Herfing USA

Herfing USA

Just back from a hard weeks herfing in New York :) We enjoyed excellent weather but fortunately the weather was not crucial as there are so many places to herf indoors. New York is seriously cigar friendly. 

My first stop was Davidoff on 6th Avenue. This used to be my early morning hang out for many years when it was De La Concha and it's a bit of a shame that the Olde worlde charm of DLC has been replaced with an ultra-modern shop. It used to have so much atmosphere and was a very friendly place to meet and chat with fellow cigar smokers. I heard that the Davidoff Puro D'Oro range may be discontinued so I smoked a Gordito as I always enjoyed this blend. A perfectly constructed cigar (aren't all Davidoffs?!) with a slight saltiness as a flavour characteristic but light to medium strength that made for a well-balanced smoke.

Next stop was my favourite cigar store in the USA, the world famous Nat Sherman. I love this place as the staff and the customers are all super friendly. I'm bias though as they also feature Inca - Secret Blend in the fabulous walk-in humidor! That said I smoked Nat Sherman Sterling which are one of my favourite New World cigars. We proudly import and stock a good range of Nat Sherman cigars both online and in store. Great value and excellent quality cigars that we highly recommend.

I think the newest Davidoff shop and lounge is at Brookfield Place and I enjoyed a Davidoff Nicaraguan robusto whilst Karyn was busy shopping. This cigar store is beautiful and the service was very friendly too, the humidor was very impressive and the lounge very comfortable.

Saturday night was time for the late show at Carnegie Club with a Sinatra tribute show. Brilliant orchestra and singer and a fabulous late night herf with some of my best friends. We herfed our way through a ton of Fuente Opus X paired up with... A lot of Macallan :) till the early hours of the morning.

Late night smokes at Bar and Books on Lexington is always fun and they have a great whisky menu too. They have a few locations including Prague in the Czech Republic so I plan to check that out next week when I'm over there.

We enjoyed some great evenings including going to Lavo which was very cool, Polo Bar - very chic, and Park Side highly recommended. We also herfed at Gran Havana Room and blasted through a box of Regius Orchant Seleccion Hermosos that I brought over for friends to try. Sunday was time to relax at Club Macanudo where we smoked Macanudo cigars :) with some Balvenie 21. All in all a rather mega herfing week and I can't wait for my next trip to the Big Apple

I don't think I have ever seen Havana so busy, tons of tourists generally and a huge number of Americans as travel restrictions seem to be more or less lifted. Most of the cigars stores were well stocked with standard lines and selling tons of stock to the tourists.

Various areas around the Capitolio building and National ballet look like they are being well spruced up in readiness for President Obama's visit. It's so sad to see so many crumbling streets if you look just a little further. I hope as the embargo ends and investment rolls in this beautiful city is restored to its former glory and full potential and even more important a better life for the Cuban people.

The two other new cigars I tried in Havana were the new Partagas Corona Gorda Anejados which was a pretty decent smoke from my favourite vintage (2007) and the UK regional edition Juan Lopez Seleccion Superba due out later this year which was no less than Magnificent. For those who remember the Juan Lopez Seleccion Suprema, you are in for a treat as this cigar was even better.

by Mitchell Orchant