Summer herfing!

I can hardly believe it is July. That is half the year gone already. What a crazy six months. I do sense that we are returning to something like normality with the lifting of Lockdown, in three weeks.

I hope you have made the best of 2021 to date. Personally, I am settling into a nice routine of herfing with friends at C.Gars – St James’s during the week. With some of the recent, good weather, the outside-seating area has been a delight and will continue to be so in the weeks ahead when the sun hopefully shines on us.

My St James’s premises showcases the finest of our cigar and spirits range. The fabulous team on hand there (Sam, Dante and Viktoria) mix some very tasty cocktails. You are assured the warmest of welcomes, as well as helpful, friendly advice.

Not far from St. James’s in Shepherd’s Market, Turmeaus – Mayfair is, finally, fully open again for cigar and whisky sampling. You do have to book a slot as this ever-popular location is jammed full, morning till night. Christian, the store manager and our resident pipe expert, is delighted at the return to normal, and being fully open again.

I’m happy to report from the north west that the Puffin Rooms there and Late Hour Turmeaus – Liverpool have finally re-opened, as well. Like Mayfair, bookings are essential as both the cigar-sampling lounge and the jazz/tapas venue are jam-packed, booked-out, every night of the week. There is no experience quite like the Puffin Rooms. The widest whisky range in that part of the country, delicious, tapas-style food, signature cocktails, and the best of live jazz music, seven nights a week. We refurbished the venue during Lockdown to maintain the Five-Star standards. I am very pleased with the results and look forward to you enjoying some of the comforts we have added.

Now it feels safe to do so, our other sampling lounges, in Liverpool, Chester and Knutsford, are slowly re-opening. We look forward to welcoming back friends at all our venues.

As always, we are striving to ensure that all your favourites are to hand when you do join us. Guaranteeing this is currently a challenge. Maintaining Havana stocks of the most popular lines remains a test, not least the Cohiba range. To offset this, as needs be in the weeks and months ahead, we will be releasing our reserve holdings. Please be aware that we have just released small quantities of:

Ramon Alones No.2 Limited Edition 2019

Montecristo Supremos Limited Edition 2019 

H Upmann Sir Winston

Cohiba Esplendidos

Juan Lopez Seleccion Superba UK Regional Edition 2016

Supplies of the Mitchellero brand of Nicaraguan cigars should be in abundance by the middle of this month. The success of this release took us by surprise. A great range of value smokes that have proved popular beyond belief. If all goes to plan, we have a huge shipment of another 100,000 cigars arriving around the middle of July.

If you are seeking something with added heritage, our Summer Vintage cigar auction will be held on July 27th. The catalogue will be online a week before then (July 20th) after which we will be taking bids. The sale is HUGE!  Around 500 Lots of cigars and 100 Lots of rare whisky and spirits. Sections include Vintage, Pre Embargo, Mature, Limited Edition, and Davidoff, as well as Limited-Edition Humidors. Please be aware, you have to register to bid. My Auction Team are online, round the clock, to assist and advise.

As for our whiskies, the Stalla Dhu single malt whisky continues to collect International awards. We recently bottled a stunning cask of Glen Elgin Port Wood that is a sublime tasting experience, especially with a good, premium cigar. My partner, Ron, suggested trying the Glen Elgin with a large block of ice, which changes the flavour characteristic diametrically. I highly recommended that you give this a go.

If you enjoy a rum with your cigar you simply have to try Aged Key West Raw and Key West Bad Bitch.  This is a small-batch production of the highest quality that pairs to perfection.

Looking a little further ahead, this quarter we are planning to release the new UK regional edition Havana as well as the next Davidoff – Orchant Seleccion, which is a Toro. All this is exciting stuff.

At the same time, a last call for my splendid Plasencia – Orchant Seleccion Telica.  This incredible blend from Nestor Plasencia that provides volumes of sweet flavour, balanced with medium strength is almost sold out now. If you do sadly miss out, I’m looking forward to introducing our next Plasencia-Orchant Seleccion – a Lanceros – later this year.

Though we are inching back to normality, we are still running our virtual-tasting events. That will be the case until we can switch back to all our sampling lounges. Do please join me for some memorable evenings ahead with some of the best brand ambassadors there are.

My current favourite smokes include:

Hoyo de Monterrey Escogidos (exclusive La Casa del Habano line)

Hoyo de Monterrey Elegantes (exclusive La Casa del Habano line)

Alec Bradley – Orchant Seleccion Shorty

Regius Gran Toro

Inca – Secret Blend Reserva D’Oro robusto

For you, different flavours and sizes for all occasions.

Have a smokey weekend.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*