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

LITTLE CIGARS GETTING BIG

Plus: Cuban minimum wage more than doubles to $9.40 a month!

Los Angeles, April 25 – Sales of little cigars – sized like cigarettes, but made of tobacco and homogenized tobacco leaf – increased by 16 percent in 2004 to 2.9 billion.

At that level, Norman Sharp, President of the Cigar Association of America, indicated in a story in the Winston-Salem Journal that 2004 sales reached $160-170 million. That’s still a small part of the overall cigar sales total in the U.S.

The story focused on Lane Limited, a Tucker, Georgia-based company which is a unit of the Reynolds American tobacco conglomerate. Lane is primarily in the cigarette (Dunhill) and little cigar (Winchester) business, but is best known among cigar lovers as distributor of the Dunhill Dominican and Dunhill Signed Range brands. It was a major player in the cigar business until merged into British-American Tobacco in 1999 and went from more than a dozen brands – including Legion, Medal of Honor, Montecruz, Onyx and Royal Jamaica – to just the Dunhill business.

In the little cigar segment, Lane stands third behind Swisher International and Altadis U.S.A. According to the Maxwell Report, which follows cigarette and cigar consumption and sales statistics, Swisher has 42.7% of the market, led by its Swisher Sweets brand. Altadis has a whole portfolio of the little cigar brands, led by Dutch Treats, Hav-A-Tampa, Phillies Little Cigars, Erik, Between the Acts and others, and has a market share of 26.2%. Lane’s Winchester, Schimmelpennick and Captain Black brands own 15.5% of the market. Combined, that’s 84.4%.

Although the little cigar total reached 2.9 billion in 2004, the largest cigar segment by sales is machine-made large cigars at 4.6 billion. The premium cigar market – imported handmades – is comparatively tiny at 304 million last year, only about 3.9% of the total. But it’s the most fun.

From the Cubador:
Some of these stories are interesting, some are just sad:

• The Associated Press reported that during a stretch of eight speeches in 11 days by President Fidel Castro, one announcement shocked the entire island.

Castro told a national television audience that effective May 1,the minimum wage in Cuba would be raised from 100 pesos (about U.S. $4.20) to 225 pesos (about $9.40) per month.

Even with the help, the AP reported that the new minimum is behind the average government worker’s wage of 300 pesos a month (about $12). However, the story also pointed out that most Cuban citizens pay little or no rent and pay nothing for medical care and education.

• Given that economic situation, it’s no surprise that there are some Americans who have made a home in Cuba. Although the largest foreign homes for American citizens are Mexico (1.04 million) and Canada (687,700), about 2,000 Americans live on the forbidden island, according to another Associated Press story.

All told, an estimated 4 million U.S. citizens live outside the country.

• Cuba’s Rum Museum will begin hosting beginner’s classes in how to roll a cigar next month.

Maria Borbon, a 15-year veteran roller from the H. Upmann factory will lead the training courses, an extension of the already-popular cocktail lessons. Visitors can learn how to mix Cuban specialties like the Mojito, a blend of rum, lemon, sugar and mint.

The Museum is gaining in popularity. Housed in a colonial mansion from the 19th Century, it’s open daily from morning through mid-afternoon, but the restaurant and bar areas are now open until midnight!

Hammer Time:
Famous Smoke Shop’s CigarAuctioneer.com site is a magnet for hard-to-find cigars like the Padron 1926 Serie 40th Anniversary torpedoes and the Partagas 150 Ramon y Ramon Humidor.

Amazingly, both are up again in auctions this week. Don’t these guys know these cigars are hard to find?

The Padron 40ths (40 cigars) and Partagas 150s (150 cigars) are up in separate auctions and have retail prices of $1,600 and $2,720, respectively.

The bidding started at $1 and continues through Thursday, April 28 at 5:59 p.m. Eastern time.

PokerSmoker contact info:
Some readers saw an incorrect e-mail address in our Friday story on the May 5 event at Yamashiro in Los Angeles. Send a request to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to receive back a discount coupon to obtain admission, dinner, drinks, entry into the evening's Texas Hold 'Em Tournament and a box of Camacho cigars for just $145.

Bonus Rankings Flipbook Offer!
Subscribers to our CigarWire service already have access to our exclusive rankings of the top mild, medium and full-bodied cigars. Why not join them?

Through the month of April, you can get our all-in-one package of (1) one-year subscription to our value-packed CigarWire, (2) one copy of our 600-page Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars for 2005, (3) one copy of our newPerelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Havana Cigars (third edition) plus (4) our 24-page, vest-pocket-sized 2004 Rankings Flipbook!

That’s normally a $61.85 value with shipping, but we’re offering all of this at 23% off at our special, discounted price of $47.50 through the end of April only.

Your subscription will also include our “Week in Review” newsletter sent each Thursday with a summary of our top stories of the week!
~ Rich Perelman

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