I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t know what the hell purging a cigar was until recently. I am only using “hell” because my editors would cut the proper four-letter word for this column.
I guess I never thought about purging my cigar. It sounds sort of nasty. I only purge smelly or bad things. That normally means dumping, flushing or burying things that I purge. And, thank God, my cigars do not fit into that category unless something has gone very, very wrong.
In fact, I can’t think of the last time I didn’t finish a cigar unless it was bad or I had already smoked so many before it that I could not finish the smoke. So I would never purge them anyways.
I assume most of you know what I am talking about. It’s basically blowing outwards on your cigar, instead of sucking, at some point in the smoke. Some say it improves the quality of the cigar and delays the point at which it turns. Others say that by purging the cigar you can let it go out and then smoke it later – even the next morning. Check out the video with Edward Sahakian, the owner of the Davidoff cigar shop in London, who is one of my very good friends. He tells you how to do it.
I am not convinced. Friends can get it wrong! I have never enjoyed a partially smoked cigar the day after unless I was still drunk or there was nothing else left to smoke. I think I once smoked an old half-smoked stick while marlin fishing in Cabo San Lucas, but everything smelled of the sea, diesel and bait. And the tequila and beer was still fresh on my mind. So it made no difference!
Come on! An old, partially smoked cigar just doesn’t taste the same. It’s like drinking a beer that’s been open all day, eating a steak that has gone cold, or sipping your morning coffee after dinner. Read more
I am going to let you in on a little secret. I have always fantasized about working in a cigar factory in Havana. There is something so seductive about the idea. Sure, it can be hard work, even monotonous labor. And the pay certainly is not much. But the thought of smelling, smoking and touching great Cuban leaf every day turns me on.
That ‘s why I have love and hate for Arek Aboulian. He is the 23-year-old son of Raffi Aboulian, the owner of Raffi’s Cigar Shop in Geneva. And he worked three months in the H. Upmann factory in Havana a couple of years ago. I had dinner with him and his dad last week during the Geneva fine watch fair, which I attend for this magazine. (I coordinate the coverage of wristwatches for Cigar Aficionado, besides writing about cigars and other stuff.) Barry Abrams, associate publisher of CA, was also there. Arek and his dad are going to be on my panel on Cuban cigars for the Big Smoke in Las Vegas on November 7 to 9.
Anyway, Arek is super knowledgeable about tobacco. How couldn’t he be, after spending that time working at the H. Upmann factory. He worked in just about every department. Check out my video with him earlier this year in the rolling room of H. Upmann in Havana. He was a rock star there.
He said the best part of working in the factory was being in the galleria, or rolling room. It is the heart and soul of a factory, and he enjoyed seeing the differences between the new generation of rollers and the old ones. “It was hard to get used to the working ethos in the factory at first but after awhile you get used to the slower pace,” he said when we were at the factory. He said he became a pretty proficient roller of bunches (the filler and binder of a cigar) but he still couldn’t master putting the wrapper on the smoke. Read more
I have noticed some conversation in CA’s online forums, as well as other places, about the quality of wrapper recently in Cuba, and I am not sure whether they are talking about the past, present or future. All I can tell you is that I am always concerned about the leaf. Wrapper, the leaf used on the outside of the cigar, is always the Achilles’ heel of Cuban cigar production.
I remember in the 1990s when the production of wrapper was so bad that they didn’t have large enough leaves to roll anything much larger than a lonsdale. And that was during the heyday of double coronas. So big time big smoke lovers were not happy campers. I knew a Canadian millionaire who sent his private jet to pick up boxes of double coronas in Havana because no one else in the world had any!
But I think that there is a difference between not having wrapper and not having beautiful wrappers. For example, in the video with this blog I asked one of the sorters at the H. Upmann factory in Havana what he thought of the quality of wrapper and he said that that it was not very good. The hombre was one of a handful of workers deveining and classifying the wrappers into categories according to size, texture and color. The wrappers are then passed on to the rolling rooms to be used on cigars.
I think what the sorter was talking about, however, was the appearance of the wrapper and not the quality. From what I could see, they were lightly marked, instead of clean and beautiful. It’s sort of like having a beautiful woman in a slinky, sexy Prada frock with a stain on the front. It diminishes the pleasure to the eye – at least in public – but doesn’t necessarily ruin the evening.
And that’s a point. An ugly wrapper still can potentially deliver good flavor. I have smoked homely, ugly duckling cigars that delivered just as good a smoke as the gorgeous swans… So don’t be turned off. Read more
My buddy and I were dying for a smoke. And I was empty handed. We had just finished dinner at Father’s Office in Santa Monica and we were full of burgers, sweet potato fries, and various other delicacies, besides sharing a bottle of 2001 Cote Rotie Rene Rostang and 1979 Ridge Petite Sirah. A smoke would help digest it all!
The food at FO is the bomb -- fantastic stuff that focuses on high end ingredients and simple, well-executed cooking. Owner Sang Yoon is a new friend, and I had no idea that he could pull off such excellent food in a sort of Boston, Manhattan pub ambiance. Normally you get some burger and frozen fries with your grease in a place like that. But Yoon was the head chef a few years back at Michael’s in Santa Monica, so he knows how to cook. He wants to prove that fine cuisine can be matched with great beer just like in wine and food pairings in the best restaurants around the world. The biggest problem with FO is getting a table. It’s packed and no reservations!
Anyway, we left FO overly satisfied and craving the pleasures of the leaf. David, my friend, said he knew a place in West Hollywood that sold red labeled Partagas robustos with gold lettering. I love those cigars. They are my go-to cigars in Europe. He was buying, so why not?
We walked into a funky, almost sleazy, wine and cigar shop in Hollywood and David spoke to the manager. The dude went into a back room and came out with two beautiful smokes. David gave him $50 in cash. The cigars’ wrappers were chocolate brown, or “colorado,” if a Cuban cigar roller was around. They smelled of cappuccino with a sweet tobacco and spice undertones.
I cut mine with my fingernails and grasped for a match. Wooosh went the match as it lit! I fired up my cigar and the smell of nuts, salt, spices and tobacco filled the room. It was so perfumed and sexy. It was like a genie flowing out of its lamp and offering to fulfill my one wish of the night. Read more
My friend, Tom Unvert, laughed and said “don’t worry about it buddy. Just get here in one piece for the party.”
But it did suck. I had 19 very nice cigars in my courier bag, including a five-pack selection of torpedos for Tom’s birthday present. The rest were mostly the new limited edition Partagas Serie D No. 5 and the Partagas Serie P in Tubos. It was the first time in 17 years that I had been stopped by customs and had cigars confiscated. Most times the customs guys don’t ask or simply let me go with a few smokes in my bags.
Granted, it is technically breaking the law. Since a few years ago, even licensed travelers to the island are not allowed to bring anything back from Cuba. Before, you could bring to the states $100 or less of Cuban goods from a licensed trip to the island. Today, only a few products are exempted, such as literature and art.
I knew I was in deep shit the moment I arrived at immigration and the officer wanted to know what sort of business I was in. I said I was European Editor of Cigar Aficionado.
“When was the last time you were in Cuba?” he asked.
“This morning,” I replied.
With that, he drew a big red “C” in the corner. I was directed to the customs hall for inspection. I wasn’t that worried about it though. The worse thing that I knew they could do was to confiscate the cigars.
Anyway, the first customs officer didn’t really know what to think. He asked me for press credentials and a license from the Office of Foreign Asset Control, which I told him I did not need to have on me. He had to speak to his supervisor.
“How many cigars do you have?” he said, looking like he was happy that he had a live one on the line. Read more
The massive room at the Pabexpo in the chic Havana neighborhood of Siboney was already thick with smoke within the first 30 minutes of the gala dinner on Friday during the 10th annual Festival del Habano. The thousand or so participants were either smoking the Trinidad Reyes handed out at the door by a line of gorgeous Cuban women, or their own stash. I fired up the Reyes and it was delicate and satisfying, as usual.
The room was filled with everyone who loves cigars, from merchants to collectors. And they came from just about everywhere in the world where cigars are sold. I noticed a few Americans also. Plus, a number of key ministers were there, including Ricardo Alarcon, the president of the National Assembly. There was no sign of the Castro brothers. In fact, a Castro hasn’t been seen at the event for a number of years now. The humidors sold for charity at an auction at the event are no long signed by Fidel Castro.
Nonetheless, there was plenty of entertainment and lots of fun at the event. Check out my video. It was almost worth the ticket price of $550 for the cigars alone. There was a nice sampler pack of 10 cigars in a laminated box at each seat. And then there were four other cigars to smoke during the meal including the Trinidad Reyes, San Cristobal Mercaderes, Hoyo de Monterey Epicure No. 2, and Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios. I smoked everything but the Epi. The San Cristobal was very light, almost tasteless, but the rest were excellent. In fact, I love the Cohiba Maduro 5 Genios.
The best cigar of the night, however, was the 150th Anniversary Partagas Robusto. What a cigar!! It showed amazing aromas and flavors of dried roses, cedar and light spices. The palate was full, fresh and super long. Read more
I had planned to hit up some of the key cigar shops this morning, like Partagas and Club Havana. This is where a lot of action happens during the festival. People just hang out, talk and smoke. It’s a good way to get information. Many people simply come to Havana for the festival to do that, they never attend the official events.
Anyway, I didn’t go to the cigar shops because I woke up dizzy and sick to my stomach. I called the hotel doctor and they came up and checked me out. I thought I had flu, or something. It turned out that my blood pressure was high. Not sure why. Maybe too much coffee and Cuban cigars? Maybe I'm too stressed?
The doctors – there were two of them, a pretty woman and a guy – said that I should not drink beer, which I hadn’t, or eat stuff like pasta. (In Cuba? Pasta?) Stay away from coffee too, he said.
"What about cigars?” I asked.
“You are here for the festival,” said the guy. “Of course, you can smoke cigars.”
I gave him a couple of Montecristo Edmundo Tubos, since he said that he liked cigars. I wish I had a doctor like that at home!
I imagine a lot of the cigar merchants at the event have high blood pressure at the moment. It seems everyone is stressing about all the anti-smoking laws being passed. And I don’t blame them. It sucks.
I was talking last night at a party to the head of Pacific Cigars, who markets and distributes cigars in the Far East. And he said that it’s a disaster, particularly in Hong Kong. There is no public smoking allowed in HK and it’s going to be the same very soon in Macau. “I am not sure where people are going to smoke,” he said. “We have very few outdoor areas to smoke.”
He said that he was through trying to fight the anti-smoking laws. Instead, he was looking for ways to work within the rules – in other words, beat the system. Read more
It was all about taste yesterday in Havana. I attended two tastings. One was a smoker in the El Laguito factory, the home of Cohiba cigars, and another was a tasting in the evening at the Nacional Hotel that I led promoting the idea of drinking Champagne while smoking cigars.
Both of the events were extremely informative and fun.
The Cohiba tasting showed how lanceros, the long, thin and elegant vitola, age very, very well. We smoked a Cohiba Lancero from the 2007 production as well as one from 1997. The younger smoke came from the stock rooms of the factory and the 1997 came from the Davidoff shop in London. Alex Iapichino, a London-based lawyer, brought the old Lanceros, and also organized the tasting.
The factory’s conference room was full of cigar aficionados, tobacco technicians as well as merchants. Check out the video. My conclusions, as you can see, were fairly strong—maybe I overstated my thoughts in the video! But great Cuban cigars age wonderfully. I have been saying this for years. And I feel strongly about it!
I don’t think anyone in the room needed convincing. The 1997 showed lovely creamy cedar and tea with milk character. It was medium bodied, with a wonderful freshness and a long and flavorful finish. It was very refined. 91 points (unblind). I thought it could use another five or six years of box age to really meet it’s perfect smoking point. Read more
Sometimes I find it almost hard to believe that the cigars we buy in shops come from the rollers’ tables of cigar factories in Havana. When we buy the cigar, it’s almost as if we are standing right next to the roller and he or she is handing us the cigar. Look at the video below with Eric Aboulia, whose family owns Raffi Cigars in Geneva, Switzerland. We were together in the H. Upmann factory in Havana yesterday and he saw a friend of his rolling, walked over, and received a fresh smoke. How cool is that?
I, too, have friends in the cigar world in Havana, and one was nice enough to give me a sneak preview of the Cuba's new Edición Limitadas that are coming out later this year: the Cuaba Piramides, Partagas Serie D No. 5 and Montecristo Sublimes. I smoked them together yesterday.
Here are my impressions of each of the cigars, with my non-blind scores:
SPECIAL PREVIEW TASTING: CUBA'S 2008 EDICION LIMITADAS
Cuaba Piramides 6 1/8 by 52 ring This is the same size as the popular Montecristo No. 2. It is super refined and long with light coffee and nutty character. Full flavored with a long finish. Gorgeous and fresh. All is in balance. Perfect draw. 93 points (non blind)
Montecristo Sublimes 6 1/2 by 54 ring The strongest of the three, it shows lots of espresso bean, roasted meat and earth under the tobacco. Read more
I just got back from visiting the H. Upmann factory in Nuevo Vedado with some friends from Geneva, Switzerland. The main hermano was Arek Aboulian, whose family owns Raffi Cigars. The twenty-something spent three months working in Upmann a short while ago, and he knows just about everyone in the factory. I will blog about him later.
Anyway, the new H. Upmann Magnum 50 certainly smoked well in the factory. It was such a cool idea to be smoking the cigar where it was originally made. Look at the video.
As I have already written, the Magnum 50 is one of two cigars that is being pushed this year at the festival. The other is the Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial. Both were featured last night during the Welcome Cocktail Party at the Club Havana. A multi-media show and dance production – sort of Broadway meets Havana and cigars – preceded the party at the Karl Marx Theater. Habanos S.A., the global distribution and marketing company, gave out the two cigars to the participants. I thought it made better sense to smoke them the next day.
And the Magnum 50 smokes wonderfully. It is a big smoke in size but delivers very refined and balanced flavors that verge on floral and cedar. It is very typical for Upmann, not powerful but smooth and fresh. 92 points. I will smoke the new Epicure Especial later today.
I visited all the departments at the Upmann factory this morning and I was impressed with what I saw – the one exception was the wrapper. It looked a little marked and unclean. This must be because they didn’t have a very good harvest last year due to extremely dry weather. But one of the quality control people at the factory said that they were selecting good wrapper, nonetheless. Read more
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