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

OLIVA GETTING STRONGER

Plus: cigar memorabilia stays hot in eBay auctions!

Los Angeles, June 20 – The Oliva Cigar Company completely revamped its cigar lines last year, introducing the Serie G (which used to be Grand Cameroon), Serie G Maduro (which used to be the Grand Maduro), Serie O (formerly known as Oliva “O”) and Serie O Maduro (formerly Oliva “O” Maduro).

In addition, the all-new Special S line was introduced, all to popular acclaim. But the Olivas were not finished.

Now comes the strong cigar yet from Oliva Cigar, the Serie V Ligero Especial line.

Made in Nicaragua, this cigar uses all-Nicaraguan tobaccos with ligero leaves from the Jalapa Valley in the filler and a Habano Sun Grown leaf for the wrapper. It’s full-bodied for sure, but projected to offer both sweetness and spice.

The new line is being introduced in a whirlwind, 20-state in-store promotional tour that began on June 15 at the House of Pipes in St. Petersburg, Florida and will conclude with its 47th stop at Tobacco World in Marietta, Georgia on July 28.

The Serie V Ligero Especial line includes seven shapes . . . and maybe an eighth:

• Churchill Extra: 7 inches by 52 ring, with natural wrappers.

• Lancero: 7 inches by 38 ring, in natural only.

• Torpedo: 6 inches by 52 ring, in natural only.

• Double Toro: 6 inches by 60 ring, in natural and maduro wrappers.

• Special V Figurado: 6 inches by 60 ring, in natural only.

• Double Robusto: 5 inches by 54 ring, in natural and maduro wrappers.

• Belicoso: 5 inches by 54 ring, in natural only.

All sizes come in slide-top boxes of 24 with the cigars uncellophaned, except for the Lancero, offered in boxes of 30. The suggested retail price is $5-8 per cigar depending on size and before local tobacco taxes.

A special size, to be available only at the Serie V introductory tour events is the Culebras, three cigars twisted into one form.

Happy birthday Trinidad . . . again!
If you didn’t buy one of the 400 humidors specially made to recognize the 100th birthday of the Trinidad brand, you’re out of luck. But you can still get some of the specially-made cigars created for the occasion.

Each of the 400 Trinidad Centennial humidors was outfitted with 100 limited-edition Trinidads (40,000 cigars total) featuring a Mexican-grown Corojo wrapper and Nicaraguan-grown binder and filler leaves. Three sizes were included: 33 of a 4 1/4-inch by 54-ring short robusto, 33 of a standard-sized 5-inch by 54-ring robusto and 34 of a stout toro of six inches and 54 ring. Although the humidors are gone, Altadis U.S.A. has made a short run of the cigars! A total of 300 boxes were issued of 100 cigars each (30,000 total) in the same sizes and number as for the centennial humidors. Enjoy them while you can!

Hammer time:
A series of interesting auctions on eBay demonstrated the continuing appeal of cigar memorabilia:

• A very old pre-embargo cigar box dressed to look like a book drew a lot of interest and 17 bids and finally sold for $367.00 on June 11.

The box was made by the Partagas factory in Havana and was clad in a green cover with the “title” “Five Tales of Cuba” on the spine and the stylized “Flor de Tabacos de Partagas y Cia.” on the front. The box measures about 6 1/2 inches long and four inches wide and probably would have held 25 coronas or petit coronas. It’s an excellent example of the “libro” format box and certainly dates from the 1940s or before.

• A large H. Upmann all-cedar cabinet made for Alfred Dunhill’s “Seleccion de Oro” line of H. Upmann cigars drew only three bids, but sold for $392.00!

The cabinet measured 15 inches high, 11 inches wide and five inches deep and probably housed up to six wheels of 50 cigars. High-volume smokers used to order their cigars this way, arriving in a footed cabinet that only needed to be set on the floor or on a side table to be ready for use. The cabinet could be as much as 80 years old, as this type of shipment was a fixture in the early part of the 20th Century, but became less popular in the 1920s.

• Naturally, there were some Sevilla Humijars available for the Partagas and Ramon Allones brands. These are the white ceramic jars with brown logos and decorations.

The Partagas jar, which appeared to date from the 1960s or 1970s, drew only eight bids, but sold for a handsome $490.00. The Ramon Allones jar, also in good condition and a little rarer than the Partagas, drew five bids and sold for a surprisingly low $480.00.

Should the FDA regulate tobacco?
As the Senate debates whether to pass a bill providing for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration control over tobacco, the issue has become much more complex than simply whether the agency should regulate tobacco.

Like who’s going to pay for it?

The FDA is already being blasted by members of Congress for recent problems in food safety in spinach, peanut butter and dog food. Now it is being asked to take on an entirely new area in which it has no expertise and no apparatus to deal with a product which is used by upwards of 45 million Americans.

Notably, Frank Young, who served as FDA Commissioner from 1984-89, told reporters after the May hearings on the issue that passing legislation forcing tobacco control on the agency would be another “unfunded mandate.” Current FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach has said in interviews that he is against FDA regulation of tobacco since FDA approval of some form of tobacco products could indicate to the public that it is “safe” since the agency’s mandate is to ensure the purity and safety of products under its jurisdiction.

That’s all fine, but if there’s no money, there can be no regulation. That’s worth keeping an eye on as the legislation continues to percolate.
~ Rich Perelman

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