Los Angeles, September 3 – It may be the start of football season, but fans of the Oakland Raiders are not celebrating the return of quarterback Kenny “The Snake” Stabler. However, there is a new snake in town if you’re a fan of Cuban cigars.

The unique and not-widely-seen Culebras shape – “snake” in Spanish – has been returned by Habanos S.A. to the Partagas line as a novelty item that will amuse smokers and non-smokers alike.

The Culebras is a unique format in which three panatela-sized cigars are twisted together to form a small monster, held together with a ribbon. This strange cigar was created in the late 19th Century when factory owners would allow their rollers to take three cigars home at night for their own use.

However, the factory owners didn’t want their rollers selling these cigars instead of smoking them, so they required that the rollers twist their cigars into a single unit to take home. And the Culebras was born.

The new Partagas Culebras – actually a return to the Partagas line since the Culebras has a long history as part of this brand – is made by hand and each of the three cigars is 5 3/4 inches long by 39 ring gauge. It comes in individual slide-lid coffins and are packed three coffins to a box.

Habanos describes the new Culebras as a part of the Partagas line, with a “woody, sweet taste” that marks it as a Partagas.

Havana fans won’t likely find the Partagas Culebras at their local smokeshop, however. It is being introduced, at least for now, as a specialty item to be sold only at the Casa del Habano stores around the world.

Racing once again:
The long history of Rome has helped to earn it the nickname of “The Eternal City.” And a memory of Rome is what spurred Philip Wynne to create the Summus cigar line in partnership with his childhood friend and 1998 Indianapolis 500 champion and racing entrepreneur Eddie Cheever, Jr.

Wynne and Cheever both grew up in Rome in the 1960s as children of American fathers working in Italy. Wynne’s father served as the U.S. Embassy there while Cheever’s father owned the American Health Spas in the city.

“We grew up as two Americans in Italy,” explained Wynne, “thus we had a lot of similarities as were neither real Americans nor Italians.” Wynne went on to found Felipe Gregorio and Cheever founded a successful motor racing team.

Now they have joined forces again with the introduction of Summus. “The name Summus means the ‘best’ or ‘most’ in Latin,” said Wynne. “We’ve created a luxury brand initially featuring premium cigars, and soon to expand to coffee and other high-quality items.”

The cigars debuted at the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America show last month in Houston and are made in Wynne’s factory in the Dominican Republic. There are two styles: the Summus Americano with a Connecticut-grown wrapper and Dominican binder and filler and the Summus Latino, with a Mexican-grown maduro wrapper and Dominican interior leaves. Both styles are produced in two sizes (Robusto and Churchill) and offered in boxes of 10. They’re well-priced, too, retailed for $5 for the Robusto and $7 for the Churchill before local tobacco taxes.

The Summus brand debuted last week at the Infineon Speedway in Sonoma, California at the Indy Pro Series (IPS) races, with Cheever’s nephew, Richard Antinucci, at the wheel of the no. 51 car. And he won the Valley of the Moon 100 in the debut of the brand on August 26!

Hopefully, he had time to smoke a Summus on his way back to the garage from Victory Lane!

22 years and counting:
Dave Garofalo knows how to stay on message. In celebration of 22 years of his Two Guys Smoke Shop in New Hampshire, he’s throwing a week-long celebration starting on October 10.

The action starts with a 22nd anniversary dinner in Bradford, Massachusetts that’s already sold out at $222 per ticket. But each attendee will receive a package of 22 cigars and a chance to win a grand prize of $22,222.22 in a specially-created game called “Close but no Cigar!”

In addition, Garofalo is piling on the special attraction such as a special barrel of Jack Daniels single-barrel whiskey made for the event, with individual bottles provided as a take-home gift to each guest. Naturally, there will be entertainment from the 12-piece R&B band Manchuka and comedy from The Guy from Boston (who does a great stand-up routine about people who dislike smoking).

Once Garofalo recovers from the dinner, he’s giving all of his customers a chance to celebrate with 22 percent off selected brands at his Salem and Seabrook, New Hampshire stores.

Two Guys is expanding as well, taking over a Hooters (!) location in Nashua that will open in February 2008. That Hooters location was quite successful, but when the 12-restaurant New England Division went bankrupt, Garofalo bought the 5,500 sq. ft. facility with surface parking for 65 cars.

Despite the location’s heritage, no drinks or chicken wings will be served; just cigars. “This model has been working for us for 22 years now,” said Garofalo, “and we’re not going to fix what’s not broken.”
~ Rich Perelman

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