BUYER’S GUIDE: LESS IS MORE?

Plus: Thompson Cigar gets personal

Los Angeles, April 28 – During his lecture “The Evolution of Habanos Sizes from 1900 to the Present Day” at the 2006 Festival del Habano, Hunters & Frankau marketing director Simon Chase drew particular attention to one special cigar from a 1919 Melbourne Hart catalog.

The company was one of the largest importers of Havana cigars into Britain at that time and the cigar Chase pointed out “is the smallest one . . .

“It is straight-sided and measures just 90 mm (3 1/2 inches) in length by 42 gauge, so clearly it is not its stature that makes it remarkable. However going forward to the 1930 Melbourne Hart list, there is an advertisement for this size as the La Corona Half-a-Corona.

“It claims that the annual sales in the U.K. for this cigar alone exceed one million units representing one in thirty of all Cuban cigars sold in Britain. And I can tell you that most other Habano brands had introduced the same size by this time, so sales for this size were probably two to three million.

“This was the Habano the British smoked during the troubled years of the Great Depression and its aftermath.”

Fast forward to 2004 in the age of the Robusto – a shape name created by the Cubans in 1989 as the factory name for a short cigar (4 7/8 inches) with a ring gauge of 50 – and while we’re not in a depression at present, the wide advance of smoking bans has created the need for a very short cigar that can be enjoyed quickly during the day.

So Habanos S.A. introduced the Hoyo de Monterrey Petit Robusto (pictured above), a new shape of just 102 mm long (4 inches) but 50 ring gauge, offering the volume of smoke today’s enthusiasts demand, but in a format that will offer just 10-15 minutes of pleasure.

This cigar instantly won many admirers and now American smokers have a wide range of similarly-sized cigars to choose from.

Before the name “robusto” was ever used, short cigars with ring gauges of 50 or more were well known as Rothschilds, named for the famed European banking dynasty. There were already dozens of such models – many of 4 1/2 inches in length – in circulation in the U.S. at the dawn of the Cigar Boom in 1994 and easily more than 100 today.

But even shorter robustos weren’t much in vogue; one of the first was the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Series Short Story that debuted in the early 1990s. Today, there are 23 such cigars of less than 4 1/2 inches in length and at least 48 ring gauge:

• Less than four inches long:
> 3 1/2 x 55: Felipe Gregorio Fat Boy
> 3 3/4 x 48: Pheasant Honduran Selection Fast Break
> 3 3/4 x 48: Pheasant Nicaraguan Gran Reserva Fast Break
> 3 7/8 x 52: One Off Catuchos

• Four inches:
> 4 x 48: Bohemian Whitman
> 4 x 48: Padron 1926 Series No. 35
> 4 x 49: Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story
> 4 x 50: Cammarata Rothschild Maduro
> 4 x 50: Espanola Maduro 450
> 4 x 50: Fundadores Jamaica Petit Robusto
> 4 x 50: Grass Medium
> 4 x 50: Guaranteed Jamaica Founder’s Series 450
> 4 x 50: Habanos Esplendido Toro Chico
> 4 x 50: P.G. Torpito
> 4 x 50: P.G. Reserva Exclusiva Torpito
> 4 x 52: Estavan Cruz Short Cruz
> 4 x 54: Cisso Gordito
> 4 x 54: Nestor Vintage 1989 454

• More than four inches, but less than 4 1/2:
> 4 1/4 x 50: La Venga No. 37
> 4 1/4 x 52: Tabacalera Perdomo Estate Seleccion Phantom
> 4 1/4 x 54: Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Petite Robusto
> 4 1/4 x 54: Romeo y Julieta Reserve Maduro Petite Robusto
> 4 1/4 x 54: Trinidad Petite Robusto

The amazing Fat Boy from Felipe Gregorio is especially noteworthy: no longer than one of your fingers but thicker than all but your thumb, it offers a full-bodied flavor from the first puff thanks to its construction from all Nicaraguan-grown leaf.

These are the lunch-time cigars of the future: less in length but more in thickness and in flavor. Try one soon, but don’t be surprised if you’re burning your fingers as you enjoy the rich flavors of these blends down to the end on your way back to the office.

Let’s get personal:
There was a time when companies or individual men who mattered had personalized cigars made for them by some of the top Havana factories. One legend has it that the Romeo y Julieta factory had as many as 20,000 different personalized bands in stock for its worldwide clientele.

The trend is slowly reviving today.

Now Tampa’s famed Thompson Cigar Company has jumped on the bandwagon and offers a flexible program that allows you to get personalized cigars for quantities as small as a single box of 25.

The cigars are made in the Dominican Republic and you can choose from two wrapper styles (Ecuador-grown Connecticut Shade or Dark Sumatra) and four sizes: Robusto (5 x 50), Belicoso (6 1/8 x 52), Corona Gorda (6 1/2 x 44) or Churchill (7 x 48).

Then you can either add two lines of text (up to 18 characters per line) to one of Thompson’s nine standard bands (It’s a Boy, It’s a Girl, wedding, fishing, hunting, patriotic (eagle), cards, golf or “Thank You for your business” or send in your own band artwork.

Finally, you can choose three styles of presentation, all also personalized: a standard box, a display box with a plexiglass top or a deluxe Rosewood humidor.

The cigars will show up in 2-3 weeks and the cost is $69 for a box of 25 in either the standard or plexi top or $99 in the Rosewood humidor.

Not bad!

Enthusiasts wanting to tie a custom message to name brands can check out the personalized second bands offered on selected sizes of Excalibur, Excalibur 1066, Hoyo de Monterrey or Punch by Payless Cigars of New Orleans. Or you can ask your favorite retailer who carries Altadis U.S.A.’s Montecristo blends about the “Montecristo Monogrammed” program with personalized imprints on several sizes of the Dominican-made Montecristo line.

Either way, it’s a unique way to impress your friends . . . and yourself! After all, it’s how H. Upmann the banker became H. Upmann the cigar maker, just 162 years ago.
~ Rich Perelman