Punch Royal Selection no.11. The cabinet selection version of the benchmark Corona Gorda Punch Punch but somehow always a better blend for my palate. 2007 was a fantastic vintage and the 32 cabinets I have selected from our importers Hunters and Frankau are all the finest English Market Selection 2007 code.

Available by the cabinet and in singles.

Measuring in at 5 5/58” length and 46 ring gauge this cheeky smoke is loaded with sweet, full and complex flavours from the first to the last finger burning puff. The tobacco is well matured and the wrappers generally silky smooth colorado – colorado maduro. During tests I only found 1 with a sub-par draw and the rest (quite a few so far!) have a cool, clear draw. A sophisticated blend not for the novice but the experienced Havana smoker will enjoy this smoke immensely. Get them while you can as most of the stock has already been pre ordered.

I’m planning a delicious Orchant Seleccion Havana sampler for next month as we have now had quite a few of the finest Havana cigars banded specially for us. It will be a great opportunity for my clients to try a few of my favourite Havana cigars.

Lunch at Boisdale Belgravia earlier this week, followed by a Partagas Serie E no.2 on the rather cold terrace where Ranald and I planned our next vintage cigar auction. This will take place on Monday the 2^nd July at Boisdale Canary Wharf. It promises to be the usual lively event with quite a few interesting vintage boxes of Havanas arriving daily. You can see updates on our auction website.

For a change of pace and some different flavour profiles check out our growing and massively popular Fuente range on this link.  My partner Guy Hancock from Decent Cigar Emporium in Dublin spent a day of serious Fuente herfing in the office on Wednesday as we discussed and tested out many of the new additions to the range.

Montecristo Gran Reserva first allocation came in… and then went back out. 5000 cabinets made but few seem to be into the marketplace as of yet. So, if you got hold of them – cherish and enjoy! We hope to have more substantial allocations available over the next few months although we already have many back orders. These cigars are made with tobacco aged from 2005 and don’t taste anything like regular production Monte  2’s. They are far more full bodied as well as stronger, bags of long term aging potential and no doubt an interesting potential investment. Drop me a line if you would like some sales@cgarsltd.co.uk

 Valentines coming up soon :) great range of Romeo cigars on the website and we are always delighted to gift wrap and add personalised messages of course!

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Congrats to our new Manageress Jayne at Chester and best of luck for the future to our retiring Manageress Fiona. Chester Turmeaus has gone through a bit of a face lift over the last few months finishing with lovely comfortable new leather chairs that have just arrived and are perfect for in store cigar sampling

Our professional photographer Tillman Prestcher from Hamburg arrived on Tuesday to photograph some vintage cigars for a client and was rapidly grabbed by the camera strap to do a load of Cuban antique cabinet photographs for me instead! Setting up studio in one of our offices, Tillmann did his usual excellent work for which I am always grateful.

Wednesday was Lanesborough herfing evening with friends from overseas. Packed as ever on the terrace and service as good as ever- this is the premier spot for a smoke/drink in Town. We herfed our way through a few UK regionals with some good single malt which was perfect on the cold evening.

Thursday was my annual meeting at Hunters and Frankau to go through all the new products expected to be launched through the year. Sampled my way through a Monte Open Eagle whilst chatting with Jemma and Sean and discussing how I could top last year’s record sales. Montecristo Gran Reserva will finally be released in the UK late this week but don’t get too excited yet as the allocations are quite tiny and it may be some time before we have enough stock coming through to satisfy the huge demand for these fine smokes. Limited edition of 5000.

We expect the UK Bolivar RE early march and that should prove to be hugely popular too. 3000 numbered wooden boxes of 10 Bolivar Britanicas measuring 5 1/3” length and 46 ring gauge specially double banded for the UK. Best to email and register interest soonest because if these sell as fast as we expect, they won’t be around for too long. The other UK regional will be a Punch Medaille D’Oro  but I don’t w3ant to hazard a guess on when this will become available!

Racing back to the office from my H&F meeting and just in time for an office herf that had started with a swing or at least a lot of cigar smoke and pink champagne as our pre herf to the Burns night dinner we have every year at Boisdale. This year we changed venue from Belgravia to Canary Wharf and it was good if not better than ever. Monte 2’s on the cigar terrace, dinner followed by cigars in the Cigar Library. My herfing chums and I love Boisdale!

Having my usual fun tweeting on Twitter and have sussed out that just about any time I tweet that I am heading to Alfie Turmeaus cigar shop in Mayfair, friends/clients show up for a smoke and a drink! (which is just fine by me ) 

No fly zone for me this week (thank goodness) but just as well, I have a lot of serious Office and Boisdale herfing scheduled for this week!

Have a smokey week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Por Larranaga Regalias de Londres UK regional edition  

Cuaba Piramides Limited edition 2008  

H Upmann Magnum 48 Limited edition 2009  

Trinidad Short Robusto T Limited edition 2010  

The Larranaga is one of the finest regional editions I have ever smoked (I should know as I have smoked most of them!) The Cuaba is a first rate blended limited edition and the Upmann and Trini are perfect smokes when time is short.

I’m still looking forward to this year’s new releases in the UK including :

Montecristo Gran Reserva 2011 – In varnished cabinets of 15 due 6 1/8” length and 52 ring gauge

UK regional editions…

Bolivar Britanicas 5 3/8” length and 46 ring gauge in boxes of 10

Punch Medaille de Oro  6 1/8” length and 50 ring gauge in boxes of 10

I’ve almost given up trying to guess release dates as it never seems to quite work out! So hopefully sometime in 2012!

The latest Seleccion Orchant Havana cigars are due to be released first week of February

Punch Royal Seleccion No.11 – 2007 vintage, cabinet of 25.
An exceptional corona gorda vitola cigar that I can highly recommend. Full strength and full smooth sweet flavour typical of the brand. This one is not for the novice but for the experienced Havana cigar smoker.

Limited release of 32 cabinets Seleccion Orchant Havana cigars
are selected at Hunters and Frankau
and considered the best quality, condition and appearance Havana cigars.
 

I did a bit of a single malt whisky pairing with Orchant Seleccion Punch cigars from our fabulous Dancing Stag range and I am pleased to announce the winners are *drum roll*…

Robert Graham Ltd, Dancing Stag series, Strathisla 1997

Robert Graham Ltd, Dancing Stag series,Glenallachie 1995

Both bottled at 46%. First try neat and then add a few drops of water but please no ice! I really do love Speyside’s with a good Havana cigar!

Our newest cigar shop in Shepherd Market Mayfair is already proving to be very popular with cigar smokers around Mayfair although this week we seem to have had as many visitors from the cigar trade over the last week as customers!

Fabulous new DVD by James Suckling out now –  Cigars : The Heart and Soul of Cuba. well done James, really superb and highly recommended.

Had a spot of lunch with Tom from Tom Tom Cigars at Boisdale Belgravia on Tuesday and enjoyed some delicious Romeo Short Churchills on the terrace with a glass of port. Is it me or is this a totally under rated cigar?

Looking forward to our Burns night herf at Boisdale Canary Wharf next week

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Herfing my way through a few of the German regional edition Sancho Panza Escuderos with a bottle or 3 of Champagne was a fine way to have a ‘business’ meeting with my partner Christoph Wolters :) Christoph teased me with a stack of Montecristo Gran Reserva (sadly or gladly – all sold already!) but we managed to smoke a crafty one of these magnificent smokes before I left the shop. Now if only we could fine another 100-200 cabinets…

Back to London and it was time for a Mayfair herf at our newest shop in Shepherd Market where the humidor already needs restocking and we have been pleased to welcome existing and new clients. Jimmy from Hunters and Frankau popped in to check out the new shop and his report is in the Hunters website.

No sign of the Montecristo Gran in the UK as yet although we are still hopeful for first allocation this month and I should have a better idea on release dates later this month for UK regional edition for this year too.

At last the builders are out of the London office and improvements include a redec for the offices which was somewhat overdue and completely new lighting (a lot more slick) as well as our walls being filled with our fabulous collection of original photographs of Cuba/Che/Fidel etc. looks very cool if I do say so myself. I can’t believe how many times we have improved/refurbished/redesigned our offices/humidor/warehouse over the last 12 years! I reckon we are finally done! We also have the new Rabbit smoke air purifier installed which is quite incredible. I saw this on a recent visit to the incredible Nat Sherman cigar store  in New York where manager Michael Herklots very kindly showed me how the system worked and I was sold on it immediately (TYMH!) we are now installing it in our Mayfair sampling room too.

Planning a trip to Liverpool and Chester stores next weekend and will be herfing just a bit on the Monday morning so if anyone is around… Yes the shops are of course exempt from the ban

The C7GAR car is in for a service today but my trusty assistant Michelle drove me to the office and we smoked LFDC’s on the journey – perfect 30 minute smokes and good to calm my nerves now that London traffic is back to its awful normal levels.

Looking forward to our Burns night herf at Boisdale Canary Wharf on the 26^th drop me an email if you would like to join me and my smoking chums.

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Our retail cigar and whisky shops  took a good bashing over the hols but we are already restocked and looking as good as ever with our usual humungous range of Havanas and other premium cigars as well as our niche range of single malt whisky and rum. I had a serious herf with journalist James Leavey at our new Mayfair shop  yesterday to test out the sampling room air/smoke filtration- which worked perfectly.

We went through some fab Juan Lopez Orchant Seleccion matched up with our Benrinnes 1998  which made for a great combo. Lunch was opposite the cigar shop at the Kings Arms Great food and great service. Followed by Por Larranaga Magnificos  and some Deanston 1995.

James was in a pretty good documentary on smoking that was on BBC4 on Wednesday evening which was partly filmed at our West Hampstead shop  The documentary had some brilliant old footage. I just wish they would have distinguished more clearly between cigarette and cigar smoking.

You can’t buy our whisky at the Mayfair shop although we are likely to get it licenced in the next month or two as well as our Liverpool Turmeaus shops as we can’t find a specialist whisky shop in Liverpool so that will be a good addition to the range. We will be setting the date for the Summer Cigar Auction later this month and entries are already coming in.

We do of course buy and sell vintage and unusual Havanas all year round so if you can’t wait you can always drop me a line and I’ll be happy to advise sales@cgarsltd.co.uk if you are looking for anything unusual drop me a line as I may have it or be able to source it for you I’ll need to slow down on my smoking UK regionals as stocks are running very low on many of them.

All great cigars and a great range of brands and vitola. I have always thought that the UK market gets the finest Havanas cigars available and still do :) Burns night herf this year will be at Boisdale  as usual although my smoking chums have not yet decided whether we will herf in Belgravia or Canary Wharf. If you would like to join us just email me ! I’m off to La Casa del Habano – Hamburg  next week for some German regional sampling with my partner Christoph Wolters as well as some rum sampling in our amazing new sampling room :)

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Best of all was a Davidoff Dom Perignon 1988 matched with Dom Perignon champagne 1988 – very tasty combo! Por Larranaga Magnificos with Bollinger RD wasn’t too shabby either

We were of course available 24/7 by email and phone over the weekend and I was surprised how many people were online ! but we love hearing from our clients and I think many of them were happy to have advice available immediately.

Same goes for the 3 days New Year’s weekend- drop us an email anytime sales@cgarsltd.co.uk

All our cigars shops are open as normal if you need to top up for New Year’s eve and we guarantee mail order delivery for next day arrival if you order online before 3pm.

The new Mayfair shop – Alfie Turmeaus Tobacconist has started up in style with loads of local clients happy to have a shop in Shepherd Market. Our sampling area will have its finishing touches completed early in January and our walk in humidor is crammed full of every Havana cigar you could possibly want. My assistant, Lucia who has years of experience at C.Gars Ltd and Robert Graham in West Hampstead is always happy to help you choose the perfect cigar, humidor or gift. We have also now made available a great range of loose and pre-packed pipe tobacco.

OK so friends keep asking me what my favourite cigars of the year have been and here’s the list of my top 5 :

Partagas Serie E No.2 

La Flor de Cano Short Robustos 

Partagas Serie D No. 5 

Cohiba 1966 

Cohiba BHK54

All truly outstanding smokes. The 1966 will age and mature perfectly for many years to come, the LFDC has become my go to morning smoke on the drive to the office, the BHK 54 was the best of the 3 IMHO and I just love the 2 new Partagas cigars.

I’ll be smoking a few of these cigars over the weekend and have 4 Dunhill Cabinetta tucked away for New Year’s eve to enjoy with my Father (together with a Magnum of Pol!)

What a great year for Havanas and what a great year for C.Gars Ltd and Robert Graham Ltd! we now have (far) more cigar specialist shops that anyone in the UK specialist cigar trade and our mail order service has grown dramatically yet again. No sign of recession in this business! We are already planning our next shop opening around Easter 2012 and it will be our flagship cigars and single malt emporium in the UK. 

We’ll carry on trying to give the best service, the fastest delivery, the largest choice and of course the most competitive prices that  are at the heart of our business.

Wishing all of our Staff, Management, Suppliers and Clients a very happy and smokey New Year

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

I managed to get away from the madness of my office this week and visit a load of our retail shops thinking I could have a quite smoke and a dram but they were all crammed with customers ( thankfully!) and I ended up (trying!) to assist my retail Teams.

My Partner Ron and I paired up some amazing Clynelish 1995 from our Dancing Stag range exclusive to Robert Graham with the my Orchant Selection Juan Lopez and the match was quite perfect.

Our Chester and Liverpool shops were so busy that we had queues to the door at some times during the day! Rose street in Edinburgh and West Nile street in Glasgow shops were selling so many cigars we could just about refill the shops fast enough every few hours to keep up with demand- just incredible. Canongate in Edinburgh seemed to be selling as much chocolate as whisky from the great range  we carry. Finally it’s great to see so many new customers at our latest cigar store in Mayfair in the heart of London.

From humble beginnings back in 1997 on the internet we have grown into the largest specialist Havana cigar merchant in the UK with an ever growing group of fabulous retail cigar and whisky stores. We are already planning another shop opening for Easter which will in fact be our flagship store in the UK – an emporium of cigars, whisky and chocolate with a fabulous tasting  and sampling lounge… more details in the new year!

Each shop is very individual in style and carries a comprehensive range of product- something to tempt every cigar smoker for sure as all of our shops have walk in humidors crammed to the ceiling with the finest cigars. If we don’t have it in store, we can overnight it from our mail order warehouses to your home or office.

My favourite cigars of the year have been the La Flor de Cano short robusto and Partagas Serie E no.2. Simply delicious blends from the first to the last puff.  I can’t wait for the new Montecristo Reserva to be released which we expect sometime very soon.

I’ll be kicking back over the long weekend with some delicious Margaux from 2007 ( TY H&F!) and a variety of planned smokes including Dunhill Cabinetta, Davidoff Ch. Latour, La Flor de Cano short churchills and a few Haut Brion too

Wishing all of my clients, Partners, Management, retail and mail order Teams a very merry Christmas!

Peaceful puffing and Slainte

Mitchell

Located in Shepherd Market and open 7 days a week including late night  openings Thursday through Saturday

The shop features a walk in humidor with an enormous range of the finest English Market Selection Havana cigars available in singles, small packs, boxes and cabinets. We also stock gift presentation boxes, jars and limited edition humidors.

Clients will find a comprehensive range of pipes, pipe and rolling tobaccos, cigar cutters, humidors, lighters, ashtrays, Cuban coffee and all smokers accessories and of course offer private locker facilities and a sampling room

The light and bright shop design makes leisurely browsing a pleasure and Shepherd Market has plenty of superb restaurants with al fresco dining where you can enjoy a good cigar after a meal

On our walls we are exhibiting some of our world famous collection of original photographs from Cuba

Our staff have been trained both at Hunters and Frankau’s cigar school as well as C.Gars Ltd on-going training program and are always delighted to advise. We guarantee you the best old fashioned service second to none

I will be happy to meet clients and discuss their specific requirements in my sampling room which has a nice range of Robert Graham single malt whisky

Turmeaus Tobacconist is the second oldest Havana cigar merchant in the UK having been started in business in 1817 in Liverpool by the Turmeaus family from France (you can see an original shop photograph in our shop window from 1917!)

In its heyday Turmeaus was not only a Havana cigar retailer but also an Havana cigar importer and had some 7 specialist shops in Merseyside.

In 2003 there was only one rather run down Turmeaus shop left in Water street Liverpool which C.Gars Ltd purchased with a mission to revive and ensure the survival of the Turmeaus name in the cigar industry. After a radical tidy up and reimage of the store and the appointing of our friend Christine Nestor as Manageress the business has never looked back. Christine’s husband Alfred, an author and avid pipe smoker has been influential on the growth of our pipe and pipe tobacco side of our business and we have names our Mayfair shop in his honour.

Another Turmeaus tobacconist shop was opened in Chester in 2005  having taken over an existing specialist shop from my friend Peter Lloyd who had owned the shop for many years.

Over the last 12 months we have opened a Turmeaus retro confectionery shop in Fenwick street, Liverpool, developed a brand new Turmeaus Tobacconist shop in Fenwick street Liverpool, refurbished our Turmeaus shop in Chester and now opened our Mayfair Alfie Turmeaus shop. We plan to open more Turmeaus tobacconist shops over the coming years offering the finest cigars and the best service in the business

You can see all of our locations including our splendid Robert Graham Ltd whisky and cigar shops on our contacts page and my team look forward to giving you a warm welcome

I reckon C.Gars Ltd Group is the largest Havana cigar Specialist in the UK and also has an incredible La Casa del Habano in Hamburg managed by famous cigar specialist Christoph Wolters. Our associates in Dublin are the Decent Cigar Emporium will offer you the same care and attention that you expect from C.Gars Ltd too.

My Team and I would like to think that we are the best in the trade and of course we are founder members of the Association of Independent Cigar Merchants (your guarantee of quality, service and value) we are all trained by Hunters and Frankau and we are passionate about our English Market Selection Havanas

If you don’t have one of our shops near you we are happy to offer our rapid mail order service through C.Gars Ltd- online 24/7 – every day of the year through our purpose built warehouses and offices in London and Norfolk

We are still shipping literally 1000’s of orders to arrive before Christmas but we recommend you get your orders in before the 22^nd

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

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It’s been a madly busy week trying to deal with all the admin and accounts from the Winter cigar auction but its nice to have all the cigars collected by the buyers so I can actually see my walk in humidor again ( which was getting a bit overfull !) and of course it’s always fun paying out all the sellers who are no doubt very happy to have their payments before Christmas ( and probably buy different cigars with the proceeds!)

Still managed to have an office herf with Ignacio- Cuban Director of Hunters and Frankau and Arturo from La Casa del Habano division of Habanos SA  ( see photo) always good to catch up with all the industry news.

We have a beautiful LCDH in Hamburg and have just celebrated our 5^th anniversary.  Our shop has a beautiful cigar lounge, massive walk in humidor stocked up to the ceiling of course with the finest Havanas and we have this week completed our Casa del Ron – rum tasting lounge just behind the humidor. I should be over there in the next week or two to do a little ‘sampling’ maybe I’ll open another La Casa del Habano in the UK next year

Also managed to have dinner with Ranald at Boisdale Belgravia earlier in the week  and quite a few smokes after dinner on the Terrace. As ever the terrace was packed with a big crown of cigars smokers. Ranald and I both enjoyed smoking my Orchant Seleccion Juan Lopez.  These smokes from 2008 are quite delicious with dark colorado maduro wrapper. Last few singles available now. These have sold much faster than anticipated although our retail shops may well have a few singles in the humidors if you are a Turmeaus or Robert Graham customer.

My London and Norfolk sales Teams have never been so busy with the Christmas rush now in full swing. I have lost count of how many of our Christmas crackers we have sold  but we are talking loads and loads! It’s the perfect stocking filler

No sign of Montecristo Gran Reserva yet although hopeful we will have them in tiny quantity next week – interesting to see how these have developed since they were introduced to the trade back at the February Festival

Well I’d like to say that I’m kicking back on the weekend but with the current crazy volume of orders I’ll be in the office Saturday evening and all day Sunday to ensure on time deliveries for all our clients :) if you need any advice our helpful sales Team are here 24/7 to assist so don’t hesitate to drop us an email sales@cgarsltd.co.uk

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

The event was a cigars smokers herfing heaven with drinks, canapés and smokes on the cigar terrace before and after the auction and we were lucky enough to have dry and mild weather for the evening. This was a massive contrast to our last Winter auction at Boisdale Belgravia where we nearly froze to death !!! The auction room was packed to capacity with almost 100 bidders from all over the globe.