Cigars, Cigar Information and where to find Premium Cigars, Discounted Cigars and even Cheap Cigars - ALTADIS STILL SWINGING ON THE GOLF COURSE

ALTADIS STILL SWINGING ON THE GOLF COURSE

ALTADIS STILL SWINGING ON THE GOLF COURSE

Plus: Steals and Deals from BestCigarPrices.com, Famous Smoke Shop, Payless Cigars and Thompson Cigar Company

Los Angeles, February 9 – It’s no secret that golf and cigars go together. But it’s Altadis that continues to exploit the tie with the only smoking “team,” the Team Te-Amo.

For a sponsor, visibility is the key and Altadis is sitting pretty with early-season money leader Dana Quigley, who won the MasterCard Championship and finished second in the Turtle Bay Championship last week in Hawaii.

Quigley is a sponsor’s dream for visibility, not only for playing well (he was also 14th on the money list last year), but for competing in all 30 tournaments and making the cut in 29!

Team Te-Amo also includes Tom Wargo (72nd on the money list last season), Walter Morgan (126th on the money list in 2004) and Larry Laoretti, who was one of the top money winners on the tour in the 1990s, but who is now essentially retired.

The most interesting part of the sponsorship is the choice of cigar by Altadis. The Te-Amo brand, whose profile receded during the Cigar Boom as Dominican, Honduran and Nicaraguan-made cigars came to the fore, is an excellent match for golf. It’s well made, has a stout flavor that stands up well to being outdoors (especially those with maduro wrappers) and is value priced so you can enjoy it without a second thought.

Steals and Deals:
Things are pretty quiet at most of the major mail-order and on-line retailers we follow, but we found some nice items at Famous Smoke Shop and Thompson Cigar Company:

BestCigarPrices.com:
A rarely-seen special on the marvelous Ashton Cabinet Selection Pyramid (6 x 52) in a pack of four: regularly $40.44, now $32.00. Not cheap, but the best price we have seen recently and an affordable way for torpedo fanatics to try the smooth Ashton Cabinet blend.

Famous Smoke Shop:
Arthur Zaretsky and his team want you to try some brands which are well-known, but not as popular as some of their siblings in the C.A.O. and Camacho lines:

• C.A.O. l’Anniversaire Cameroon, probably the tastiest of three l’Anniversaire lines, now on sale in packs of five in five sizes. Regularly $30.95 to $35.95, now $24.95 to $29.95. Our pick is the Churchill five-pack (6 7/8 x 48), now just $27.95, a great way to try this blend.

• Camacho SLR (Special Limited Reserve) from Honduras, a little lighter blend than the awesome Camacho Corojo, but still full of flavor, now $99.95 for the Churchill size (7 x 48), regularly $131.95 for the box of 25.

Payless Cigars:
New Orleans-based Payless offers a nice price on Avo and a wild deal on Indian Tabac Cameroon Legend:

• Avo Legacy limited-edition robusto (5 3/4 x 48) in a box of 12 with a special CD of Avo’s music included for $93.95. The list price was $144.95 and quantities are limited as this item becomes harder and harder to find.

• Avo Signature at the best prices we have seen recently: a box of 10 belicosos (6 x 48) is offered at $66.95 while the robusto size (5 x 52) is available for $69.95.

• Indian Tabac Cameroon Legend in all sizes, already well priced at $65 to $80 the box, but additional boxes are offered at just $25 each – $1 a stick! The available range includes the Robusto Grande (5 x 52), Toro Grande (6 1/4 x 54) and Super Toro (6 x 58).

Thompson Cigar Company:
One of the things Thompson does best is combinations of cigars in samplers, often housed in elegant leather cases, like these:

• Indian Tabac Super Fuerte in eight different sizes, offered in packs of ten from $37 to $61. The kicker is that buying ten gets you eight more free and a zip-around Thompson leather case, giving you 18 cigars and a nice case for the price of ten. The Super Fuerte is one of Rocky Patel’s best and we ranked it no. 16 in our list of the best full-bodied cigars available in the U.S., a blend well worth your attention.

• A traveler’s case for the fanatic who needs to carry his cigars in absolute protection. A Road Warrior-style case of hi-impact plastic with foam cut-outs for 18 cigars and 18 top-flight cigars to go inside: four each from Arturo Fuente and C.A.O. and two each from Carlos Torano, Don Diego, H. Upmann, Partagas, Punch and Romeo y Julieta, all for $89.

• Our favorite travel case, a hard-leather, cedar-lined, Italian-leather Andre Garcia ten-cigar model, made in India and stuffed with two cigars each from Arturo Fuente, C.A.O. Gold, La Flor Dominicana, Partagas and Romeo y Julieta. The 10 cigars and the case go for $75.

Plus, the no. 2-ranked item on our list of the top ten cigar “gadgets” is on sale again: the Thompson box opener. Solidly made, it has a serrated edge to cut guarantee seals, a smooth edge to wrench open the box, a notch to surround the box nail while opening and a dimple to help remove it. Guaranteed to please any cigar lover, it’s now just $9.95, down from the regular price of $19.95.

Hammer Time:
Lots of auction action this week as a box of Fuente Fuente Opus X robustos (5 1/4 inches by 50 ring) showed up on eBay and will end this morning. Through mid-day Tuesday, the sealed box of 29 from a seller in Hermitage, Pennsylvania had drawn 11 bids, topping out at $365, “only” $12.59 a stick, so the final price will certainly be higher.

Famous Smoke Shop’s Cigar Auctioneer site has another box of 40 Padron Serie 1926 40th Anniversary torpedoes (6 1/2 x 54) up, starting at $1. The last batch went for between $36 and $50 a copy, with more than 80 bids in total. This new auction closes next Monday night. Good luck!
~ Rich Perelman

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