The 25th anniversary celebrations continue!

Greetings from rainy London…

Happy to say the weather was far better in New York (sunny and 30c!) where I herfed with friends last week and continued the 25th Anniversary of C.Gars celebrations.

My Rat Pack herfing crew spent long evenings herfing at Carnegie and it was delightful to receive such a warm welcome from the boys at Davidoff on 6th Avenue.

The final and main event was held at the magnificent Liberty Warehouse overlooking the Statue of Liberty. We enjoyed a decadent evening which included splendid Oliva Melanio cigars (Thanks to Brian Shapiro and Oliva cigars for all of their support) Stalla Dhu single malt whiskyForagers gins, delicious food and an amazing live music from the Cuban band. Thanks to all the boys that traveled over from the event from as far as California, Chicago and Texas.

My thanks to my dear friend Jeff Torem for putting together such a wonderful event. It was so good to catch up with so many friends after the long Covid break which upset our regular herfing routine. We used to get together at least 3 times a year before Covid so it was good to get back to some normality finally.

We have some availability of our splendid 25th Anniversary humidors containing a delicious selection of our finest cigars as well as a very special bottle of single malt whisky.

If you haven’t signed up yet, check out this website. It’s very cool. Lot’s of features and articles, well worth a visit.

On a sad note Michelle and I have just been to the funeral of John Darnton. John was an industry legend. He was Sales Director of Hunters and Frankau for many years and one of the founders and owners of Regius cigars. I visited Cuba many times with John Darnton and Simon Chase and we always enjoyed the best of times at the H&F table at the Gala dinner events. He was a mentor to me in my early years in the cigar business and will be sorely missed. Our sincere condolences to the family.

Havana cigar supply remains patchy with many lines unavailable though we still have a very good overall range available and continue to release the more rare Cohiba cigars every week albeit in small quantity. We do expect some new cigar release including the U.K. Regional Ramon Allones in the near future.

My schedule is busier than ever with cigar events at the RAC Club, lunch with our neighbours the Sahakian’s of Davidoff London, lunch with Ranald from Boisdale and many client meetings at C.Gars St James’s over the next week. Looking forward to some great cigars in the best of company!

We finally have a new Prime Minister and wish her the best of luck in these challenging times. Hopefully the Government will leave us long suffering cigar smokers alone…

Have a smokey week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

 

CGars Ltd 25th Anniversary Party

 

Happy anniversary to us!

Greetings from sunny London 😊

C.Gars Ltd was created on the 27th of October 1997. Laura and I dreamed of creating a successful cigar business but could never have imagined we would build an empire the size that it has grown to. In fact we are still growing with new brands and new locations planned in the next few months.

Thanks to the unpredictable weather in London we decided to hold our anniversary celebration event a tad earlier to take advantage of the splendid Summer weather this year. It was a delightful event attended by over 150 friends, family, suppliers and clients at Boisdale of Belgravia. More detail and photos in this article.

To mark the anniversary, we released 25 specially made humidors containing 50 of my favourite cigars. In fact, it’s also the 205th anniversary of Turmeaus Tobacconist business.

In all, quite a feat to have survived – even thrived – in the cigar business. That has been against a backdrop of anti-tobacco legislation for as long as I can remember. The smoking ban was of course designed to stop people smoking. So not entirely successful then. The thinking behind the law was to improve health. I had my own MOT last month. I am very glad to say I am in good shape, though not quite as good as the business.

That is in part thanks to the second largest professional sector we serve.

Funnily enough… Doctors.

A big thank you to the head of neurosurgery in a top Hamburg hospital. He used to come into my Hamburg shop for a Punch Double Corona.

Every lunchtime – to relax as he was more worried about the impact of stress on his well-being.

Thanks also to the top Harley Street cardiologist who came to my office once. His girlfriend wanted to treat him to a few boxes of Havanas as a retirement gift. She duly did. He was 70. She looked around 25. Far more likely to see him off than any cigar.

As for us, it has been a long rocky road over the last 25 years. We have survived not only recessions and anti-tobacco legislation but also battled with some mad landlords, and inevitably some anti-smoking neighbours. The odd environmental health officer has also come after us. Once we have explained how the relevant law actually works, they have been happy enough to leave us be.

Even after 25 years I am not sure we are quite ready for an autobiography. The best book ever written about cigars is the Encyclopedia. That’s by Min Ron Nee. Yes – you guessed it, another Doctor. A great believer in the anti-oxidant qualities of a Havana cigar as he explained to me in Hong Kong. Take what he says and a cigar is practically one of your five a day.

That’s not the only lesson I have learnt over the last 25 years. I know that Liverpool, where I acquired the first Turmeaus tobacconist shop and where our fantastic Puffin Rooms are today, is as safe as houses. The first time I went there my father warned against me taking a car. In fact I drove to Liverpool and had no issues at all. Meanwhile, his Rolls at home back in London was stripped of its beautiful front grill. He eventually gave away the rest of the car to no doubt his very grateful mechanic.

Looking back, you have to see the funny side. I hope all those who have been part of C.Gars over the years can smile about their time with us. What has always mattered is friendship and creating happy memories. All through our shared love of the leaf.

My thanks to my team, the wonderful staff at Boisdale, our suppliers for all their support and most of all our loyal clients.

The evening was another occasion for the sort of camaraderie only a mutual love of cigars can generate. And a night to remember. Or at least try to remember.

We don’t always get it right but we do strive to give the best of customer service and range of choice to our clients, now numbering some 150,000 on our database. Nice to see over 12,000 Trustpilot reviews and a 4.9 star rating. Hopefully, we can get that up to 5.0 in the next few months 😊

We have very successfully launched the Aladino range of cigars with events at Turmeaus Liverpool, C.Gars London and Leeds and were delighted to welcome the Eiroa family to talk about the cigars and their impressive business. The range is quite delicious as well as excellent value. Fast becoming a firm favourite and highly recommended.

Cuban cigar supply remains patchy with few Cohiba cigars being available though we still generally have 90% Havana range availability as we continuously release our reserves to meet market demands. We don’t think the supply situation will improve any time soon and following the recent price increases I can only advise to stock up while you can as cigar prices will of course increase again due to the tax increase due in the November Budget. We are hopeful that the Ramon Allones UK Regional Edition will be launched by November. Its overdue but will be worth the wait!

The next vintage cigar auction will be held on the 3rd October and it’s shaping up to be another huge sale with over 300 Lots expected.

Our beautiful shops are busier than ever, perhaps due to the sunny and hot Summer we are enjoying as well as our non-stop events calendar.  The events are great fun and a perfect opportunity to sample cigars and enjoy pairings with premium single malt whisky and rum as well as meet many of the brand ambassadors.

Enjoy the rest of the Summer hopefully with some fine smokes and drinks in the sunshine 😊

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Rocky rocks, Aladino launched and 25th anniversary event coming up…

Greetings from sunny London where I’m happy to report I’m enjoying a Cohiba Siglo VI paired up with a G&T (using Foragers Black Label of course)

Supply issues continue but our rather brilliant UK exclusive importer Hunters & Frankau keep a healthy range of Havanas flowing through to us and though we don’t expect to have full range availability again any time soon we do have many alternatives if your favourites are unavailable. We have also been rounding off the range by releasing some of our reserve stocks including Siglo VI, Lanceros, Esplendidos and Behike over the last month. 😊

We were honoured to welcome Rocky Patel to the UK last week and I think the UK cigar trade gave him a very warm welcome. I saw social media photos of an amazing and huge event at our friend James Barber in Harrogate. Rocky spoke to attendees at the sold out events at Turmeaus Liverpool and C.Gars – Leeds and great evenings were had by all.  We sampled Rocky Patel White Label Robusto and Sixty Toro cigars and paired them up with Remy Martin 1738 and XO Cognac. I’m not usually a Cognac drinker but the pairing was quite delicious and certainly worked very well.

The sampling event was followed by dinner at Puffin Rooms with music by the lovely Victoria Sharpe. Our G.M James then selected a flight of rare single malt whiskies from the huge selection at Puffin Rooms and Rocky, Kolja, Paul and I herfed on till… terribly early (or is that late?!) the next morning!

The Rocky Patel range of cigars is available on the website of course and we will be adding new lines over the coming months. This range is comprehensive with shapes, sizes, flavour and strength profiles to suit all cigar smokers, personally, I love the Gran Reserve Robusto a kaleidoscope of complex flavours from start to finish.

C.Gars Group has sampling events around the country every week throughout the year. A great opportunity to sample new cigars and whisky, rum or cognac as well as learn more about the brands from brand ambassadors. The best opportunity to meet with friends and make new friends sharing our wonderful interest in these finest products.

We introduced the fabulous Aladino range of Honduran cigars to the U.K. a couple of months ago. I love Honduran tobacco but this brand takes quality and blending to a different level. They are incredible value for a premium brand. Perfectly crafted for a cool draw and beautifully presented.

I’m looking forward to welcoming the brand owner Justo Eiroa for a wonderful sampling event at Turmeaus Liverpool on the 19th of JulySt James’s on the 21st July  Tickets are almost sold out now so book up soon and join us for a memorable evening.

On the 28th July I will be hosting a rare Havana cigar sampling at C.Gars – St James’s together with Sean Croley of Hunters & Frankau. The star cigar will be the rather delicious Por Larranaga Sobresalientes UK regional edition  2014. We will be pairing with a flight of our finest single cask Stalla Dhu single malt whisky and the lovely Lockets wine bar will be laying on canapes. Only 20 tickets available so don’t delay!

But the event of the year will be the C.Gars 25th anniversary party on Wednesday 3rd of August at Boisdale Belgravia!!! To celebrate this milestone we have taken over Boisdale Belgravia for the evening which will start at 6pm. Over 100 guests will be treated to live Cuban band, a feast of food, cigars and libations till late…

Tickets were released late last week and the last time I looked there were only 10 left available… Book soon to avoid disappointment. You don’t want to miss this one!

Our Summer auction was a resounding success with total sales exceeding  £800,000 including premiums, in fact, one of the largest auctions we have held. The appetite for aged and rare Havana cigars continues to be insatiable.

Highlights of the sale included:

Davidoff Chateau Haut Brion – £5,050

Davidoff Chateau Latour – £6,100

Davidoff Chateau Margaux – £6,500

Davidoff Dom Perignon box of 25 – £10,100

Davidoff Dom Perignon box 10 – £8,100

La Gloria Cubana 25th anniversary humidor – £7,600

Partagas 170th anniversary humidor – £23,200

Ramon Allones Imperials humidor – £16,900

Cohiba Majestuosos humidor – £24,000

Our next auction is planned for September and we are considering consignments now. Email the auction team at [email protected]

That’s the news for now so I’m heading back to the garden to herf an Aladino Cameroon Robusto in the sunshine 🙂

Have a smoky week

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Yes…we are in sunny Tenerife!

Karyn and I recently arrived back from a week in sunny Tenerife, in fact our first flight in a long long time (due to bloody Covid restrictions/Lockdowns/ etc etc) I needed a bit of sunny herfing weather and this was the ideal destination.

I hadn’t been to Tenerife for around 35 years and I was very pleasantly surprised at how lovely it is especially with long days of blue skies and 25c temperatures. 😊

We opened our beautiful La Casa del Habano shop late last year but this was my first opportunity to check things out. The shop has a rather huge glass fronted walk in humidor with a very impressive range of singles and boxes stored in perfect condition of course.

The shop also sells a select range of premium spirits and splendid accessories such as lighters, cutters, ashtrays and humidors. Best of all we have a super comfortable cigar terrace for sampling cigars and sipping cocktails.

The shop is located in the very lovely Centro Commercial Duke Shops mall in Costa de Adeje. Our manager Antonio is from Havana originally and assures our customers a warm welcome.

I know Tenerife has always been popular with British holidaymakers but I was so pleasantly surprised to see so many of my clients in Tenerife and at the La casa store whilst I was there! Costa de Adeje is quite idyllic, easy to walk miles along the promenade by the beach lines with lovely bars and restaurants. I can’t wait to go back in the near future.

I’m delighted to announce that we have just launched the rather delicious Aladino range of cigars made by the legendary JRE tobacco farm in Honduras these cigars are truly premium smokes at value for money prices. Since they arrived a few days ago I just can’t stop smoking them! Check out the range here. The Cameroon Robusto and Corojo Robustos are my current faves, truly outstanding. Full sweet flavour, medium strength and crafted to perfection for an easy draw.

As has been well reported by the cigar press, Cuban cigar prices have increased substantially on brands such as Cohiba and Trinidad (where supply is very limited to say the least) Not such huge price increases on other brands thankfully but it’s still worth keeping stocked up as there will be a substantial UK duty increase later this year.

On a happy note, I can report that quality is up substantially and box codes of 2020/2021 are shaping up to be some of the best blended Havanas I have enjoyed in quite some years.

Some of my recent favourites that have impressed include:

Ramon Allones Specially Selected

Bolivar Belicosos

Hoyo Epicure Especial

Por Larranaga Petit Coronas

In terms of New World cigars I’m blasting my way through loads of:

Plasencia Dominique London Seleccion Lanceros (very elegant size, super sweet blend)

Plasencia Orchant Seleccion Toros (yep – I love Plasencia cigars!)

Davidoff Orchant Seleccion Toro (expensive but a bit of a treat)

Mitchellero Robustos (ridiculously good value)

Inka Secret Blend red robustos (always a good smoke)

Alec Bradley Chubby (a bit like me!)

I love to pair up my smokes with a good drink, usually Scotch or rum. This rum took me pleasantly by surprise but sold out ridiculously fast, Eminente Reserva 7 Year Old Rum, this should be available again next week. Our Stalla Dhu Glen Elgin is an outstanding dram with a good cigar (try it with a large ice cube)

Weather forecast looks good in London for the next few weeks so I’m looking forward to some garden herfing!

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

C.Gars 25th Anniversary

Greetings from sunny London 😊 Hope you enjoyed a smoky Easter break and are stocked up for the May bank holiday fast approaching.

This October marks the 25th anniversary of C.Gars Ltd. A quarter of a century in a very tough and highly legislated industry is quite a milestone! To say it’s gone fast would be an understatement. It seems like yesterday that Laura and I set up the business with very little money but great determination to become the biggest and the best in the cigar business. Fair to say we achieved that dream though we are still super excited for the future growth of the mighty C.Gars! We hope to be announcing a new cigar store and terrace opening in the near future.

C.Gars started as a pure mail order business with what we believe was the first cigar website in the UK and in the early 2000’s expanded into retail cigar shops starting with the acquisition of the last Turmeaus Tobacconist (established in 1817) shop in Liverpool. The shop had been driven into the ground by its previous owners but we believed we could revive the brand and have indeed been doing so ever since.

Our Dominique London Group now operates from 3 mail order warehouses 24 hours a day / every day of the year and 21 splendid cigars and premium spirits shops in 4 countries. I know we dreamt big when we started the business but the business has grown beyond our imagination.

We are planning to celebrate the 25th anniversary with a Summer party in London in August. If you would like to be put on the guest list, drop me an email we will be releasing 25 numbered and exclusive humidors together with 25 bottles of a very special Stalla Dhu single malt whisky to mark our milestone anniversary.

We also operate our fantastic Vintage Cigar Auction platform and have been conducting incredible auctions since 2009. The next sale will be held on the 21st of June and I have been very busy taking in some incredible vintage Havanas over the last few weeks. We will be offering 300 Lots of aged, rare and mature Havanas as well as Davidoff and pre embargo cigars and single malt whisky.

Havana cigar supply continues to be very patchy with Cohiba supply all but dried up. Many of our favourite size Havanas from across all brands remain unavailable but I have to say in comparison to other countries our brilliant UK importer Hunters & Frankau have generally kept us well supplied and if you can’t find your favourite Havana available there are always plenty of alternatives that are available.

We are still hopeful that the overdue UK regional edition Ramon Allones Private stock will be released this year but at this stage I think it will be very late this year.

Plenty of news in the press about the Cohiba 55th anniversary cigars being released but I’m afraid we don’t expect to see them in the UK any time soon (much as I would like to!)

Our New World range of cigars is quite huge and their popularity goes from strength to strength. I think the market has shifted to around 50/50 Havana cigars to New World cigars now.

We recently released 2 incredible exclusive and, limited edition cigars from Plasencia (one of my favourite brands) read all about the Plasencia – Orchant Seleccion and Plasencia – Dominique London Seleccion on this link I selected the blends for these premium cigars and am very proud of this co – branded project.

We have a huge range of exclusive cigars made for C.Gars and Turmeaus cigar shops  I have carefully selected these brands and blends and build the range over many years. A cigar for every smoker and every occasion. Super quality and great value.

Our range of Independent bottled single malt whisky Stalla Dhu continues to pick up multiple international awards. Read about the range here and if you’re looking for the perfect dram with a cigar look no further than our gold medal award winning Orchant Selection cigar malt.

If you’re looking for a great evening of cigars and whisky sampling check out our events page we have around 80 events planned for the rest of this year and I hope to see you at quite a few of them! If you want a really special evening visit Puffin Rooms, live jazz 7 nights a week, fabulous tapas menu and the largest whisky bar in the North.

I’m off to our beautiful La Casa del Habano store and cigar terrace in sunny Tenerife next week if you’re on the island come and join me for a cocktail 😊 and if not you can usually find me sampling and talking all things cigars at C.Gars – St James’s on a Wednesday.

Have a smoky weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell