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FIRST PUFF: BEYOND PINAR

After the pre-embargo tobacco is gone, then what?

Los Angeles, October 1 – Paul Magier looked like a proud father.

As the head of Puros de Armando Ramos, distributors of the high-profile Pinar cigar series made from pre-embargo tobacco, Magier gets a lot of inquiries. Like, when will the inventories of pre-Castro tobacco be exhausted?

For the first time, there was a definitive answer at this year’s Retail Tobacco Dealers of America international convention and trade show: about three years.

The Pinar brand is already on allocation to retailers who have been carrying it for some time and the stock of cigars made with the Cuban tobacco will be distributed by mid-2007. In the meantime, Magier is ready with a replacement.

Enter Pinar Suprema.

Made in the Puros de Armando Ramos factory in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the Pinar Suprema made its debut at this summer’s trade show in seven sizes: four straight-sided and three torpedo-shaped giants.

To obtain a taste that would please fans of the existing Pinar line, the blend includes leaves from some interesting places: an Ecuadorian-grown wrapper, Costa Rica-grown binder and filler tobaccos from Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

It is designed to be a full-bodied cigar, but our tasting revealed:

• Excellent construction, with a solid, tight ash and an even burn. Every puff offered the complete flavor of the blend.

• An easy draw, with a toasty aroma that provided a hint of pepper in the middle third of the cigar.

• More of a medium or medium-to-full body than the full-power treatment we might have expected. The cigar is not a mouth-filler in terms of our taste, but offers a pleasant, toasty flavor with a smooth, caramelized finish. It’s enjoyable and there’s a hint of spice to the finish in mid-course.

The Pinar Suprema samples we tried were subtler than we expected and although no longer made with old Cuban leaves, the brand is not to be underestimated. At a suggested retail price (before local tobacco taxes) of $5.00-6.75, it’s accessible to all smokers. All seven sizes come in all-cedar cabinets of 20.

Congratulations Paul. For fans of Pinar, if your tobacconist carries the existing Pinar line, ask about the Suprema. It’s worth a try.

From the Cubador:
Notwithstanding the self-congratulatory statements circulated to news media following the impacts of Hurricanes Charley and Ivan, Cuban authorities had to shut down 118 factories in various industries due to a lack of electrical power.

Facilities manufacturing steel, sugar and paper will be shut down for most or all of the month of October and other plants and residential neighborhoods will be subject to scheduled blackouts. Said Cuban president Fidel Castro, “An electrical system that has all of these problems is a weak system.”

There was no indication that the blackout would affect the nation’s cigar factories, but if the sugar industry – Cuba’s top export – is affected, cigar production is likely to be affected in some way.

Still chic after all these years:
Despite the neo-Prohibitionist bent against tobacco in the U.S., there are continuing signs of life in the cigar world across the oceans:

• In Cape Town, South Africa, a new and “chic” cigar bar and lounge is being built at the Surfside Restaurant, right on top of the Atlantic Ocean. “There’s not a place in Cape Town that will look like this,” noted restaurant manager Jaco Knight. “It’s the place you’ll want to be seen in.” Let’s go!

• In Edinbugh, Scotland, a new cigar lounge has been installed at Robert Graham Cigars. Immediately popular, the lounge itself could be closed if Scotland passes a “no smoking” law for all interior spaces, including smokeshops. Ireland has already passed such a law.

Writing in The Scotsman, correspondent Stephen McGinty noted, however, that “Winston Churchill, the world’s most celebrated cigar smoker . . . has his own way round any prohibition on smoking. In 1945 he hosted a luncheon for King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, in whose royal presence drinking and smoking were prohibited.

“In his war memoirs, Churchill wrote: ‘As I was the host, I raised the matter at once, and said to the interpreter that if it was the religion of His Majesty to deprive himself of smoking and alcohol, I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, during and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them. The King graciously accepted the position.’”
~ Rich Perelman

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