RIP - Quai d'Orsay Imperiales (Churchill)

It is a sad day for afficionados, we are losing one of our own: production of the Quai d'Orsay Imperiales (Churchill) has stopped. The news came from the respected Cigar Insider "The Cuban Quai D’Orsay Imperiales, a 7 inch by 47 ring Churchill, has been officially discontinued, leaving only one size left in the line—the Corona Claro".

I was actually lucky enough to smoke a few of these some years ago, as you may remember (see here and there). There is so much high level competition in this format that no one would dare saying this was the best Churchill out there, yet it was a cigar with character which will be dearly missed. It was also probably the lightest of the Cuban production in this vitola.

Brand will focus on developing its Regional Edition we can assume... ie. more marketing and less traditions, not the way I like things to evolve. Though rather predictable ...

Quai d'Orsay Belicoso Royal - Regional edition (France)

On my last trip to Paris, I stopped by the Duty-Free cigar shop at the airport and was shown a box of cigar I had never seen before: Quai D'Orsay Belicoso Royal, Torcido exclusivamente para Francia - rolled exclusively for French market.

It was not my first encounter with the Quai D'Orsay brand, as you may remember. I was however seduced once again by the beautiful combination of the brown wrapper and the orange ring.

The salesgirl clearly knew how to talk to men like me... the words "limited editions", "our last box", "France exclusive" worked like magic and I was already reaching for my wallet... to buy the whole box. Now that the box is mine and the thrill has gone (so to speak) it is probably time to be more critical about the whole thing. Quai d'Orsay is a brand created by Habanos group (the Cuban cigar state owned monopoly) for the French market and at the request of the French authorities. So the idea that this format (Belicoso) in particular is produced for French market only is confusing since all Quai d'Orsay cigars supposedly are. Truth be told, this production should be labelled limited edition (which it is, see below pictures only 2000 boxed were produced), than regional edition.

The legend has it that then minister of finance Valery Giscard d'Estaing wanted France to have its own exclusive Cuban cigar brand. He mandated the SEITA (French state owned tobacco monopoly) to seal the deal with the Cubans... This limited edition is also there to witness 40 years of collaboration between the brand Quai d'Orsay and SEITA.

"Hey Mr. President, wouldn't it be brilliant to have our own brand of cigars, don't you think?"

I have started smoking these stogies and will share soon some of my comments.

How to move with you cigars ? (travel humidor - Part. 2)

I have eventually moved to Hong Kong...

No real impact on this blog you may say, that is correct, but a big impact on my cigars ! So here comes the only valid question : how do you move with your cigars ?

Well of course the problem is kind of easy if you're moving from Harlem to Manhattan, or from Shibuya to Shinjyuku, etc. You just bring your humidor along with you. My problem was slightly more complex : I had to move my entire cigar estate (humidor, travel humidor & cigars) from Paris to Hong Kong...

This is where the travel humidor becomes handy, doesn't it ? Well, sadly, not really. The travel humidor I bought a couple of months proved itself to be stylish, well built... but not very functional. Cigars are moving within it when you transport them, and they can easily be damaged. On top of that, you have to carry the damn thing always on an horizontal position, otherwise you are rocking the cigars even more... Consider it as a transportable humidor, more than a travel humidor. My favourite humidor boutique in Paris (Elie Bleu look for their boutique next to La Concorde, between the Buddha Bar and the Crion Palace Hotel), recommended I buy a "cigar caddy", as the gentleman at Elie Bleu was putting it "the cigar caddy is the exact opposite of your travel humidor : it is hugly, quite cheap, but by far the most convenient way to transport your cigar safely."



Manufactured by OtterBox, they sell on-line! Higly recommandable + Lifetime guaranteed !

"A third of a Romeo y Julieta will be smoked during this performance. If you find that offensive, f*** off" !!

Check this out !

The war is not over, and the Resistance is getting organized !

Interesting and amusing story (though the end is rather sad...), God save Mel Smith, Churchill and Romeo y Julieta ! (Click on the link

My first box of Ramon Allones Specially Selected (a.k.a. buying cigars on the Internet)

I decided to indulge myself with a box of fine cigars for X'mas this year. Since I have moved to Hong Kong and cigars are kind of expensive over there (yes, it's true), I ordered my box on the Internet from a Swiss website that a Friend had recommanded to me.
It's always tricky to buy cigars on the web, since there are so many fakes on the market... A very good deal can rapidly turn into a true nightmare...
I can only recommand to you www.topcubans.com which really offers a good service, and guarantees the authenticity of its goods. The box of 25 Ramon Allones Specially Selected I bought was delivered very rapidly, in very good conditions (vacuum-sealed), and at a fair price. For sure, they are genuine !

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See all the pictures on my Flickr Account.

Partagas Cabinet 155th Anniversary

Look at what I found in a Friend's cellar/humidor : Partagas edited a special cabinet for its 155th Anniversary... filled with 155 unique cigars : Churchills, Piramides, Double Robusto... Absolutely exclusive ! Only 155 were produced ! His cabinet is absolutely untouched... Truly unique !
He has the number 133 out of 155... Check out the picture !




(See the whole thing here on my : Flickr account)

Good cigar blog

The best cigar blog I've read so far (apart from Cigars & Co. obviously :-)... It comes from Malaysia, where Aizuddin Danian is patiently reporting on its smoking experience. Check it out :

http://mycigarblog.org/blog/

Too bad it has not been active for the last 6 months... For those of you who remember, I already mentionned about Aizuddin's blog in a previous post dedicated to Partagas 2000 Millenium Reserve Salamon...

Aizuddin, you've gotta come back !

Cigar Shopping in Paris

Hey, my birthday again ! My good friends know how to treat me !



I have just received :

• 3 H. Upmann, Magnum 50 (double robusto), LE (edicion limitada) 2005;
• 3 Romeo y Julieta, Petit Pyramides LE (edicion limitada) 2005;
• 2 Bolivar, Coronas Gigantes (churchill);
• 3 H.Upmann, Sir Winston (churchill...of course);

Yummy !

==

I bought this very nice selection in one of my favourite place to buy cigar in the French Capital :
La Civette,
157 rue Saint-Honoré
75001 Paris
France
+33 1 42 96 04 99

They have a very nice selection indeed (both cubans & dominicans), though the service could be improved... depends on the sales person you're dealing with actually.

Cigar Tasting Wheel

Found this on Cigar Jack's blog, sort of liked it. Put it there. Not as good as my new travel humidor, but still ok ;-)

Travel Humidor

Yeah it's my birthday ! Ok, I got older... but hey! I also got a travel humidor ! After carefully investigating the market, I discovered that the offer is :

a) non-branded travel humidor - distributed on the Internet - quality seems to be poor;

b) branded travel humidor - brands such as Dunhill do carry some of those - though oddly enough you can find the travel humidor in their store but not on their website (reason invoked : "we only display the current collection on the Internet, not the all-times classics" mmhmm, not so convinced about this weird marketing policy, I think that political correctness has also something to deal with this choice i.e. no smoker accessories on the website). Anyway, Dunhill travel humidor are sold in Europe for roughly 200 euros (small size - 6 to 10 medium cigars), up to 350 euros (bigger size - 15 medium cigars, 10 big). Davidoff also has a nice range of travel humidor, but the prices are rather high (you can easily reach 600-700 euros, notably because of the quality of the leather (crocodile skin, etc.);

c) my travel humidor : the best deal I could find in my quest for a good quality travel hunidor, with nice leather, good wood, good capacity (double corona must fit in ! cf. my last post on this format), was the S.T Dupont big travel humidor. I do hate their website though, you cannot shut the music, they give very few details on the products, and guess what ? The product I bought today is not on the website anyway... That having been said, I am quite happy with the quality of the product so far, and especially the quality of the leather : thick yet soft. It has the biggest capacity I could find on the market, same size as the biggest size from Davidoff, but for "only" 300 euros.

Now I can travel with my babies !

Cigar Wallpaper (part 2)

Since it is one of my bestseller (i.e. the sucess of the first Cigar Wallpaper), please find hereafter the second one : the Romeo y Julieta Churchill Wallpaper !

Enjoy :)

Cigar Shopping in Geneva

I went skiing for a couple of days in the French Alps. Me and one of my cigar buddy went to Geneva in order to buy some cigars. Some friends recommended us to visit the boutique «Raffi Cigares» (2-4, place Longemalle 1204 Genève Tel : 00 41 22 311 97 40). Good shop, well maintained, good prices (FYI, and as far as Cigars are concerned, Switzerland is cheaper than France, yet more expansive than Spain).

I bought :

• Ramon Allones - Gigantes
• Upman - Magnum 46
• Cohiba - Siglo VI
• Montecristo - N°2

Raffi's choice is quite good while service is excellent. (One of the) place to go in Geneva.

Le fouin, le divin, le purin

That's how the French describe the three parts of a cigar. If I had to translate I'd say "the grass, the divine, and the... shit". Kind of accurate, isn't it ?

The Decline of Cuban Cigars ?

Everybody is talking about it ! Quality control in Cuba is not what it once was, and it feels like everybody is complaining. I myself wrote a couple of posts about consistency issues here and there.

Nonetheless, I was a little bit shocked to discover this article, by Marvin Shanken, in the respectable Cigar Aficionado : The Decline of Cuban Cigars. What is it about ?

• Lack of consistency;
• Quality control is poor;
• Increasing of the production to meet the growing demand led to lower quality;
• Cubans are not what they used to be.

Well... is that so surprising from Cuba ? I mean look at the country itself : Cuba is a communist country (a), led by a fierce, yet weakened, dictator (b), haunted by corruption (c), with almost no private sector (d), and a struggling economy (e).

If I may say so : what did you really expect Marvin ?

Comment from 2014: reading this post again 8 years later... I realize I have probably been too harsh with Cuba and with Mr Castro as well... A country that produces the best cigar on earth cannot be all wrong...

Cubans vs. Dominicans (part 2)

I am now fully recovered (pls. refer to my last post on Cubans vs. Dominicans), and I could smoke my first Cuban today (Sancho Panza, Corona). Yesterday evening I smoked the last Davidoff which was still sleeping in my cave. I would like, once again, to spend a few lines to try to describe my feelings.

Davidoff's combustion is perfect. Simply perfect. Davidoff cigars' draw was way better than most of the Cubans I have ever had. This Sancho Panza I had today, did not burn half as good as my Davidoff yesterday... But the aromas... hey, get real ! I would prefer to smoke one Sancho Panza, rather than two or even three Davidoffs... Sad but true.

Christmas time ? Cigar time !

Yipee! Look I what I've got for Christmas : a brand new humidor for my babies! 100% cedar wood, lovely design & colour (blue-grey). Really happy about this!

Cubans vs. Dominicans

Got sick last week (fever, coughing, the usual cold you get during Paris winter)... I had to stop smoking for a week or so. Then I felt I could not start right away to smoke my regular Cubans again. I felt that to recover fully, I'd better start with something lighter, yet tasty. Enter the Dominicans cigars !
I had a few of them : Davidoffs, Griffins, Avo, you name it... I almost smoked everything that was non Cuban in my humid.

The verdict ? Well with all due respect... I'm sorry to say that with their best efforts, Dominicans simply don't match Cubans. They're just way too mild to deliver the same kind of aromas you can find in a Cuban cigar. And it's not like I'm psycho-rigid, I do appreciate non-Cuban cigars from time to time.

I know that consistency wise, Dominicas ought to be praised. But taste/aroma wise ?

Public Appeal : I'm an open minded person, if by any chance you know a Dominican brand which you believe equals the Cubans in the aroma/taste segment (richness of flavours), just react to this post (link below).

Cigar Wallpaper

Here is my Christmas gift ! I give to all my readers a free Cohiba Cigar Wallpaper designed by... me ! I only have 1024x768 available, hope this will do.

• Cigar Wallpaper 1024x768 (colour version)

• Cigar Wallpaper 1024x768 (b&w version)

Enjoy & have a merry christmas !

Churchill (cigar)

Another of my favourite format. The Churchill. I love the vitola, I like the man ! (or the other way around maybe? well anyway! ).
There are at least three very good cigars in this format :

• H. Upmann Sir Winston
• Romeo y Julieta Churchill
• Cohiba Esplendidos

Another contest I need to organize, it is likely though that the best Robusto (& part 2) will come first.

On a footnote, I found this very interesting text on the Web, written by Ian Buruma, a contemporary writer and essayist, about a Churchill cigar actually smoked by Churchill. I am wondering wheter this boutique still exists in The Hague...

The best Robusto ? (part 2)

In my previous post The best Robusto ? I short-listed three Robustos which stand magnificently above the crowd, namely :

• The Cohiba Robustos
• The Hoyo de Monterey Epicure #2
• The Partagas D4

I apparently did forget another great cigar of this "caliber" : the Ramon Allones Specially Selected (a.k.a. RASS). So we now have four contestants.