Davidoff's David Kitchens, left, and Hendrik Kelner ready themselves for the Three C's Seminar. |
Few trios can compare to coffee, Cognac and cigars, so it was only fitting that the
Big Smoke would end with a sampling of those products. As patrons gathered in the final
ballroom, they received a baggie with four cigars. Soon the hum of espresso machines
made by Nespresso began to fill the room as cups of the rich brew were poured. (The
seminar was so popular that a few patrons had to make do without cigars; they gave their
names at the door and were to be sent cigars from Davidoff of Geneva, which led the
discussion.)
David Kitchens, who manages the Manhattan Davidoff store, began by explaining what
goes into a Davidoff cigar, which is made primarily from Dominican tobacco wrapped with
Connecticut-shade leaf.
"The tobacco business in the Dominican Republic is not like growing corn or
soybeans," he said. "You don't have the mechanization of the field."
He stressed how important it was to work closely with the farmer, who controls the
field, and how soil changes the flavor of a similar seed.
A waiter pours a cup of Nespresso for the thirsty crowd. |
"We don't sell cigars; we sell smoke," said Hendrik 'Henke'
Kelner, the maker of Davidoffs and Avos. "Ninety-nine percent of people buy cigars
for smoke. There are exceptions," he said with a smile. "Famous
exceptions."
In this unique tasting, the first three cigars to be smoked each had a filler and
binder blend of just one component of a Davidoff cigar. One was made with olor
filler and binder, the second from piloto cubano, the third with San Vicente.
Each was finished with a Connecticut-shade wrapper. "These are not cigars,"
said Kelner of the first three. "These are cylinders with tobacco. There's no
balance."
The olor cigar, for example, dried the mouth; Kelner showed a diagram of a tongue,
and how that particular tobacco stimulated the salty region of the palate. "It
makes your mouth dry, and God made your mouth to work wet," he said.
After working through the three "cigars," the crowd puffed on the final
cigar in the bag, which was made with a blend of all three tobaccos and finished with
the same type of wrapper. It was a Davidoff. They noted the balance, then paired the
cigar with Davidoff Cognac.
Coffee. Cognac. Cigars. The perfect way to celebrate the end to an historic Big
Smoke.
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