I had a nasty run-in with a Juan Lopez Selección No. 1 the other night! It was after a serious wine tasting dinner at my house with Bibi Gratez, the hipster winemaker/owner of one of my favorite wines in Tuscany, Testamatta.
I had already smoked the most of the corona gorda (46 ring gauge by 5 5/8 inches) when it slipped out of my hand and bounced onto the inside of my left elbow--ash down.
I got branded! It hurt like a mother. In fact, three days later it still looks like a birthmark--two in fact. Look at the video.
Man. Smoking a fine cigar can be dangerous f---ing business. Be careful! Cuidado! Don’t forget that the end of a burning cigar can reach temperatures of something like 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Dropping a burning cigar can do all sorts of damage. I remember my brother Johnny once found that a client’s Porsche couldn’t use its retractable spoiler because the guy had thrown his cigar out the sunroof and somehow it ended up lodged between the main body and the wind gear. Bozo! Luckily, Johnny doesn’t work at the main San Diego Porsche dealership anymore, so he doesn’t have to deal with cabrons like that any more. But it’s a pretty funny story.
Have you had any funny experiences with dropped smoldering smokes?
I passed through Havana over the weekend on the way back to Europe, and I thought I was looking pretty rough after a few days in Hollywood with friends and family. What better way to freshen up, I thought to myself, than with a traditional shave in Old Havana on Saturday morning?
I asked a friend if he knew a good barber who still did open razor shaves, and he told me to go to a small barbershop at the corner of Plaza de Armas and Obispo. The barber’s name was Gilberto Turrente.
I finally found the place after a few bad turns and asking locals in my bad Spanish where the barber was. I walked into the barbershop, and Gilberto was more than accommodating. Check out my video.
I have never had an open razor shave, as far as I can remember. However, I recall as a boy that my grandfather was a great fan of a good shave at the barbershop at the Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles. My late grandfather, Albert Matlaf, used to own the fish restaurant at the Farmer’s Market. I worked in the kitchen there during the summer as a teenager to make some pocket money. I still remember shelling 20 pounds of shrimp each morning. I hated that job!
Anyway, Gilberto must have gone through a whole cupboard full of hot towels for my shave. He applied two or three before putting warm soap on my beard. He then quickly shaved it away. In fact, he shaved me twice. “I don’t want you to look like you haven’t been shaved by this evening,” he said with a smile. “You probably have some nice Cuban ladies to meet later and I want you to look your best.”
After the shave, he splashed some cologne on my face, which stung like a mother. And then he applied some talcum powder. I am not sure why the latter was used, but it didn’t hurt.
I rubbed my right hand across my face, and it felt like a baby’s bottom. Read more
Leaving Havana can be the worst experience at times. Sometimes you can take away things that you can’t smoke nor bargained for. I flew to Los Angeles over the weekend from the island and I found that I brought back something that I didn’t count on. It took effect on my Mexicana flight from Cancun to Los Angeles. And I spent the better part of the five-hour flight in the can — all in the day and the life of a smoker/drinker/foreign correspondent.
I am still suffering as I write this, but I am sure it will go away soon.
Anyway, the really annoying part was that about 30 minutes before we landed in LAX, I was going through my courier bag to find a pen to fill out my immigration form and I found a small Humidipak Humidor Bag full of four Romeo y Julieta Exhibicion No. 4s! Shit. I was supposed to smoke those at lunch in Havana with some friends at Aljibe restaurant before I left.
I started thinking to myself about the last flight to the United States from Havana via Cancun where U.S. Customs in Dallas took my cigars and chopped them in half in front of me. Of course, they were just doing their job. Remember my blog on March 5? But I just didn’t want to go through that bullshit again. And I didn’t know when I was going to have to find the next bano.
So, as we started our descent, I decided to just leave the Humidipak in the pocket of the seat in front of me with the magazines. I wonder if anyone has found the cigars yet on Mexicana 946C? I hated to leave them like that, but I felt like I had no choice. I felt like a criminal leaving a bag of drugs or something. IT WAS ONLY FOUR CIGARS! BUT THAT’S THE STUPIDITY OF THE LAWS.
The plane landed in Los Angeles, and I rushed to the immigration desk to try to get through before the bacteria eating at my intestines created another gastric disaster. To my horror, the Bradley Terminal looked like the last few days of Saigon! The only thing missing was the Huey helicopters!!
I swear that every 747 from the Far East to LAX must have arrived at the same time. Read more
I thought I was going to the Partagas Factory on Friday but I was told it was closed. So I ended up hanging with some friends and smoking some cigars (as usual) in La Habana.
It made me think about the new specialty factory that the Cubans are developing at the moment. It will be located in the old El Rey del Mundo factory, next door to the Romeo y Julieta factory. I went there years ago when it was still primarily making machine-made smokes. The machines, most that were brought into Cuba in the 1930s, put together the bunches and then rollers added the wrappers. The machines are long gone now from El Rey del Mundo.
“2009 we think that we will have the new factory,” said Manuel Garcia, commercial director for Habanos S.A., the global distribution and marketing organization for Cuban cigars. Check out my last blog for Manuel’s interesting perspective on the U.S. market. “It was traditionally for premium cigars, but after the Revolution, it was also for machine-made cigars. We want to make all specialty cigars there, such as regional editions, Edición Limitadas and special humidors.
This is a great idea, and I think that the factory will look something like El Laguito, where there are only about 100 rollers who take their time making superb smokes. Check out my video from El Laguito, the mother factory for Cohiba and formerly Cuban Davidoff cigars.
Garcia said that the regional edition smokes are a huge success and that he expects to see more and more. This year there are already close to two dozen. I hope to smoke them all in Havana in October.
I agree that the regional smokes are a success and they seem to be getting better all the time. Read more
Manuel Garcia, the commercial director for Habanos SA., the global marketing and distribution organization for Cuban cigars, probably knows more about the Cuban cigar business than anyone on earth. He has been selling Cuban cigars for Habanos (and what it was called earlier, Cubatabaco) around the world since 1989, and he has seen amazing changes in the industry, both in production and distribution and marketing.
Each year, the 50-year-old travels about 220 days crisscrossing the globe preaching the quality and uniqueness of Cuban cigars. As I said in my blog yesterday, his company, Habanos, distributes Cuban smokes in more than 160 countries around the world, not including the United States, of course. Or at least not officially.
I would say that a large percentage of Cuban cigars sold in Canada and Mexico end up in the hands and mouths of Americans. And I suspect that a significant percentage of Cuban cigars sold by top cigar merchants and airport shops around the world go to Americans.
It’s not that hard to get a Cuban cigar in many cities in the states. We all know where to go. Just look at my video from Los Angeles a few months back. I smoked a delicious Partagas Serie D No. 4 for $18—about the same price as London. Granted, I think a lot of Cuban cigars being smuggled and sold in the United States are fakes, but I think the real aficionado knows the difference and he or she pays a premium for an illicit smoke.
In fact, if you think about it, we are talking about significant numbers of real Cuban cigars being smoked by Americans. If Americans accounted for only 10 percent of the world sales of Cuban cigars, then their business would add up to about 15 million cigars. And I think that that is very possible. I know cigar merchants in London, Paris, Madrid, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Tijuana, Cancún, even Auckland, who’s sales of Cuban cigars to Americans range better 20 and 40 percent of their total sales each year. Read more
It’s hot today in Havana. They say it’s in the high 80s but it fees like the 90s. And it’s super humid too. What a change from Europe, which has been cold, wet and miserable over most of the last few weeks.
But that’s the magic of Havana, and Cuba at large. I was smoking in Plaza de San Francisco in Old Havana near the cruise ship docks and Customs House. I love to hang there and watch people go by. Check out my short video. Wish you were here!
Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of time for that though. I had to run off to Habanos S.A. I had an awesome interview this morning with Manuel Garcia, the commercial director of Habanos, the global marketing and distribution organization for Cuban cigars. It will make a cool column for the magazine, but I will recount a few things today and tomorrow. Plus, I have a special video tomorrow with Miguel.
I am not sure who coined the phrase first. (I thought I did?) But Manuel emphasized that there is not place better to smoke a Cuban cigar in the world than Cuba. “It is a natural humidor,” he said, as we smoked cigars in the offices of Habanos in the neighborhood of Miramar early this morning. He was smoking a Cohiba Lanceros and I lit up a Cuaba Piramide Edición Limitada 2008. The Cuaba won't be on the market until September.
“Cigars taste different in Cuba,” he said, as we smoked away and talked. “ It is the best combination to smoke cigars in Cuba. It’s not only the smoking conditions, but It is also in the psyche of smoker to smoke here. It is a very special experience... Cuba is the place of origin. It is unique. And we have the best tobacco.”
I have to admit that nothing beats smoking a cigar here. It is an emotional experience. It’s like surfing the perfect wave in Hawaii, driving a Ferrari on the factory race track (I did it last week!), drinking Latour at Chateau Latour, playing golf at St. Read more
I sat in the VIP lounge at Havana's José Martí Airport for about an hour waiting for my bags. Everyone was super friendly, super chilled. I made some jokes in my bad Spanish and just hung and smoked my Trinidad Fundadore. Is it just me or does this awesome cigar taste better now that I am in Cuba? I think it likes being back home and it will stay here in the form of ash.
It’s spicy and very cedary with a bitter chocolate and tobacco aftertaste. It smells of white pepper and dried flowers. It draws perfectly. I think it was a big plus making the Fundadore a 40 ring gauge instead of 38 like the Cohiba Lanceros or Davidoff No. 1 or Montecristo Especiale. The slightly thicker ring gauge gives you a smoother and fresher draw. I give this 93 points, non blind. Love this cigar.
The weather is a humid 86F today. My driver said that it rains every afternoon. Oh well. I just came from London and it was raining. It was so cold I thought it might start snowing last night when I was at the Lanesborough with a buddy from Mexico smoking a cigar before dinner. The Lanesborough is one of the few public places you can smoke, but it’s in a small heated outdoor terrace. I was dressed for Cuba, so I froze.
So I am still unthawing in Havana today. Tomorrow I have an interview with Manuel Garcia, who is the commercial director of Habanos S.A., the global marketing and distribution company for Cuban cigars. I am excited to discuss how Cuban cigars have evolved from just being a smoke to becoming a symbol and a product for a luxury lifestyle. It’s not just smoke anymore. We all know that a fine cigar enhances your life. It calms you and enables you to be reflective about life. Plus, it brings you closer to family and friends when you all have the chance to hang out and have a nice smoke.
That’s something Cubans certainly understand. When I entered the VIP lounge, I told the receptionist that I was going to the large smoking room, and he just smiled. Read more
What would you bring to Cuba for your first smoke? I always have that “problem” when I go to cigar smokers’ paradise. I like to light a cigar as soon as I arrive on the island, and that normally means at the VIP lounge in the José Martí Airport as I am waiting for my luggage.
How cool is that? Smoking in a cigar in the airport. Wow. And in Havana no less.
Sometimes I run into someone I know on the flight and they offer me a smoke if we both happen to be in VIP. Or maybe a friend of mine will meet me at the lounge and bring something. But usually it’s just my cigars, and I love to light up after more than nine hours in the plane from London or Madrid. It’s relaxing, but also there’s something almost mystical about it. It makes me change gears and immediately become part of the island culture or tempo.
This time I brought a couple of 1998 Trinidad Fundadores. I brought these because they are from the original batch of cigars produced for the launch of the brand in March 1998. I love the long and slender cigar that measures 7 1⁄2 inches long by 40-ring gauge. It is essentially the same cigar as the Cohiba Lanceros but a tiny bit thicker. So it usually draws better.
I love the spicy, tobacco and coffee character of the 1998 Fundadore. It has so much character for a long, slender smoke, and with age, it delivers such finesse and freshness. It keeps your palate clean and satisfied.
Can’t wait to smoke it. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I light it up in Havana and begin my daily blogs and videos from the island.
I have to admit that I was a little nervous. Look at my face in the video before I drove the car. I think I look a little pale, even ashen. But it all went well, and after four laps around the track, I began to feel confident.
It was all part of a morning at the Fiorano racetrack near Modena, Italy. The track is the official track for Ferrari, both for testing their production cars as well as Forumla One. I was asked last Monday to go with some friends from Florence who were hooking up with their local Ferrari dealer to try out some of the new F430s on the market. Who in their right mind would say no to that?
Anyway, we drove up from Florence to the track, which took about two hours. We already had a couple of Ferraris. One of the cars was a sleek black 430 coupe. The other was a dark silver 550 SuperAmerica.
But when we arrived at the track, there was dead silence for a moment. In front of us were four gorgeous new F430s, complete with test pilots to give you few tips while zooming around the track. The cars were breathtaking.
I don’t want to bore you with all the specs on the cars but they were the standard 490- horsepower models with F1 paddle gearboxes and ceramic brakes. They are essentially rockets with wheels.
We spent about one hour learning about the mechanics of the cars as well as driving positions and some techniques. But the real lesson was when we took a quick two laps with a test pilot. Mine was Sergio. (I thought I had a fun job!). He drove the car with great precision but at the same time in a smooth and relaxed manner. At the straightaway we hit about 200 kilometers per hour before braking and shifting down three gears to second to take the first curve. It was a blast!
I had to wait about an hour after that to get my chance in front of the wheel of the F430. I have driven one a number of times last year, but driving on a track is so much different than the road. Read more
I froze my ass off last night in London just to smoke a cigar with my good friends Jemma Freeman and Simon Chase, both of Hunters & Frankau, the British importers of fine Cuban cigars. We smoked a number of aged cigars that they are currently putting on the market, including a delicious 1998 Romeo y Julieta Churchill. The long smoke delivered plenty of cocoa and coffee character as well as a medium body, and a flavorful finish. 91 points, non blind, I say.
I tried it against a current production RyJ Churchill and the aged smoke was superior. In fact, the new Churchill was a bit under filled and grassy. Not very good. I guess the Cubans haven't fixed all their QC problems!
Anyway, we had about a 30-minute session at a place near Victoria Station called Boisdales. It's a Scottish bar/restaurant with live music and a heated terrace on top. Unfortunately, you have to clear out by 11 p.m., or the neighbors (or shall I write neighbours) start complaining. So we had to hurry through our smokes and glasses of 10-year-old Taylor's tawny Port.
But it's better than nothing. It's sort of weird not being able to smoke in London. For me, London is "the" man's man sort of city. It just caters to us from bespoke suits to great wine shops. But now you can't smoke. Even my London club, the Savile Club, doesn't let you smoke. I remember for years smoking in the club and seeing old farts fall asleep in big fluffy reading chairs in the library with a smoke smoldering in their hand. The great author Rudyard Kipling, a member of the Savile, must be rolling over in his grave. A cigar is not just a cigar anymore in London. Oh well, times change...
Luckily, last week I was also in London for a Latour wine tasting (See my blog on the event over at www.winespectator.com.) And the weather was beautiful. It was summer, or at least English summer. It was sunny, not too hot and beautiful. Read more
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