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I’D WALK A MILE FOR A CARAMEL . . .

Of sugar and spice and everything nice . . . would you like a little pepper on that?

Los Angeles, September 9 – We’re trying to finish our tasting of medium-to-full and full-bodied cigars and finally received our last shipment yesterday after waiting almost two weeks for deliveries from some of our favorite mail-order vendors (we pay retail just like you do).

In the process of our tasting of dozens of brands for this ranking, our biggest so far, I was reminded of a wonderful paragraph from the best book ever written on Havana cigars, “The Connoisseur’s Guide to the Havana Cigar,” published in 1992 and written (in French) primarily by Vahe Gerard for his family’s famed Gerard Pere et Fils shop which he runs in Geneva, Switzerland.

In Gerard’s introduction to the Montecristo brand, he noted (and translator Stephanie Johnston wrote) “After the [Castro-led] revolution, Montecristo became the spearhead for Havana cigars. They were very soft, smooth, suave, almost caramelised with marvellous fragance and class. Alas, Montecristo became a victim of its success in the mid-60s and especially after 1970. Having become the world’s largest brand of Havana cigars, Montecristo saw a huge increase in its production and – as a natural consequence for an artisanal product like Havanas – experienced a decline in its quality.”

I can’t say that the cigars we have tried for the full-bodied ranking list have been anything but outstanding in quality. Even those that won’t make the list still offer marvelous construction and an easy draw.

But I have been struck by the contrast between the two schools of taste in most of the cigars tasted: the power of pepper against the appeal of the caramel.

Without giving away our rankings yet, you can’t help but be impressed with the quality of manufacture, but the difference in taste between the Camacho Corojo (from Honduras) or Montecristo Platinum (from the Dominican Republic) series on the one hand and Davidoff’s Millennium Blend (also from the Dominican) or Excalibur by Hoyo de Monterrey (Honduras) on the other.

Have you tried these brands? If not, you’re missing a real treat and a fabulous demonstration of the blender’s art. The Camacho and Montecristo are powerful, spicy cigars in which the peppery presence continues throughout, but always under control. In the Davidoff and Excalibur brands, the flavors are rich, deep and even sweet, recalling the taste of caramel for which Gerard so praised the mid-century Montecristos he wrote of above.

It’s an Indian summer experiment to savor, but with one word of advice: smoke the Davidoff or Excalibur first. You won’t be tasting anything after you’ve fired up a Camacho or Monte Platinum.

What about Gerard’s beloved Havanas in all this? Another story for another day.

Could it happen here?
The British news headline service Ananova ran a chilling story about a governmental investigation and review into an incident in Brazil where six police officers cornered a man in a restaurant for smoking a cigar.

Seems that a woman who didn’t appreciate the cigar – even though being consumed in a smoking section of the restaurant – called her daughter who is a police officer, and as a result, six cars were sent to the Porcao Restaurant in Rio de Janeiro.

The smoker refused to put his cigar out, or to go with the police. The officers backed down when the smoker’s father, a colonel in the Brazilian Air Force, made his objection known.

According to Ananova, Col. Hermano Sampaio told the Terra Noticias Populares: “My son was in a smoking area. The policemen showed their badges trying to intimidate him, but then I showed mine and we were even.”

Now the Brazilian Department of Justice wants to know why so many officers were sent in the first place and once there, why no arrest was made.

Meathead Alert:
Political activist (and sometimes film director) Rob Reiner continues to work to tax everything in sight to fund his pet projects for children in California. He’s been whining of late about a lack of revenue from the taxes that the 1994 ballot initiative he backed placed on tobacco products in California, so earlier this year he tried – and later abandoned – a plan to increase property taxes for commercial property.

He might take a lesson from Germany, which is now facing a substantial shortfall itself in revenues projected from its new cigarette tax increase of 1.2 Euro cents (about 1.5 U.S. cents) per stick, with similar increases slated for December 2004 and September 2005.

Despite the increase, revenue from tobacco taxes in Germany is down 3.2% for August compared to August 2003, before the tax was instituted. This impacts planned government payments for health care, which is so expensive that funds earmarked for health must now be supplemented by tax revenues.

Government officials, of course, say they will stay on course. But the irony is that to meet the costs of health care, the German government may have to lower taxes on tobacco.

Note to Reiner: if you’d like to experiment with this concept, you could back a bill, probably with the approval of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, to reduce taxes on cigars and pipe tobacco and allow establishments to choose whether they are smoke-free or pro-smoking. With places to smoke besides the sidewalk and more competitive pricing on cigars and pipe tobacco, sales would rise (a lot have fled to out-of-state mail-order and on-line merchants) and more taxes would be collected! What a concept.
~ Rich Perelman

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