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

“I’M ALL IN”

Plus: 2 Guys Smoke Shop giving away a Hummer H2 StogieMobile!

Los Angeles, May 6 – The craze for poker and cigars continued at elegant Yamashiro Restaurant in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles last night with the first leg of the PokerSmoker tour 2005 co-sponsored by Smoke magazine and Caribe Imported Cigars.

Everyone who attended enjoyed a sumptuous Yamashiro dinner and broke into their personal box of Camacho Special Limited Reserve Churchills before getting down to playing at tables of six with mandatory bet raises every few hands. By the time we filed this report, the tables were still in action, playing to crown a Los Angeles champion who received a year’s worth of cigars – 365 Camachos in all – and will go to Reno to the PokerSmoker National Finals with a chance to win the grand prize of a trip to the Caribe fields and factory in Danli, Honduras.

(What about the Camacho SLRs? The natural-wrapped Churchills were smooth with a rich and toasty flavor and a medium-to-full body that tantalized the smoker with just a hint of spice on the finish. A complete contrast to its brother, the powerhouse Camacho Corojo. The SLR is a slow-smoking cigar that can be quite subtle if you will give it attention, or a nice, flavorful companion if you’re concentrating on playing poker, or complaining about the constant yelling of organizer Michael Barclay when the public address system went out. A very good cigar and a nice value.)

New La Fontana!
When not overseeing the poker games, Caribe’s Sal Fontana talked his new La Fontana label, the Consigliere.

Compared to the sweet and gentle La Fontana Vintage – introduced in 1993 – this is a medium-to-full-bodied blend with a unique band in the shape of a tuxedo, adorned with a red rose, the traditional identification for a Mafia family “consigliere” or counselor.

There are three shapes, all perfectos, of four, five and six inches in length with a ring gauge of 50, offered in boxes of 20. The tobacco is all grown in Honduras, of course – as is all tobacco for Caribe’s lines – but includes a Connecticut-seed wrapper to give the blend a unique, bright flavor.

To Fontana’s surprise, all boxes in the first run of the Consigliere line were marked “A Tribute to Sal Fontana” as a salute to his decades in the industry and his key role in building the Caribe brands. At Fontana’s request, only the first run of boxes will bear this dedication, making them instant collector’s items.

The Consigliere was introduced at the recent meeting of the Tobacconists Association of America (TAA) and the first shipments are now out. Look for it in smokeshops soon . . . and wear a red rose when you buy one!

Party Talk:
With plenty of cigar insiders at Yamashiro, there was plenty of talk about the future of cigars and who’s selling what . . . like the Nat Sherman Host Selection (ranked no. 5 on our list of the top mild-bodied cigars on the U.S. market) changing national distribution and soon to be sold by Cigars by Santa Clara, better known for its retail side, J-R Cigars . . . like speculation that the Cullmans may shoot for an established, profitable cigar company rather than build up new brands; perhaps looking at companies like S.A.G. Imports-MATASA, which makes Fonseca, Roller’s Choice, Cubita and is the distributor for Joya de Nicaragua, or perhaps the cigar division of Davidoff of Geneva, with Avo, Davidoff, The Griffin’s, Private Stock and Zino . . . “Impossible,” you say? Said one cigar veteran watching the poker action and musing on the Cullmans’ next move: “You know, for the right price, everything is for sale . . .”

The next PokerSmoker is slated for Salem, New Hampshire with co-sponsorship from Two Guys Smoke Shop, reported to be the largest smokeshop in New England. Owner David Garofalo will be busy with that event and his upcoming 20th Anniversary Smoker, to be held on October 6. That event will be limited to 400 guests and everyone will receive a box of 20 cigars to mark two decades of Two Guys and all 400 will win a raffle prize! The last prize to be given away will be the 2005 Hummer H2 StogieMobile, decorated stem to stern with a special decal picturing 20 cigars on each side!

“We’ve had some great cigar dinners in our past, but this one will be over the top,” said Garofalo. Tickets are a bargain at $200 with more information at 2GuysSmokeShop.com or by calling (888) 2-CIGAR-2.
~ Rich Perelman

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