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

HEARD IN THE HUMIDOR

Good buys, goofy buyers and a look at Armageddon

Los Angeles, August 9 – In the course of compiling our National Retailer Rankings announced last week, we came across some buys we really liked, including:

• Cigar International’s Cupido deal: 25 Churchills for just $39.95. We love this brand, especially in the Churchill size and ranked it no. 1 in the medium-bodied category (our brand-name picks are available to our CigarWire subscribers). There was a lot of talk at the recent Retail Tobacco Dealers of America convention and trade show about problems with the management of this brand, perhaps its sale or even the possibility that the blend could be marketed by a new group under a different brand name. In any case, this is a worthwhile opportunity to own some great cigars at a modest price. The sale is on through noon Eastern time on Thursday, August 12.

• Famous Smoke Shop’s special on a box of 10 Excalibur No. 1s. This spectacular double corona, 7 1/4 inches long with a ring gauge of 54 is offered at just $29.95, at least for this week, but check to see if there is stock available. It was reported as in-stock last week, but out over the weekend. Excalibur will rank highly in our review of full-bodied brands later this month and to be able to obtain them for $3 each is a steal. You can get a full box of 20 of the No. 1 for $3.90 each ($78) and that’s still a sensational value, especially for the maduro-wrapped version that is as flavorful and deep as any on the market.

• J-R Cigars’ four-by-four pack of H. Upmann Vintage Cameroon, Montecristo Afrique, the regular Montecristo blend, and Trinidad. Each package has four cigars of a single brand, each 4 1/4 inches long by 44 ring and with four brands, there are 16 cigars in total. These are fun, short smokes of very good brands and just perfect to complete your lunch while walking back to the office (assuming your city allows you to smoke on the sidewalk!). Anyway, the price for the 16-cigar four-pack is $48, just $3 each, an excellent value and you get the nifty flip-up packs in the bargain!

Computer on, Wallet open:
Regular readers of this space know we follow auction sales on eBay to gauge public reaction to interesting items. This weekend, I almost went into shock after seeing two incredible bids on unique items that . . . well, you be the judge:

• We’ve been champions of vintage jars, especially from H. Upmann, on the Internet and here was one of the most unique we have seen. An authentic Cuban jar of H. Upmann Coronas (5 1/2 x 42), not unusual in itself, but this time with 35 of the original allotment of 50 cigars still inside! Instead of the usual $150-200 end price, this item was offered from Cranebrook, Australia and went for $1,012.58, plus shipping, to a U.S. buyer. Forgetting the jar, that’s a little more than $28 a stick.

• Even more imposing (and more costly overall) is an auction that will end today for a Partagas 150 Ramon y Ramon chest of 149 cigars (apparently, one was smoked by the current owner). Offered from a new seller in Houston, Texas, the opening bid was $2,400 (about $16 a stick). One buyer has agreed to this amount, but then the posting notes that the reserve price for this item has not yet been met! This means that the seller’s actual minimum price is higher and thus far, there has been only the one bid. The auction ends at 6:45 p.m. Eastern time today.

Attention Carrie Nation:
The crazed temperance queen of the early 20th Century, whose efforts led to Prohibition and one of the greatest waves of lawlessness in American history, would be proud of not only the anti-tobacco zealotry of today, but its spread to other nations. The most recent example of whining on an international scale is a letter to the British Medical Journal (BMJ.com) which complains about Japan Tobacco’s “SmoCar.”

The SmoCar is a trailer similar to what Macanudo has done with its American Passion Tour bus, but which focuses on creating a smoking area (in the trailer) when one is not otherwise available at a public venue. It’s a creative way to accommodate both smokers and non-smokers, but Prof. Hiroshi Kawane of the Japanese Red Cross Hiroshima College of Nursing complains in his letter that “secondhand smoke combined with exhaust fumes from ‘SmoCar’ has become a health hazard for non-smokers in the vicinity of the car.” In an outdoor venue? Have you had too much sake, Professor?

This is the kind of polite, sincere, well-meaning, misguided, anti-social anti-tobacco zealotry that needs to be watched carefully and was honed to a science in this country in the pre-Prohibition days a century ago. Japan Tobacco should be congratulated on pioneering this kind of accommodation for smokers in public places and encouraged rather than ridiculed. For those obsessed about freedom and tolerance – rather than temperance – I suggest Prof. Kawane is the hazard, not the interesting and well-thought-out “SmoCar.”
~ Rich Perelman

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