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LOOKS 10 . . . or 20!, SMOKES 2? |
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 Views From A Smoke-Filled Room
by Rich Perelman
Editor-in-Chief
Los Angeles, July 8 – Yesterday, we covered the rocket-like rise of street prices of the Fuente Fuente Opus X. Despite retail prices from $8.50 to $14.50 for the standard sizes, the average street price per cigar – if you can find them – is likely to be $30 plus. Ouch!
But there are more and more cigars available to U.S. smokers at regular prices at or above the $20 level once reserved for smuggled Cuban cigars.
At the top of the list is the stunning Zino Platinum Crown series, introduced last year with stratospheric prices, which are today offered by mail-order and on-line merchants from $33.33 to $36.67 per cigar. At least they’re offered in “affordable” packs of three.
But the list also includes the Davidoff Aniversario series, nos. 1 and 2, and the Davidoff Double R, offered at $20-26 each. As consolation, the Aniversario series is our choice as the best mild cigar available in the U.S. (Our complete list of mild-bodied recommendations is available to subscribers of our CigarWire service; our picks in medium-bodied cigars are scheduled for release on July 15.)
So far, both big-buck brands are from the quality-obsessed Davidoff of Geneva family and made in the same factory in the Dominican Republic. But beyond Davidoff, there are also:
> The recently-introduced Gurkha Pre-Embargo Estate Cubans, reportedly incorporating pre-embargo Cuban tobacco, with three shapes offered at $20 per cigar.
> The Padron Serie 1926 No. 1, a 6 3/4-inch by 54-ring double corona, offered – when you can find them – in boxes of 24 for a cool $480, or $20 a stick.
And there are perhaps a half-dozen or more additional brands like the Padron 30th Aniversario Imperial, or four shapes in the all-perfecto La Aurora Preferidos line at $13-15 per cigar . . . all hard to obtain, even at such rarefied prices.
It’s a windfall for the manufacturers and distributors of these brands, as the actual cost to make these cigars is perhaps only slightly more than the more normally-priced brands. The danger is that more and more makers will see the profit margins in these lines and introduce their own luxury lines . . . or worse, edge up all prices on all brands, pushing quality cigars further out of the reach of average buyers.
Don’t misunderstand: these high-priced brands are all outstanding in their own right. But their price does not make them better . . . and how many are better than the magnificent Excalibur No. II in maduro, a 6 3/4-inch by 48-ring feast of flavor, which costs about $3.60? Smoke them side-by-side to compare . . . and the test will only cost you an average (before tobacco taxes) of $12 each!
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