Grand Opening Event!

Turmeaus Norfolk opening event was something special to say the least. The event sold out within minutes and we had a rather crammed cigar shop and sampling lounge from the second the doors were opened!

Pascal Lori from Davidoff cut the ribbon on the new shop and Jim Young the COO of Davidoff kindly sent us his good wishes by video. Davidoff kindly presented me with an Avo turntable- I’ll have to play ‘Strangers in the night’ on it in the sampling lounge!

Attendees enjoyed music by Victoria Sharp and canapes by Chef Chris both from Puffin’ Rooms Liverpool.

The evening featured tastings by Tomintoul whisky, Diplomatico rum and Botanist gin. The cigar sampling included Davidoff Entreacto, Davidoff Late Hour Robusto, Camacho Barrel Aged Robusto and Avo Domaine Short Perfecto cigars by Davidoff. All were immensely enjoyed! 🙂

The Norfolk expansion has been a huge step for C.Gars Ltd, but our growth in sales meant we had to have far larger and better premises. The team has expanded as you will see from the team photo! I’m so relieved that we have completed the move as our sales growth so far this year continues to be meteoric!

It was great to see our regulars and some new faces at the opening. For those disappointed that we were sold out, don’t worry, we will be holding regular tasting events every month. Updates are on the events page.

My thanks to Davidoff for all their support in our expansion. I’ve been selling Davidoff for the last 20 years but the last few years has seen monumental growth in popularity of this brand. I think it’s down to the introduction of new blends and ranges that are of truly superior quality. I don’t remember ever having a Davidoff with a construction issue!

My current favourites include:

We have exclusivity for the UK on Avo cigars made by Davidoff. Great cigars and super value for money. Don’t miss the Avo Orchant Seleccion – very proud to put my name on such an excellent cigar and exciting blend.

Thanks to all of our customers that came to the opening and gave us such great feedback and thanks to Laura, James and our Turmeaus and C.Gars – Norfolk team for working so hard on this event.

In other news this week…

Havana cigar supply seems to be pretty stable currently with our importers only short of a few lines like Cohiba Lanceros, BHK 54 and 56, Coronas Especiales and Piramides Extra. More or less everything else is in stock and we have good availability of Cohiba Siglo VI in 10’s and 25’s (no tubes!) at the best possible prices in the UK. We even have a few boxes of BHK 52’s knocking around our La Casa del Habano in Chester.

My current fave Havanas include:

Last call I fear on Monte 80th – Our stock is 2017 code but we are down to the last few boxes now.

Our Summer auction catalogue has filling up extremely fast and we may have to close it off far sooner than expected. As a result we are now planning a September sale in addition to our Winter sale. Details will be updated on the auction website.

This week we are featuring our exclusive Nicaraguan – Regius Connecticut cigars. I loved these smokes when I tested them out at the IPCPR trade show last year. If you are a fan of the regular range these won’t disappoint. Similar in flavour profile but with a tasty tang to the wrapper.

Stalla Dhu 20cl bottles have new ultra-cute bottles! They are absolutely flying off the shop shelves, as are our new face-lifted Orchant Seleccion Highland Cigar Malt 20cl’s… perfect gifts.

Our new whisky website is up and running, we are adding to the range all the time and guarantee best prices in the UK.

I’m heading to Puffin’ Rooms in Liverpool this week to enjoy supper/cocktails and jazz as well as what promises to be an amazing Nicaraguan event at Turmeaus Late Hour Cigar Shop & Sampling Lounge.

Have a smokey week,

Peaceful puffing,

Mitchell
Department of Cigars and Social Affairs

Turmeaus – Norfolk/open!

Greetings from gusty Brexit/ no Brexit crazy UK…. crazy weather and crazy politicians… but great whisky and cigars thankfully.

Our March auction was a resounding success with a super high sale rate as well as some remarkable prices achieved. If you were a successful bidder who has requested shipping, we thank you for your patience whilst my shipping team carefully pack your lots over the next week or so. If you’re in a hurry… come and collect them.

Our next auction will be in June and the catalogue is already filling up. For advice and free valuation service drop the auction team an email. Just to be clear our auctions are for aged, rare, interesting and discontinued Havana cigars only. If you have returned from the beach in Cuba and bought a box of Esplendidos… we’re not interested.

Loads and loads of enquiries for the new UK regional edition but please don’t get too excited yet as we don’t expect to see these till May at the earliest which will probably end up being June.

Image may contain: outdoorOur move to our new HQ building in Norfolk is finally complete. Over budget of course and 3 months late…the story of my life lol. Well it was worth the wait and we are super pleased with the results. I think we are the only specialist cigar/pipe/whisky shop in the region so it’s sure to become a destination point. We now have fabulous office suites for our IT, Marketing and sales teams, photographic studio and modern warehouse… we’ve got the lot! Well set up to cope with the unprecedented sales growth C.Gars continues to experience. Well done to Laura, James , Anthony and the C.Gars –Norfolk team for all their hard work.

The C.Gars HQ features a new Turmeaus shop with a comfortable sampling lounge so our customers can select singles to try and decide if they want to buy a box or two. We have a huge range of Havanas and New World cigars and are featuring a magnificent range of Davidoff cigars as well as all our fantastic and explosive to the UK range of Avo cigars.

The humidor range features many of our favourite brands such as Inka – Secret Blend, Regius, Fuente, Oliva, Macanudo and Camacho to name a few. We have a pipe room with 100’s of pipes on display as well as the largest range of pipe tobacco in the UK. The whisky room features our award winning range of Stalla Dhu single malt whiskies as well as the ever popular Dalmore range and my current favourite Tomintoul range. If you haven’t tried the 14 year old, you should do as its quite stunning and pairs very well with a premium cigar.

Our launch event is on Tuesday and as expected sold out in minutes. Don’t worry if you missed out as we will be holding regular whisky and cigar tasting events. Check out our events here, book fast as they sell out fast. Our IT Team have added Trustpilot to our website. Have you enjoyed good customer service? If you have then you can leave a review.

I had a great time visiting Turmeaus in Knutsford, Chester and Liverpool this week. Always good to catch up with the retail teams and our local customers. I’m so proud of our Turmeaus shops, fantastic range or products ( I dare say best in the UK trade) super friendly and knowledgeable staff and a comfortable environment to sample a dram or a premium cigar. I enjoyed and evening in Puffin Rooms with some fabulous music, delicious food and some rather excellent wine. If you haven’t been yet… its worth taking the trek to Liverpool, in fact there’s nothing like it. I just wish there was one in London…

Image may contain: 3 people, people standing and indoorOn a terribly sad note, Simon Chase of Hunters and Frankau passed away this week. Simon was not only the most knowledgeable person I have ever met in the cigar industry but he was also the kindest person. I met Simon 25 years ago when I was starting out on my Havana cigar business journey. He always had time to answer my zillion questions about the industry . legislation and of course vintage Havanas. Sometimes we would chat for ages on a Friday afternoon. Simon also kindly wrote the forward for my photo book on Cuba. He will be sorely missed and our sincere condolences to his family.

Mitchell

Havana Festival and C.Gars Auction!

Just back from the XXI Festival in Havana celebrating the San Cristobal and Trinidad brands. This was the 20th Festival that I have been privileged to attend and was in fact one that I enjoyed immensely. The weather in Havana was perfect, hot and sunny days warm balmy night… perfect for herfing. Flight arrived on time, cases came out super-fast and my colleague Roy from Turmeaus – North and I headed straight over to the Packard hotel where we were staying. I had previously stayed at the Manzana which was great but decided to try the Packard which was at least as good but much better value, with breath-taking views over the Malecon.

Getting into the herfing swing of things with a Partagas D.5 and a few shots of Havana Club Union at the hotels cigar bar before moving on for more rum and smokes on the terrace of the Nacional (when are they getting rid of that awful white furniture)?! We herfed at the usual spots, Partagas, Melia Habana, Nacional , Espacios etc and bumped into friends and customers just about everywhere! We did the healthy thing and met up every morning for a 5 mile ( rather hot!) walk in old Havana. Detouring down the side streets was quite a sorry site with worse condition that I have ever seen before, crumbling buildings, trash in the streets. Very sad state of affairs.

The gala evening was the usual super event and I had a great table in a perfect location to see the entertainment. The volume for a change was not quite ear bursting so it was actually just about possible to have a conversation with the great group of people that included Yadira from Hunters & Frankau ( TY H&F for the ticket) we were gifted a presentation box of Trinidad, ashtray as well as copious amounts of Trinidad  throughout the evening. The new Media Luna and Esmeralda were excellent if a tad fresh smokes. The 3rd new Trinidad is the Topes which was last seen as a 2016 limited edition. The charity auction featured the most incredible humidors and raised around £1.3 Million for the Cuban National Health Service.

All in all a wonderful trip to Cuba which is probably my 108th by my reckoning since 1997!

Seems that I brought the sunshine ( and jet lag)  back to London as it was 18C when I arrived home. Amazing and great for some open top car herfing, but back to reality and good to be in the UK for the next 2 months as we’re swamped busy at C.Gars and our Turmeaus shops are out performing our expectations for the first 2 months of the year. I can’t wait to get the new Turmeaus – Norfolk open which should be in the next week.

Good stocks have just arrived including:

Cohiba Siglo VI

Partagas Presidentes

All sizes of Montecristo La Linea and Por Larranaga ( smoking one now…very very good indeed !)

This Sunday our online auction will end  a rather huge 380 Lot auction. My auction team is available to advise 24/7 [email protected]. Lots are live and bidding open online on the Cigar Auction website. This will be the 29th cigar auction by C.Gars since the auction department was established in 2009. Almost 400 Lots of Vintage, Mature, Pre Embargo, Davidoff, Dunhill and Limited Edition Havana cigars on behalf of estates, investors and collectors are on offer. Auction Lots can be viewed online and bid on here.

Featured Lots in this sale include:

-Davidoff Dom Perignon, No.1, No.2 and Chateau Yquem

-Cohiba Sublimes, Gran Reserva, Majestuosos 50th anniversary humidors and singles from Cohiba Behike 40th anniversary humidor.

-Pre embargo H. Upmann Dunhill Double Claro Seleccion Suprema no.15

-Pre Embargo H Upmann Miniatura

-Pre embargo Romeo y Julieta Coronation de Luxe

-Pre Embargo Bolivar Mundiales

-Ramon Allones 225th anniversary humidor

Have a smokey weekend

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell