 -R painting the town while Famous lowers prices
Los Angeles, September 17 – Sometimes you just have to shake your head.
Lew Rothman’s J-R Cigars has earned a wide reputation as a determined discounter of all kinds of cigars and has not only helped create new brands, but some of the most innovative packaging yet seen.
We have written before about the crazy use of a military ammunition box for the Belinda and La Finca brands. When Altadis brought back short sizes of famed brands like Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo and Trinidad in flip-top tins last year, J-R was the first to offer them.
Cigars in glass jars, burlap bags, coffins with 18-inch-long single cigars in them, now boxes of cigars which are packed in boxes that look like hard-bound library books (and the bookcases in which to keep them) . . . but nothing prepared us for cigars in paint cans!
Rothman originally offered some second-line cigars originally made by Altadis under contract for a private-label client packed in paint cans in a couple of long-filler or mixed-filler sizes priced at $21.95-34.95 for 40-50 cigars. Now he has turned up the heat by grabbing seconds from General Cigar’s enormous factory in the Dominican Republic and offering a full range of sizes in Connecticut, Cameroon or maduro wrappers from $55-65 a can of 45-60 cigars.
Since he identified the source as General’s Dominican operation, it was worthwhile to try and see what brands might be included. In Santiago, General produces these primary brands:
• With Cameroon wrappers:
> Cohiba
> Partagas
> Partagas Serie S
• With Connecticut wrappers:
> Bolivar
> Macanudo
> Macanudo Gold Label
> Macanudo Robust
> Macanudo Vintage
> Partagas Black Label
> Partagas Spanish Rosado
> Temple Hall
• With maduro wrappers:
> Macanudo Maduro
> Partagas No. 8
My best guess is that the Cameroon group includes both Cohiba and Partagas blends, but that the others are mostly Macanudo with quite a few others thrown in. But the “Cigars by the Gallon” can has to be one of the all-time great fixtures to the back of any golf cart.
It Costs Less to be Famous
In the meantime, Arthur Zaretsky has had his team at Famous Smoke Shop busy lowering prices of dozens of brands, including high-profile marques like Avo. Some of the best deals we saw included, but are certainly not limited to:
• Elegant Carlos Torano Tribute Churchills or Torpedos in packs of five at $58.65-62.95.
• Good prices in most sizes of the Dominican-made Henry Clay series, especially the Brevas Conservas at $57.95 for 25.
• Major reductions on La Tradicion Cabinet Series Perdomo Reserve.
Famous’s new prices, along with those of seven other national mail-order/on-line retailers, are posted for more than 500 brands on our value-rich CigarWire subscription service.
Habanos confirms little damage from Ivan
In the first official communication from Habanos, S.A., the distribution arm of the Cuban cigar industry, a short release confimed that the tobacco infrastructure of the Pinar del Rio suffered only minor damage from Hurricane Ivan.
The statement indicated that tobacco crops from previous harvests had been protected and that since the new crop will not be planted until October, the outlook for a successful planting was unchanged from normal years.
Only time will tell whether the amount of water absorbed by the soil in the hurricane season will cause problems with planting, but with more than a month to go, the outlook is better than might have been hoped for a week ago.
~ Rich Perelman
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