Still can’t seem to anticipate the demand and stock requirements for our best-selling range of Inka – Secret Blend. The sales are just staggering . Thank you dear customers 🙂
It’s gratifying to know I hit the spot on blend and price for this fabulous range of cigars that I created exclusively for C.Gars customers. We have just received another HUGE import that I hope will last a month or two! Sweet blend and sweet pricing, who could ask for more? If you would like to see a different size or presentation, drop me a line and I’ll work on it . How’s that for personal service!?
Did you see the TV documentary on Amazon.com? I was quite mesmerized and found it terribly interesting especially as my first cigar website (I think the first in the UK) was online back in 1994 and though we ain’t the size of Amazon, our business has become a bit of a giant in the cigar world and is still growing at a rather scary pace.
I have co-director and creator of C.Gars, Laura to thank for this monster creation we know and love as C.Gars because without her genius we would never have gone online in the first place bringing UK cigar clients the best service as well as guaranteed lowest prices. I remember a long, long time ago we used to use ‘never knowingly undersold’ as our marketing line and then we had to remove it when John Lewis legal department wrote a friendly warning letter to us! Have a laugh and read more on this link here.
The business has changed so much over the last 20 years it’s hardly recognizable. We are now working on different pricing structures to bring even better value to our customers and we are looking on further expansion as well as larger sampling lounges at our retail cigar stores in the North of England, where we have our Turmeaus Tobacconist shops (second oldest UK cigar specialist established way back in 1817!)
I remember when we started out only selling Havana cigars and then over the years introducing different ranges of New-World cigars. It was almost unheard of for a Havana cigar clients to try anything else. These days a massive amount of our clients order Havanas and New-World cigars at the same time and the increase in interest for cigars made in Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic and other regions seems to be growing month on month. I think it’s great to ‘mix it up’ and experiment with different cigars.
This week didn’t get off to the flying start expected as I missed my Tuesday flight to Italy due to the bloody train strike in London. Oh well , c’est la vie, I spent the day working from home and puffing my way through too many Partagas SD4’s to remember. This is such an awesome ‘anytime’ smoke for me, great size and great blend. Current stocks have fabulous dark and oily wrappers (thank you to those nice chaps at Hunters and Frankau for selecting these dark and oily beauties for C.Gars) they look good enough to eat. 🙂
Wednesday and I hopped on to the Eurostar to Paris for lunch at Café Ruc by Hotel du Louvre. Beautiful sunny and hot day, bottle of wine and herfed through French regional edition El Rey del Mundo and Vegas Robaina. Sorry, can’t remember their names as I gave up trying to memorize all the regional editions a few years ago! The ERDM was a petit piramides and I had to cut it down by almost half to get a draw on the cigar. The Robaina had a perfect construction and they were in fact both very nice smokes.
I buy my lunch smokes from La Civette, beautiful shop and humidor and very friendly service.
Back to the office on Thursday for a filming session for a TV program which was a lot of fun. I’ll blog details if it ever gets on to the TV!
Friday is monthly meeting time with my Partner Guy from the Decent Cigar Emporium in Dublin so we’re having a pre-bank hol weekend herf and sampling session in the office with a few friends. Civilized way to end the week I reckon.
We ran a 48-hour special on Saint Luis Rey Serie A in cabinet selection. New price was just £199 for a half cab of 25 cigars or £399 for a cab of 50. Needless to say that we sold out in around an hour! These are smashing smokes, corona gorda sized 5 5/8” and 46 ring gauge. Well matured from 2001 or thereabouts. I have good stocks of SLR as I have always enjoyed this brand (as does my Father and did my Grandfather.)
I’ve been friends with the owner of the brand for a long time and always like chatting to him about cigars as he’s terribly knowledgeable. SLR is a bit of an anomaly as it’s the only brand that’s sort of independent in the UK market. Quality is good as is blend and construction generally. If you are subscribed to the C.Gars newsletter you can take advantage of the next SLR release which will be at killer pricing again. 🙂
Just wrapping up the next auction catalogue, looks like it’s a huge sale with around 350 Lots being offered from the 19th May on the auction website. The catalogue will be at the printers early next week so if you want a printed catalogue as well you just need to shoot us an email.
Looking forward to the long weekend and if the weather holds up, we should be able to get a bit of topless motor herfing in as well but it’s the UK so it will likely rain!
My weekend baggie includes:
Partagas SD No. 4’s – see above notes!
Regius Culebras – for a bit of fun and Nic kick with my morning espresso.
Davidoff Puro D’Oro Gorditos – yes, yes I know the big story is Davidoff Nicaraguan! What can I tell you I just love the Puro D’Oro blend.
La Flor de Cano Gran Cano – one of my fave UK Regionals; Tasting notes? fugedaboudit I just bloody love them!
Bolivar Belicosos – I just can’t get enough of them. Well aged stocks that are smoking like a dream. Now this is how a Havana cigar should taste!
Another damn train strike for next week… Hopefully I won’t miss another flight! Oh and a cigar tasting event at our Cambridge store on Thursday… looking forward to herfing with old and new friends. 🙂
Have a smokey holiday weekend!
Peaceful puffing
Mitchell
