 New cigar trade magazine “Cigar Buyer” speaks to British cigar market
Los Angeles, December 16 – “Take a national vote tomorrow and smoking would be banned.”
So says editor Dominic Roskrow’s opening editorial in the new issue of Cigar Buyer, a British magazine for the tobacco trade.
While Roskrow may be right about Britain, I doubt his sentiment would be shared on these shows, despite the strong anti-tobacco current in the U.S. More on that below.
In the meantime, the new issue (no. 2) has some excellent features and two tastings reflecting the British view.
Make Mine Havana:
Given the close relationship between Cuba and the British cigar market, there’s little doubt that tasters there will prefer Havana-made cigars to those from outside Cuba, right?
Right.
In both tastings in Cigar Buyer, Havana cigars came out ahead, although some Dominican-made brands had good showings:
• In a tasting of new releases to the U.K. market, six cigars earned marks of 9 or better and one received a 10! The perfect score went to the Partagas Serie D No. 1 (Edicion Limitada 2004), a 6 3/4-inch by 50-ring double corona. Noting its “rich, earthy flavour with peppery aroma,” the No. 1 earned an “Editor’s Choice” award.
Of the six cigars scoring 9 or better, four were from Cuba:
> Romeo y Julieta Hermosos No. 2
...(Edicion Limitada 2004, 6 1/4 x 47), 9.5.
> Cuaba Salomones (7 1/4 x 57 torpedo), 9.2.
> Hoyo de Monterrey Petit Robusto (4 x 50), 9.0.
> Montecristo Edmundo (5 1/2 x 52), 9.0.
But two were from the Dominican Republic!
> Cuesta-Rey Quorum (4 1/2 x 38), 9.5, and
> Zino Platinum Scepter Shorty (4 1/2 x 43), 9.0.
The Quorum is not marketed in the U.S., but drew raves for its maduro wrapper and creamy and chocolate taste . . . and its low price compared with the other brands in the tasting. The Zino earned good notices for its “sophisticated range of delicate flavors” that were summarized as “sweet, peppery and distinctive.”
Two sizes of the El Credito International line – from General Cigar – earned scores in the 8s and the Indian Tabac Vintage 1990 Torpedo from Rocky Patel garnered an 8.3.
• In a tasting of Churchill-sized cigars (7 inches by 47-48 ring), there were 10 scores of 9 or better among the 25 entries from four nations.
Two perfect scores of 10 were handed out to the Hoyo de Monterrey Churchill and the Romeo y Julieta Churchill from Cuba. These are popular choices and well-earned, although hardly surprising.
Scores of 9 or better were more interesting, perhaps reflecting a maturing attitude about cigars from outside Cuba:
> 9.7: Cohiba Esplendido (Cuba)
> 9.5: Punch Churchill (Cuba) and
> 9.5: Zino Mouton-Cadet No. 8 (Honduras)
> 9.3: Domaine Avo <30> (Dom. Rep.)
> 9.0: Bolivar Coronas Gigantes (Cuba), Davidoff Millennium Blend (Dom. Rep.), Sancho Panza Coronas Gigantes (Cuba), Santa Damiana Churchill (Dom. Rep.)
Four from Cuba, two from the Dominican and one from Honduras. One wonders what score another Honduran star – Excalibur – would have received if included.
Dominican, Honduran and Nicaraguan cigars scored strongly in the 8s in this tasting, led by Davidoff Aniversario No. 2 and Avo XO Maestoso from the Dominican Republic at 8.8, the Griffin’s Prestige (Dom. Rep.) and the Private Stock Tubos No. 1 at 8.7. The Macanudo Vintage No. 1 Cabinet Selection 1993 earned an 8.5 along with cigars from C.A.O. (Nicaragua), Dunhill (Dom. Rep.) and Don Pedro Ramos (Honduras).
What’s Good for Partagas is Good for Macanudo:
We’ve hailed the unique Partagas Cifuentes Season Blend for Fall 2004 from General Cigar, possibly an industry first to have a cigar blended for a three-month season.
But the British are also being treated to a special blend, this time from Macanudo, General Cigar’s leading blend in the U.S. and also a player in the British market. Cigar Buyer notes the introduction of the “Macanudo Reserva Anual 2004.”
These cigars feature Cameroon wrappers instead of the Connecticut-wrapped Macanudos we are so familiar with here. Only 650 boxes of each of three sizes were made: Divino (5 x 38), Maximo (5 1/2 x 49) and Encanto (6 x 49).
The “Anual 2004" designation indicates that there will be an annual release of such cigars from Macanudo. What will U.S. Customs say when you bring back a box of those on your next trip to London?
Would Smoking Be Banned in a U.S. Vote?
The magazine has a lengthy exposition about the anti-tobacco feeling sweeping Britain just now and while there is some concern about the status of smoking, it’s hardly going to go away.
In the U.S., the latest statistics show more than 44 million Americans smoke some form of tobacco. That’s a lot of people and although it’s a minority, I have the impression that any group which tries to ban – as opposed to regulate – smoking will have a tough time of it.
Part of this is practicality: governments across the nation would be the ones gasping for air if the fat wash of tobacco tax money stopped pouring into their coffers. Moreover, prohibition is something that has a bad history in the U.S. – as well as in Britain. Widespread civil disobedience – as just when alcoholic beverages were banned – will be inevitable and even when Queen Victoria banned smoking during her reign in the 19th Century, British men simply took the practice “underground” and the private club movement exploded, taking smoking off the streets for the most part.
Finally, Americans have a strong inclination to maintain their freedoms – and the freedoms of their fellow citizens – when challenged. The howling which continues today over the strictures of the Patriot Act, the thousands of Americans who visit Cuba without authorization, even the widespread file-sharing of pictures, recordings and motion pictures by kids who know that copyrights are being trampled as they do it, are all signs that at its base, the American view is as it was on Navy flags when fighting the British in the 1770s: “Don’t Tread On Me.”
I think our right to smoke tobacco in the U.S., at least, is safe for now. If the do-gooders want to eliminate us, they should allow us to smoke more, jeering us with a turn on Patrick Henry’s immortal chant: “Give Me Liberty . . . And Give Me Death.”
~ Rich Perelman
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