Herfing in the Big Apple

Packed up my Palio cutter and lighter and headed to New York City last Thursday for a solid week of serious herfing 🙂 with Guy Hancock from the Decent Cigar Emporium Dublin.

As always I flew on fabulous Virgin Atlantic and chilled out at the Upper Class lounge in Heathrow before the flight. After a few drinks and a massage I was in good shape to sleep on the way over the Pond. The cabin was half empty so I was uber comfortable but ready for a smoke on arrival!

Smoking a Davidoff Puro D'Oro at De La ConchaMorning smokes at De La Concha on 6th Avenue. I smoked a huge 60 ring gauge Davidoff Puro D’Oro – Total gob stopper!! DLC is comfortable and well located and the staff always offer a warm welcome.

Afternoon smokes at Cigar Inn on 2nd Avenue accompanied with a bottle of Signatory Clynlish 1998 from Ambassador wines next door. Great liquor store with very good prices. Cigar Inn is a great place to relax, super friendly service – Highly recommended.

Saturday evening I headed to the Sinatra tribute show at Carnegie Club actually it was so good I stayed for 2 shows. Herfed my way through a baggie of Regius cigars paired with my ‘go to’ Mac 12.

SuMitchell and Guy at Club Macanudonday was a Fuente herfing afternoon at Club Macanudo with loads of friends who joined us for a bottle of wine or two or three 🙂 We then moved on to Bar and Books on Lexington. Now this place is very cool, bit like a speakeasy! You have to ring the bell to get in and find a comfortable cigar bar/lounge, splendid service and comprehensive drinks menu. I’ll definitely be adding this as one of my regular herfing spots.

Monday afternoon we chilled out at my favourite cigar store in the USA! Nat Sherman, thanks to Mickael Herklots for the hospitality. (I think my friends and I took over his office to herf in for most of the afternoon!) Amazing humidor, fabulous range of accessories and plenty of comfortable armchairs to relax and smoke in. Smoked my way through a few of the Nat Sherman Timeless range of cigars and was rather impressed with them.

Smoking at the Grand Havana RoomMonday evening we threw a herf at Grand Havana Room for 50 friends. This venue has the most breath taking views of NYC. First rate service, canapés and drinks and too many Fuente cigars to count over a long evening that went on till the wee small hours. Our friends were presented with specially engraved Orchant Seleccion 2013 Palio lighters as a parting gift. A great herf was had by all 🙂

Finally back to London and happy to get back to my Havana cigar routine… As soon as I arrived with a delicious vintage Romeo Romeo from the 1960’s a monster of a cigars that has aged to perfection.

Back in the office tomorrow and have just found out that its the end of the line for Cohiba 1966… get them while you can!

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

New York Cigar Humidor Cartoon

Bolivar week!

I have declared this week a Bolivar week 🙂 One of my very favourite brands (For certain sizes at least) and have been enjoying an excellent rotation as follows:

Bolivar Britanicas (UK Regional Edition - 2012)Breakfast smoke with espresso – Bolivar Corona Junior
Lunch time smoke with a glass of wine – Bolivar Belicosos Finos cabinet Selection 2009 vintage. A sweet full flavoured smoke.
After dinner smoke with a dram of single malt the perfect choice Bolivar Petit Belicosos by my fireplace. Sheer heaven. Full flavour and full strength. The Single malt is perfectly balanced with this powerhouse limited edition from 2009
…and in between it had to be Bolivar Britanicas one of my favourite regional editions and exclusive to the UK (Sold out by our importers so you would need to hurry to stash some away) Great shape, great size and perfect Bolivar old style blend, full flavour, medium strength, earth and spice.

I love the flavour of Bolivar and I love the depth and dimension in the blend, when they are good they are great.

To make my Bolivar week complete, I enjoyed lunch at 5 Hertford Street with a good friend who graciously gifted me the Chinese regional edition Bolivar Distinguidos. Helluva smoke 🙂

June 2013 Auction LotsMichelle is taking a break for a couple of days, no doubt exhausted after a week of photographing well over 300 Auction Lots for our June 10th sale .

We have a superb selection of Aged, Mature, Vintage, Limited edition, Pre Embargo, Dunhill and Davidoff boxes, cabinets, humidors and jars to knock down on the evening and I’m delighted to announce that Balvenie have kindly offered to do another excellent whisky tasting as part of the evening. Add Boisdale Canary Wharf wines, canapés, hospitality as well as C.Gars Ltd English Market Selection Havanas and I think it’s fair to say that we are going to enjoy a wonderful event.

Tickets available on this link.

Cigar auction catalogue will be online and in print around 4 weeks before the sale.

Bandolero - Salvaje - Tin of 30Inka – Secret Blend Petit Coronas and robustos have completely sold out yet again – Sorreee but will be arriving next week. If you can’t wait, try Bandolero great value and great smokes!

I’m overseas late next week again herfing in a sunnier climate (I hope) then back for a few days and off to Peru to test out some new blends and approve new packaging for additional range of Inka – Secret Blend cigars (Finally happy to report that we have received our trade mark for this brand… All very Dragons Den 😀)

My Twitter account and my Facebook account are in competition to see who can get the most followers so if you are not already following me… You know what to do 🙂

We have whisky and cigar tasting evenings planned at Robert Graham – Cambridge for May and June, if you would like to be put on the mailing list, drop me a line [email protected]

Taking pre orders now for ‘Partagas – The Book’ expected at the end of this month. Order early to avoid disappointment.

Following the Budget, prices have been increase but not by much as we have absorbed the price increase as much as we possibly could. Don’t forget, we guarantee to offer the best prices in the UK. We have HUGE inventory and deliver rapidly. We are also online 24/7 – Every day of the year so if you need any advice or suggestions or want to tell us something that we are doing well or something that we can improve on we are always happy to hear from our clients and friends. [email protected]

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

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April Fools!

First quarter of the year gone already! If ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ I must be having a marvellous life as it seems that Christmas was a few minutes ago and we are already making business plans for Christmas 2013!

Mitchell Apprentice - CigarOne of my marketing Team at our Norfolk office decided to do an April Fools on our Facebook site claiming that I have been invited to appear as a judge in the next series of the Apprentice! Needless to say… I am not! Thanks for all the emails congratulating me lol

I spent the long Easter weekend herfing through a good variety of superb smokes including:

Juan Lopez Orchant Seleccion no.1
Helluva smoke, rich and sweet, cool and easy draw.

Davidoff Puro D’Oro Sublimes
This small format cigar packs quite a punch, I’m becoming fond of Davidoff smokes (Oh and Year of the Snake cigars coming out next week! Which will fit nicely into the Elie Bleu Year of the Snake humidors :))

Punch Serie D’Oro no.1
Still may favourite regional edition of all time.

Cohiba Magicos 2007 vintage
Outrageously good cigar with the benefit of 6 years in the humidor now.

Trinidad Fundadores 2002
13 years age on this cheeky smoke has made it a firm favourite.

Our ‘new’ Cambridge shop doesn’t feel new anymore and has been well integrated into our Group. The cigar and whisky sampling lounge has proved very popular indeed as has our specialist range of whisky and tobacco. Cambridge was crying out for a cigar specialist and we are very happy to have expanded to this location.

We have a cigar and whisky tasting planned for June 12th at Cambridge, drop me a line for details. [email protected]

I’ll be at Robert Graham Cambridge this Sunday from noon – Pop in for a coffee sampling session with me 🙂

Glasgow is our smallest whisky and cigar shop but one of our most successful. After quite a few year in West Nile street we are planning to relocate in the Summer to a flagship store for the Group. In fact if all goes to plan this will be the largest cigar shop in the UK with a walk in humidor breath taking in design and astonishing in range as well as our full offering of Robert Graham Dancing Stag award winning single malts of course and a very comfortable whisky sampling lounge. More details to follow…. And then coming to a location near you ☺

Our latest release is this first rate single malt in Robert Grahams’ Dancing Stag range: Miltonduff 1998 Limited edition of 420 bottles and great value at £46.50 a bottle. I love a good Speyside with my cigars and this one is the perfect complement especially with the delicious Cohiba Maduro Genios that I’m smoking now from 2007 vintage.

Inka Robustos in blue and red as well as more Poderosos and petit coronas are due to arrive in the next few days. I am somewhat staggered by the success and popularity of the Secret Blend range. I plan to release the premium line of Aztec Secret Blend later this year which I believe will become the most popular premium brand of non-Cuban cigars in the UK.

A few places still available for June 10th Cigar Auction on this link.

Last few days to stock up before our online prices increase, we’ll be keeping the increase as small as possible and as always guarantee the best prices in the UK (Don’t blame me… blame the Chancellor!)

Have a smokey weekend

Best from snowy London

Mitchell