Cigars, Cigar Information and where to find Premium Cigars, Discounted Cigars and even Cheap Cigars

START SMOKIN’ FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Our top selections for cigars to celebrate with and to give as gifts

Los Angeles, December 10 – Cigars are happily a well-respected holiday present. What smoker wouldn’t be happy to find a box of Davidoff, Macanudo or Montecristo under the tree?

Although we’ve detailed our selections as far back as August 11, here’s a review of our picks to make you . . . or the cigar smoker you love . . . happy for the holidays:

• For the novice, boxes of 10 Romeo y Julieta cigars in tubes. Take your pick of Churchill en Tubos or Deluxe No. 1 Tubos (both 7 inches by 50 ring gauge), Clemeneau en Tubos or Deluxe No. 2 Tubos (6 x 50) or the Rothschild en Tubos (5 x 50). These fabulous cigars ranked no. 4 on our list of the best medium-bodied cigars available in the U.S.

• For the enthusiast, it’s the H. Upmann Vintage Cameroon Office Jar. Reminiscent of the old days in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, this is a slightly different presentation of the traditional “office jar.” Rather than having the cigars packed tightly into the jar as in the past, the heavy glass jar is much larger than the bundle-pack of 25 Vintage Cameroons offered in a choice of four sizes. The jar is great and the cigars are marvy, ranking no. 8 in our survey of the top full-bodied cigars available in the U.S.

• As we noted previously, for the connoisseur, forget about impossible-to-find boxes of Fuente Fuente Opus X, Padron 30 Aniversario or prehistoric Cubans. Give a limited-edition set like the not-always-available Avo Legacy (5 3/4 inches by 48 ring) in boxes of 12 or the newer and equally showy Davidoff Especiales 7, a 5 1/2-inch by 48-ring robusto which is their limited-edition cigar for 2004.

• For the true “cigar hound,” how about a breathtaking Davidoff Gift Box in the small and medium sizes, or the outstanding Aurora Preferidos in your choice of wrappers and tube colors: Cameroon (platinum tube), Brazilian maduro (red), Corojo (gold) or Connecticut (sapphire). At about $400 the box, they’re aren’t cheap, but they’re almost as good as gold to smoke, ranking no. 11 in our review of the top medium-bodied cigars on the U.S. market.

• Finally, for just plain fun, there is a bundled brand called Merry Christmas and Happy New Year with Santa prominently pictured on the label. Sadly, these cigars are no longer available at wholesale, but you might be able to find some at the old distributor, Atlantic Cigar Co. of Phoenix, Arizona (not related to our friends Atlantic Cigar in New York, who are hale and hearty this holiday season). The ACC telephone number in Phoenix is (602) 277-3388.

How about a speciality gift? We’ve already written about two remarkable gift sets from Altadis USA for their famed Montecristo brand:

• The hard-to-find Montecristo White Coffee Set (above) with a bundle of Montecristo White cigars – in your choice of sizes – plus a pound of Montecristo White Havana Espresso Blend coffee, a coffee jar, four espresso cups and saucers and a Montecristo White triangular ashtray! The price is $200-300 depending on the size of cigars included.

• The Montecristo Golf Set, a sort-of-triangular box with three golf balls, tees, a ball marker and 27 large-ring Montecristos: nine each Montecristo Platinum, Serie VI and Montecristo White cigars. It will also run you between $200-300.

Opus X Sampler also at Holt’s:
The 22-cigar Opus X Sampler we profiled on Wednesday from Prometheus International is not only available at Mike’s Cigars, but also now at Holt’s Cigar Co. and a small number of other retailers. Net proceeds from the sale of the samplers go to support the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation.

Tobacco Saving Lives:
A little-noticed story is circulating about a project supported by the European Union to bioengineer tobacco plants to create vaccines for diseases hampering some Third World nations.

The EU gave 12 million euro to a South African lab group to develop specially-grown strains of tobacco and other plants to produce medicines to fight HIV, tuberculosis and other diseases. Clinical trials of such drugs are hoped for within five years.

This new technique of “growing” drugs within plants is called “pharming” and has considerable promise to dramatically lower the costs of drug production, especially in Africa. “There’s a pile of so-called orphan vaccines, where the potential to make a profit is almost minimal,” according to Prof. Ed Rybicki of the University of Cape Town. In an interview with Wired, Rybicki noted “The big [drug] companies are not getting involved because people in Alabama don’t need [the vaccines], but people in the Sudan do.”

Rybicki noted the vast potential plants to grow proteins, projecting that a small planting of 2 1/2 acres of tobacco could produce up to 4,000,000 doses of vaccine!

Naturally, local environmental groups are against it because of the genetic engineering aspects of the experiments and concerns about contamination of local food supplies.

Prediction: one of the techniques for ingesting the drugs will be by smoking. What will the do-gooders say about cigarettes that save your life?!?

Intelligence Bill Bans Lighters:
The recently-passed bill to reform the U.S. intelligence services also included a provision which bans butane lighters from being carried aboard airplanes in pockets, purses or in carry-on luggage.

Lighters can be packed in checked baggage, but will be confiscated just as pocket knives are now at airport security checkpoints.

Since you can’t smoke on airlines, this shouldn’t be a hardship . . . unless you forget to pack your Dupont lighter and try to carry it on with you!

Coming Monday: our picks for the top cigars to celebrate the New Year!
~ Rich Perelman

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