CWNews
Heard in the Humidor for June 11, 2010
Highlights of the week in cigars and smoking from
For the week of June 14-18, 2010
Los Angeles – "The $2,000,000 prize speaks for itself."
General Cigar vice president of marketing Debo Mukherjee said it right in getting the attention of smokers to what’s potentially at stake in the second "Macanudo Millionaire" contest, now underway and continuing through August 31. Entrants submit a short story through the Macanudo Millionaire Web site and one will win – according to the official rules:
"A 3-day/2-night trip for four (4) (Grand Prize winner and up to three (3) guests) to Las Vegas, Nevada ("Grand Prize"). Grand Prize includes round trip coach air transportation for four (4) persons (Grand Prize winner and up to three guests) from the major commercial airport nearest Grand Prize winner’s residence to Las Vegas, Nevada, two (2) nights’ standard hotel accommodations (two rooms, double occupancy), ground transportation to and from Las Vegas airport and $1,200 food stipend.
"Grand Prize winner and up to three (3) guests will each receive one (1) opportunity to be dealt five (5) cards for a chance to win $2,000,000 at a time and location designated by the Sponsor during his/her trip to Las Vegas as follows: (a) if any of the participants has a Straight Flush or a Royal Straight Flush they will win $2,000,000 with the Grand Prize winner receiving $1,000,000 and $1,000,000 split evenly among the guest participants OR (b) if any of the participants has four of a kind but below a Straight Flush or a Royal Straight Flush they will win $100,000 to be split evenly among the winner and his/her guest participants OR (c) if any of the participants has a pair or higher but below four of a kind they will win $1,000 to be split evenly among the winner and his/her guest participants."
Entries will be accepted through August 31 and the winner will be selected around September 14 and the contest will conclude with the dealing of the cards at the Playboy Club at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on November 13. The odds of winning the $2 million? According to the rules: "1 in 64,974."
Winning the trip to Las Vegas and the chance for a $2 million payout requires a winning essay. The 100-point scoring criteria include "Creativity of overall story (1-40 points); description and expression of the cigar smoking experience (1-40 points); and relevance to Macanudo (1-20 points). The winner will be the entrant with the highest number of points."
Naturally, there’s a special cigar offer to go along with the contest: a four-pack of Macanudo, Macanudo Gold Label, Macanudo Maduro and Macanudo Robust cigars, which will be available during the contest period at participating retailers.
"The Macanudo Millionaire contest generated tremendous buzz and excitement last year," said Mukherjee. "It was only fitting that we decided to run it again, this time ‘upping the ante’ to $2,000,000."
Last year’s winner, Michael Coates of Hawthorne, New Jersey, spun a roulette wheel for a 1:38 chance of winning $1 million, but didn’t select the correct number. His winning entry, however, is posted on the contest Web site for reference!
>> Miami-based Beach Cigar Group, owner of the high-end Gurkha brand, has made its first acquisition, taking over the distribution of Cojimar Cigars and in the process of acquiring the company.
Cojimar, founded by Rosie Perez in 1996 and also headquartered in Miami, has been a leading player in the handmade, flavored-cigar market under brand names including Cojimar, Carnaval, Earth Supernatural and NU by Cojimar. Beach Cigar owner Kaizad Hansotia said "she was looking for a good partner, somebody who was good for her cigars.
"This gives my sales guys entree into cigar shops that we never did before; it’s a good program to have for our sales operation and will generate revenue from a market we didn’t ever touch. Cojimar is the no. 1 flavored cigar out there." Cojimar’s top-selling cigar is the vanilla-flavored Senoritas, a 5-inch by 30-ring small panatela and the overall sales volume was characterized as a little more than two million cigars annually.
Hansotia explained that Beach Cigar will immediately take over warehousing and distribution of all Cojimar products and will complete the acquisition "over the next six months." Cojimar’s small staff will be retained by Beach Cigar and Hansotia noted that there would be essentially no changes in the Cojimar lines or packaging for the next few months, but has big plans after that. "We’re looking to expand it significantly."
Perez owns, and will continue to own, the Dominican factory where Cojimar is produced, but will now sell her cigars directly to Beach. "She will be in charge of manufacturing," said Hansotia. Perez said in a statement that "We are very excited about this merger, and we are looking forward to working with a company with such a great reputation."
It’s the first acquisition for Hansotia, but not the last. "We’re on a buying spree," said Hansotia, noting more activity is already in the pipeline but adding "we’re still looking."
On the Gurkha front, Hansotia said his Evil, Assassin, Archive and Vintage Shaggy lines are all performing very well and are "always on back order." The Vintage Shaggy, with an open foot, is currently his best seller.
>> Cigar smokers certainly identify with the swashbuckling John "Hannibal" Smith, the leader of the "The A-Team" from the 1980s television show and the new "The A-Team" movie that debuted on June 11. But Smith’s irrepressible cigar will be eliminated in any future sequels if actor Liam Neeson gets his way.
Neeson, 58, the Irish-born star of the new film, told the popular Australian morning radio program "The Kyle and Jackie O Show" that he wants Hannibal to wear a nicotine patch in any future sequels.
"I stopped smoking 16 years ago, it was a real issue for me," he said on the show. "[Director] Joe [Carnahan] insisted I have cigars and because it was Canada, they don’t have a trade embargo with Cuba and the props guys got me these amazing Cuban cigars.
"I got them to make rubber ones, because I didn’t want to be puffing on a cigar, but Joe, who is a big cigar smoker said, ‘No, it looks so false!’ I said, ‘Joe, I’m an addict! I can’t smoke this stuff!’ Day 2 and I discovered cigars. It was dangerous."
"The A-Team" director – Carnahan – and two of its producers – Ridley and Tony Scott – are all cigar enthusiasts, so it will be interesting to see if Neeson get his way in any future sequels. "If we do a sequel," he told the show, "I think I’ll have to insist on no cigars. We’ll all have patches on instead."
In the original television series, both Hannibal (George Peppard, who died in 1994) and Face (Dirk Benedict) smoked cigars with regularity and Benedict was a constant presence in Los Angeles-area cigar shops during the Cigar Boom of the 1990s. It’s hard to imagine The A-Team without cigars, but Neeson is determined to try.
>> "New York Governor David Patterson has proposed to raise the Other Tobacco Products Tax (OTP), which impacts cigars, from 46% of the wholesale price, to a new rate of 90% of wholesale price. We just experienced an OTP tax increase from 37% to 46% one year ago. If passed, this bill would jeopardize the presence of every community tobacconist and cigar shop in the state, while harshly impacting cigar enthusiasts throughout New York."
That’s Michael Herklots, general manager of the Davidoff of Geneva stores in New York, in a plea for help to his customers to voice their displeasure at the proposal. Further north, smokers gathered on Wednesday to speak out as well. From a dispatch by Bill Lambdin of WNYT-13 in Albany:
"As part of the governor's plan to close a $9 billion gap and finally agree on a budget now nearly 10 weeks late, Paterson wants to hike the tax New York collects from 46 percent of the wholesale price to 90 percent of the wholesale price. The administration predicts that will produce an extra $40 million for the state this year. The same amount next.
But not if no one is still in business, which is the dire picture cigar store merchants and customers were claiming as they gathered at [Scott] Bendett's [Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe in Colonie, N.Y.].
"Even though we're competitors we both know that we're going to go down on this ship together if New York State has their way," said Queensbury Cigar and Pipe Store owner Eric Josten."
An "Action Alert" on the Cigar Rights of America Web site notes that "The Governor, with this ill conceived strategy to close a $620 million budget gap, will only increase the budget dilemma, by driving cigar consumers to out-of-state sources, and to on-line vendors. Hence, no new revenue for New York. In fact, New York will lose existing revenue by forcing this draconian tax increase upon the cigar enthusiasts of New York. Will they ever learn?!"
>> Short fillers: Find our latest tasting review, of the latest Gurkha in our News & Views archives for June 7.