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

CLEAR THINKING IN MISSISSIPPI

Plus: Steals and Deals from Atlantic Cigar, Cigars International and J-R Cigars

Los Angeles, January 4 – “The tax system was meant to help fund the people’s government, not to be used as a punishment or as a system to dictate morals.”

Amen to an editorial in the Delta Democrat-Times of Greenville, Mississippi that appeared last Friday. At issue is a fight between Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a Republican, and the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, which was created in 1997 by the multi-state settlement with the major cigarette companies.

Barbour would like to do away with the agency altogether, even though Mississippi is a signatory to the settlement which mandated the creation of the group. The Partnership, for its part, wants to add a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes to spend more on anti-tobacco efforts, purportedly aimed only at teenagers.

The Democrat-Times came out against Barbour for trying to crush an agency mandated by law, but also stated “we don’t agree with efforts by the Partnership to slap a $1 tax increase on a pack of cigarettes.

“Yes, we realize the funds would go toward relieving the Medicaid crunch.

“Yes, we realize it might deter smoking.

“Yes, we realize 63.5 percent of those recently surveyed would support such a tax.

“Just as we aren’t comfortable with the governor meddling in the Partnership’s funding, we don’t think agencies should be meddling with private enterprise. The tax system was meant to help fund the people’s government, not to be used as a punishment, or as a system to dictate morals.

“In the same vein, we’re not in support of the citywide smoking ban proposed by the city of Greenville that will likely become an issue after the holidays. . . .

“Will it drive people out of town to dine? We don’t know, but why take that chance when we’re already seeing restaurants like Shapley’s and Shelton House shut down?

“And, we’re just as opposed to a tax directed at the morality of our citizenry, we’re opposed to comparable city ordinances.”

Couldn’t agree more. A ray of hope in the stormy skies of these anti-tobacco times.

Steals and Deals:
Here are some nice ways to start the new year with savings from some of our favorite vendors:

• Atlantic Cigar:
Although highly limited, our friends at Atlantic Cigar have some rarely-seen sample packs on the Arturo Fuente-made Diamond Crown Maximus series, allowing you to try five instead of 20:

> Double Corona No. 1 (8 inches by 50 ring), five for $63.75.
> Churchill No. 2 (7 x 50), five for $54.38.
> Pyramid No. 3 (6 3/8 x 50), five for $60.00.
> Toro No. 4 (6 x 50), five for $45.00.
> Robusto No. 5 (5 x 50), five for $35.62.

Although they’re probably out, Atlantic also has (or had) some five-packs of the rare Hemingway Between the Lines in packs of three for $69.00. Expensive, but they’re about as rare as a 1911 Marmon Wasp (the car, not the insect).

• Cigars International:
Keith Meier and the boys at CI have a very strong relationship with Kaizad Hansotia, the force between the emerging Gurkha line and all of its permutations, so they can offer some worthwhile specials on the most popular blends:

> Gurkha Legend: $15-21 off the most popular sizes: Churchill, Robusto and Torpedo, now ranging from $215-239 the box of 20.

> Gurkha Master’s Select: $10-26 off this fabulous line, especially the perfectos! The Perfecto No. 1 (6 x 60) is now $10 off at $129 for a box of 25. The Perfecto No. 2 (5 x 54), is $13 off at $119 for 25 and the Perfecto No. 3 (4 x 54) is down $16 at just $109 for a box of 25.

Discounts are also available on the straight-sided Presidente (7 1/2 x 53, now $16 off at $139), El Duke (4 3/4 x 56, now $26 off at $119) and the XO (6 x 60, now $11 off at $139).

> Gurkha Regent: nice reductions of $11-15 on the more affordable Regent line, now $139-159 for the Churchill, Robusto, Toro or Torpedo sizes.

• J-R Cigars:
J-R is now carrying the Partagas Cifuentes Seasonal Blend Fall 2004 and has excellent pricing on a wonderful blend that’s well worth your attention, especially at these rates:

> Septiembre (5 1/2 x 49), now $89.95 for 20.
> Octubre (6 x 54), now $98.95 for 20.
> Noviembre (6 1/2 x 45), now $89.95 for 20.

J-R just posted two unique items in its online catalog, Bolivar Belicoso Finos (6 x 36) and Panetelitas (6 x 32) originally made for Club Macanudo in New York when it opened in 1996.

General Cigar – which makes Bolivar for the U.S. market and owns and operates Club Macanudo – sold almost all of their brands and even some special sizes at the club when it opened. These cigars were part of that inventory.

When the focus was narrowed to fewer brands and sizes, General sold these Bolivars and a few other long-gone oddities such as an 8-inch by 50-ring Macanudo to J-R. The quantities were so small that the cigars were “shipped” on a two-wheel dolly from Club Macanudo on East 63rd Street to J-R’s storage vault in mid-town Manhattan!

In the frenzy of the Cigar Boom expansion of the mid-1990s, the Bolivars were expensive cigars as that brand was not marketed widely. Today, you can try these two vintage shapes – both panatelas – for less than J-R paid for them nine years ago! At $125 for a box of 25 Belicoso Finos and $75 for 25 of the Panetelitas, you can only imagine what the original retail sales price of these sticks must have been originally!
~ Rich Perelman

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