Whisky and Cigars – Party on Dude!

Marvelous budget Mr Osborne, not sure what I will spend my 1 penny a pint saving on but I’m relieved that there’s no increase on whisky (other than the suppliers increase) and whilst many thought there was no increase on tobacco that’s not strictly speaking correct as the realty is there is no additional increase other than the annual 2% above inflation which I am guessing will equate to around 6% by the time suppliers have whacked their annual increase on cost prices.

So I’m going to try and be a little contrary (as ever, I hear you thinking) at least for our 50,000 newsletter subscribers and I’m going to cut prices on a load of premium cigars next week… Whilst stocks last. I’ll hold other prices at pre-Budget levels as long as possible too of course.

cutting the ribbon LCDHAfter a few months of ‘running in’ our new La Casa del Habano in Chester and having a lot of fun with tasting evenings we finally held our official launch party last Tuesday evening. We had a fabulous evening and crammed almost 70 customer in over various time slots over the course of the evening which was pretty impressive for our little premises!

Sean Croley (sales and Marketing Director) from Hunters & Frankau cut the ribbon on the humidor and provided us with some delicious Por Larranaga Sobresalientes to sample and enjoy which we matched up with The Dalmore Cigar Malt… Whatta combo 🙂

lcdh chester party 2The cake was made by our retail sales assistant Karen’s sister (there goes my diet) and was pretty cool to say the least, catering with thanks to Bar Lounge (open late and cigar friendly) and chocolate by Rococo and a very successful event was enjoyed by all.

The local newspaper very kindly covered the event but seemed to get their investigative journalism wrong by reporting that La Casa del Habanos had replaced Turmeaus Tobacconist in Chester which of course it has not as we are still very merrily trading in the shop next door as Turmeaus with a massive selection of every type of tobacco you could dream of and a huge selection of New World cigars including Padron, Alec Bradley, Fuente, Inka – Secret Blend and of course Oliva to name a few in the walk in humidor.

lcdh chester party 3My thanks to my Turmeaus Team (Christine, Sara, Rosie, Karen, Calum and Annie) for putting together such a great evening. Thanks to our sponsors and most of all thanks to our customers.

Next week we open the doors to Turmeaus Norfolk and the Oliva sampling lounge on Tuesday evening, pretty sure the event is fully booked but may be able to squish in one or two more if you book up fast. We are featuring some superb Oliva cigar sampling and Cuban rum on what promises to be a memorable evening.

The Norfolk project took months longer than expected but it’s been worth the wait to get the results we required. Its unique in so far as it’s a cashless business, credit card ordering/purchasing only on your phone or on our tablets and of course our helpful staff are at hand to assist if clients want us to do the ordering for them. So what’s that all about? Well, it ensures our lowest current internet prices in store every day of the week. Focus groups that we held thought the concept was very cool and so do I!

The Norfolk Turmeaus adjoins our main warehouse premises so as you can imagine the range of cigars, pipe tobacco, humidors and accessories is quite huge. As part of the opening event we are offering a very specially priced Cain Serie F Perfecto to all of our clients for a very limited time whilst stocks last.

After the Chester and Norfolk opening events it’s time for me to knuckle down with The Albany project in Liverpool and here’s a sneak peak of one half of the exterior plan! We have to have very sensible signage as The Albany is a beautiful Listed building but I don’t think anyone will be able to mistake it for anything but a Turmeaus 🙂 We recently found out that there was a Turmeaus shop in The Albany around 60 years ago! Nice to be returning…

the_albany_plan
On a terribly sad note I lost one of my dearest, closest and best friends two days ago. David Hammond http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/cigarblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/15th_habano_cigar_festival_7.jpg was a cigar aficionado who was cruelly taken too soon. David had been very unwell and was the kindest and bravest man I ever had the pleasure of knowing. A dear friend who enjoyed herfing in London and Havana with me over the last 18 years. I shall miss him terribly and my condolences go to his family. I’ll be smoking one of my finest cigars in his honour.

david_hammond
Times to kick back for the weekend with a baggie full of Cohiba Robusto Supremo and Bolivar Belicosos Orchant Seleccion which I will be thoroughly enjoying with a dram or two of our exclusive Robert Graham Ben Nevis 18 year old single malt.

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

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