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LOVE FOR SALE . . . I MEAN SAIL

Plus: 55-year-old Cuesta-Rey “Clear Havanas” Auctioned on eBay

Los Angeles, February 8 – The Super Bowl is over, so it must be time to get ready for . . . Valentine’s Day!

In honor of the annual day for lovers, Altadis U.S.A. is giving away a $5,000-plus prize to entrants to its “Romeo y Julieta Love for Sail” sweepstakes which began on February 1 and runs through June 30, 2005.

It costs nothing to enter, either at a participating retailer or online (click here), with the prize to be awarded around July 15, 2005.

The grand prize is a six-day/five-night cruise for two in the Caribbean (including airfare to and from the embarkation point of San Juan, Puerto Rico), landing in the Dominican Republic where Jose Seijas, general manager of the world’s largest cigar factory – the Tabacalera de Garcia in La Romana – will offer a private tour of the facility, followed by a dinner at top-class restaurant in La Romana. Of course, entrants must be at least 21 years old.

If you can, enter at your local smokeshop. If you win, the retailer gets to go too!

Naturally, there’s an opportunity to buy some Romeo y Julieta cigars at the retailer where you enter. Special boxes of Romeo y Julieta in “3 for the price of 2" packages will be available for most of the blends in the line, including the Aniversario and popular Reserva Real series.

Romeos are a good bet at any time and the standard “1875" line is very reasonably priced. It’s perfectly constructed and also flavorful enough to be ranked no. 4 in our list of the best medium-bodied cigars available in the U.S.

What about Romeos as a gift? Look no further than the boxes of ten tubed cigars, either in the Clemenceau (6 inches by 50 ring) or Churchill (7 x 50) size!

Hammer Time:
A unique box of vintage cigars was auctioned off on eBay on Monday: a complete 1950 box of Cuesta-Rey perfecto-shaped cigars offered in a box shaped like a book.

Known in Cuba since at least the 1940s, this “libro”presentation was well executed, with 24 cigars vertically positioned in four groups of six inside the “book.” The exterior was shaped like a standard hardback, with the words “The Romance of Cuba” on the cover above a drawing of a team of oxen drawing a cart. The only way you could spot that this was a box and not a book was by the U.S. tax stamp on the bottom.

When opened, the inside of the cover showed the familiar Cuesta-Rey label above a private label holiday message from the operators of the Lee Terminal in Tampa, wishing the recipients a happy new year.

The cigars themselves were “clear havanas,” made in Tampa by all-Cuban tobaccos. All 24 cigars in the box were perfectos of about 5 inches in height and about 42 ring gauge.

Offered by a Florida antiques dealers, the box was much appreciated by collectors, as it drew eight bids and a final price of $351.01. That’s $14.63 a stick, not bad for 55-year-old beauties from Tampa.

Steals and Deals:
There was less activity this week among the top mail-order and on-line retailers we track in our CigarWire Comparison Shopper this past week. But . . .

Cigars International is offering a great way to taste a terrific Dominican-made brand from Carlos Torano: his Exodus 1959 Silver series. The Robusto size (5 inches by 50 ring) is now offered in packs of five for just $18, the best price we’ve seen yet in this sampler line.

From the Cubador:
Cuba’s anti-smoking laws went into effect yesterday, eliminating smoking from most indoor areas and requiring restaurants to have smoking and non-smoking sections.

There’s no word on exactly how effective the new laws are, but those who question whether nearly all Cubans will comply should consider the choice which confronts those who flaunt almost any law in a totalitarian country. Given a choice between smoking outdoors and going to prison, most will take their cigarettes outdoors, don’t you think?

Besides, the weather’s normally warm, so all you need is an umbrella to keep you out of the afternoon rains . . . and trouble.
~ Rich Perelman

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