Just arrived back to London after 10 long days and nights of herfing in the USA. together with my friend, smoking buddy and business partner Guy Hancock from Decent Cigar Emporium. The trip started in style as Richard Branson was on my Virgin flight and it was a pleasure to shake his hand and meet him briefly as I admire him immensely.

Of course our plans of world cigar trade domination include the USA! so we love spending time in the States meeting up with friends and suppliers as often as possible for the best smokes, drinks and generally herfing in as many cigar friendly values as we can find (trust me there are loads!)

Our schedule started in Chicago where we made Chicago Cut our base camp for daily herfs.

The weather was not great but we still managed to herf on the terrace and were treated to the best of hospitality at this superb restaurant overlooking the water.

We also visited Hubbard State cigar shop and enjoyed some great smokes with owner Raki, who has also been the maitre D’ of Mortons in Chicago since it first opened 35 years ago.

Then we moved on to Up Down Cigar which was very cool and had a coffee and a cigar with owner Diana who is a bit of a star in the cigar business.

More smokes and drinks at the fabulous Iwan Ries which has an enormous range of premium cigars and accessories as well as a huge smoking lounge then even more smokes at the beautiful Jack Schwartz cigar shop

To end my trip one of my good friends organized a behind the scenes visit to a Chicago police station where I locked Karyn in the jail (I let her out just before the next flight) and took an amphibian boat (owned by my friend) ride round the Chicago river which was outrageously good fun.

Chicago is a very cool city with the most hospitable cigar crowd and we are looking forward to returning again next year.

Fast forward to New York which I reckon may still be one of the most cigar friendly cities in the world.

We started with smokes and drinks at Carnegie Club and moved on to see our friend Maurizio, the manager at the beautiful Club Macanudo Decent Cigar Emporium are the Macanudo importers for Ireland and we always get star treatment at Club Macanudo. Many of our friends from the old ASC days joined us for a long afternoon of nonstop herfing.

Morning smokes were at de La Concha which is a fine location to watch the world go by whilst enjoying a fine cigar from their range (in my case always a Padron which were remarkably good)

One of the finest cigar venues in the world has to be the Grand Havana Room where manager Randall always takes the best of care of us. The view is amazing as is the service.

As a thank you to so may of our friends and colleagues in the industry we threw a New York City Cruise Herf 🙂 and the ‘Rendezvous’ with over 100 friends joining us for dinner, drinks and smokes on a beautiful hot evening whilst cruising up and down the east River listening to Sinatra music in the background.

The boys from Smokes Mag were on board and it was great to see a review of my book in the current edition.

Italian food compliments of our friend Giancarlo and sushi bar from our friend Jack Brach. The best Fuente cigars were enjoyed by all (Hemmingway and Opus X) thanks to Decent Cigar Emporium being the importer for Ireland ! and copious quantities of Wild Geese Irish whisky (as well as some fine single malt thanks to Yehudah and great wines thanks to Josh) All the guests were handed goodies bags by Karyn who did a great job with the guest list and Tasha who was the official photographer 🙂 For more details on Wild Geese Irish Whisky visit their website at  www.1691.ie.

Apologies if I have missed off thank you’s to anyone as so many of the crowd were so gracious.

To say a great night was had by all would be an understatement 🙂 and to think….we have to do it all again next year

Our last evening herf was at GHR with a bunch of friends and I should mention a big thank you to Jeff for the Dom Perignon 2000 champagne which was a great way to finish a long 10 days of herfing 🙂

So it’s nice to be back in sunny London and we have a crazy busy month ahead of us starting this week with a first rate cigar roller in our London office ….

Señor Yoel Ulacia Diaz is a 9th grade torcedor (cigar roller), the highest achievable grade within the Cuban industry structure, meaning he is capable of crafting any size or shape cigar within the Habanos S. A. portfolio.

He began his career in 1998 as a student roller at the world famous Partagás factory and, in recognition of his outstanding talent, he attained his 9th grade status in just two years.

He remains with the Partagás factory to this day but is now a Maestro de Calidad, or Master of Quality Control,and supervises the work of some 350 cigar rollers within one of Cuba’s most iconic cigar factories. If you would like to meet him and have a fresh cigar or two rolled for you, drop me an email so we can welcome you [email protected]

Hunters summer party is on the 23rd June and there may be a few tickets left although you will have to hurry ! Flor de Cano short robustos will be available following the release at the party and we are taking pre orders now. This is the long awaited 2010 exclusive UK regional edition. I think this may well be the fastest selling Havana in our history. Only 1200 cabinets have been made. In fact it would not surprise me if they are all pre ordered before they are released.

Finally our cigar auction catalogue is now online and we are taking bookings for the actual auction event. All details on our dedicated auction website

I’m off for a de jet lagging cigar or two 🙂

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell