoph Wolters and herf my way through a load of his stock. Our store not only has an enormous range of Havanas and smokers accessories but we also have a breath-taking selection of rum including most of the fabulous Cuban rum. Our sampling room is a must for the Cuban cigar and rum lover, in fact you may never want to leave!. You can find our gorgeous Hamburg cigar store at:

La Casa del Habano Hamburg
Orchant & Wolters GmbH
Burchardstrasse 15
Chilehaus C
20095 Hamburg

Back to the office for the rest of the week (plus a few visits to our Mayfair and West Hampstead shops in between of course) and I’m getting very excited for the launch of the UK regional Bolivar Britanicas  which are now expected in April ( sooner the better!) we have a little competition going with our sales Team to prove that we can make this the fastest selling UK regional ever 🙂 Just 3000 numbered boxes and the minute they are available we will be selling and shipping them 24/7.

Our mail order division and retail shops have sold huge quantities of UK regionals and it can only be for one reason: the blends are quite superb. Let’s face it the UK is not famous for having the cheapest cigars in the world but we always seem to have the best IMHO. Our esteemed importers Hunters and Frankau are now out of stock of all UK regionals with the exception of El Rey del Mundo Choix De L’Epoque  a most delicious day time smoke. So… when our warehouse stocks are gone on the other UK regionals, I’m afraid there are no more. See the range here >>>

Auction season is soon approaching and we have already photographed almost 150 entries. Catalogue will be online and in print as usual around 6 weeks before the event. More details on the auction website This will be our 6^th Vintage Cigar Auction over the last 3 years and as usual Brian Ebbesen our Director of auctions will be taking the podium and knocking down some interesting smokes and a few bargains for some lucky winning bidders.

Pleased to see many of our clients heeded my advice about stocking up now before the budget increases kick in as prices will indeed be going up on the 1^st April ( not bad for an April Fool’s joke…sadly!)

2 more of my Team are at Hunters & Frankau Cigar School this week. Ian from Turmeaus Liverpool and Danny from Alfie Turmeaus – Mayfair. That means just about all of our sales Team retail and mail order have attended Cigar School and by my reckoning that gives me more trained specialists than anyone else in the UK… by a mile 🙂

So I’m wrapping up today with a Punch Serie D’Oro no.1  paired up with some fabulous Robert Graham  single malt whisky – Auchentoshan 1991  perfect finish to the day

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

As expected the Chancellor has bashed the smoker and the drinker… easy targets I suppose.

Duty on all tobacco products to rise by 5% above inflation from 18:00 on the 21/03/12 – You may think that it doesn’t sound like much but when you factor in that many of the cigar importers absorbed industry price increases last year and are unlikely to do so again this year, I think that the overall increase is likely to be HUGE.

Perhaps the reality will look like this: 5% duty increase plus 3.4% inflation, plus industry price increase and of course plus 20% VAT on the lot. We won’t know how much that will total to until we receive the updates from the various importers but it looks like 10-15% overall to me which for an already expensive market is fairly hefty.

No change to existing plans on alcohol duty – meaning the duty will rise 2% above the rate of inflation – so not quite as awful for our single malt whisky customers.

The short term good news is that we will hold our mail order prices for as long as our previous stocks last but the sound advice is stock up soon before the price increases filter through.

Our retail shops will also hold their Havana cigar prices until the end of this month and having just come back from a trip to Turmeaus cigar shops in Liverpool and Chester I can confirm that stock levels are as always up to the ceiling but… sales are brisk so take advantage of pre-budget prices whilst you can.

Auction time is getting closer and Cigar Journal gave us a nice write up HERE. Drop me an email for advice if you are a prospective buyer or seller.

UK regionals editions are in very small supply now with the last of all available now except for reasonable stocks of Juan Lopez Seleccion Suprema and El Rey del Mundo Choix de L’Epoque. See the full range HERE.

Last few cabinets of Punch Orchant Seleccion no.11 now released and available although our Mayfair shop seems to be selling more of these than anything else this week! If you fancy an awesome ‘anytime robusto’ go for the Bolivar Royal Corona Orchant Seleccion – dark wrappers and quite delicious. See the full range HERE.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Smokey greetings from my smokey London offices 🙂 where we are testing out Wild Geese Irish whisky all week soon to be trialled at a few of our stores in the next week or so. For more details on this fabulous whisky check out this website.

We tested three of them (Rare Irish Whiskey/Fourth Centennial Limited Edition/Single Malt) paired up with Punch Orchant Seleccion no.11, Bolivar Royal Coronas Orchant Seleccion and finally Partagas Petit Coronas 1998 vintage and had a jolly <hic> good time. Seriously they paired up really well. Whilst I am a single malt Scotch drinker I have to say the Irish whisky was a great change of pace and worked very well with all three Havanas.

Continuing our sampling sessions for this week we enjoyed a fabulous evening of dinner, drinks and smokes with 16 avid cigars smokers (including a lady smoker!) at Boisdale Belgravia. Puffing our way through the same 3 cigars above which have all been added to my rotation as they are consistently excellent smokes. A few of us went on to the Lanesborough for a nightcap of Taittinger Rose and a one for the road smoke to finish off a great evening. If you would like to be put on our herf invitation list drop me a line or subscribe to my newsletter.

Busy week ahead with Mother’s day on Sunday and champagne and choc sales at Robert Graham shops going like crazy. Of course I shall be taking my Mother out for dinner on Sunday and then back to my Parents for a herf with my Father 🙂

Our Mayfair cigar shop is now open late nights till 8pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as the mild weather is bringing out all the smokers in Shepherd Market – and if the weather changes you can always smoke a cigar or two in the sampling room of Alfie Turmeaus cigar shop. Pop in and you are assured a warm welcome from Lucia and Danny and the complimentary bar is now fully stocked with our fabulous and exclusive range of Robert Graham single Malt whiskies. 

The budget is coming up next week and no doubt the chancellor will not miss the opportunity to clobber the cigar smoker. Stock up before prices increase! We’ll try and keep our prices down for as long as we can as we hold massive stocks but it’s best to order early and save money.

Still no confirmed release date for the superb UK regional Bolivar Britanicas but we are ever hopeful it may still be this month. The interest in this cigar is HUGE! I smoked them at the first tasting in Havana at the Festival a few weeks ago and can’t wait for them to come out. Till they do, I can highly recommend my Bolivar Royal Coronas Orchant Seleccion sweet and full flavoured but complex and medium strength. This robusto is a great ‘anytime’ smoke.

Auction in July is slowly creeping up and we are getting some interesting entries dropped into our offices every week. Should be the usual exciting C.Gars Ltd event 🙂 http://www.cigarauctions.co.uk/

I’ll be visiting our cigar stores in Chester and Liverpool on Monday and Tuesday and looking forward to sampling sessions with some of the regular customers-  (yes we can legally sample Havanas in our stores!)

Have a great weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Back from the sunshine of Havana to the rainy weather of London and already looking forward to my next trip to the Island which will be trip 55 for me! Not sure when it will be but perhaps later this year.

I wish I could say when the new UK regional Bolivar Britanicas will be released but at this stage my best guess is sometime late this month. I smoked 2 of these fabulous cigars in Havana and this is sure to be a hit with many of my clients who have a fairly sophisticated palate as the blend is bold and complex. Measuring in at 5 3/8” length and 48 ring gauge with a rich colorado maduro wrapper. Presented in wooden boxes of 10 and ready to smoke straight out of the box.

So for the Bolivar lovers out there who can’t wait for the new Britanicas the good news is that we are releasing today 100 boxes of Bolivar Royal Coronas Orchant Seleccion from July 2009. Selected for their perfect condition, wrapper and blend and presented with the distinct Orchant Seleccion banding and box labels. Medium strength and medium flavour, earthy and sweet with a cool clear draw. Singles here and boxes of 10 here.

We have had such great regional editions in the UK with superb blend integrity and great sizes and shapes too. See them all on this link.

To celebrate our wonderful EMS UK exclusives the first 25 blog readers that email or call in with an order can have one of these fabulous sampler packs containing 6 different UK regionals complete with an Orchant Seleccion Palio cigar cutter and free shipping.

Our fabulous UK regionals in a sampler including a Palio cutter at an unbeatable price 🙂

1 each…

-Punch Serie D’Oro no.1
-La Flor de Cano short robusto
-Juan Lopez Seleccion Suprema
-Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres
-La Gloria Cubana Gloriosos
-El Rey del Mundo Choix de L’Epoque

Palio cigar cutter

…all for £99 including FREE shipping!!

Call me on 07000 088 088 or email me at [email protected]

And for our whisky lovers the latest NEWS… 🙂 :

To The Ends of Earth Benrinnes 23 year old – 2nd edition £85 reduced to £75 – just mention ‘Mitchells blog ‘ in comments section of order form or when calling your order in.

Dancing Stag Tobermory £44.95 reduced to £39.95 – just mention ‘Mitchells blog ‘ in comments section of order form or when calling your order in.

We have two new releases in our range; The first is an  outstanding Dancing Stag 22 year Old Bowmore 46abv a sophisticated, beautiful fruit and elegant finish, available in Store now and soon online for just £85… first  25 orders will get a free miniature of our gold medal award winner 17 year Old Speyside.

The Other is our own Ailein Mor a delightful well balanced honeyed fruity 10 year old Highland Malt  a t an introductory price of just £32 for one month only.

Coming soon… Customers can purchase a customised small cask of Vatted Malt to their own preferred taste… Ideal gift for the person that has everything 🙂

Back to Havana cigars and Montecristo Gran Reserva are now available from C.Gars Ltd as well as Turmeaus shops in Mayfair and  Chester and Robert Graham shops in West Hampstead and Rose street Edinburgh

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell