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HEARD THE HUMIDOR for July 2, 2010
Highlights of the week in cigars and smoking from
For the week of July 5-9, 2010
Los Angeles – This isn’t the best of times for many cigar makers, but for the Miami-based Habana Cuba Cigar Company, it’s full speed ahead.
"The effort began during the last quarter of 2009, when we increased the production of all Oliveros lines close to 350%," said Habana Cuba chief Rafael Nodal. "It is a bold move, but one that we had to take in order to assure that every time a retailer orders our Oliveros products, they know they will get it in few days."
What’s driving this decision?
"The King Havano has been selling like crazy," noted Habana Cuba vice president Hank Bischoff. "We haven’t been able to keep it in stock. It’s fantastic cigar (all 3 wrappers: natural, maduro fuerte and oscuro) and has just about any palate covered between the three.
"I think the stronger blends coming out of Nicaragua have sold well and at the same time gotten us some name recognition for the other Oliveros products. So there’s been carry over from the King Havano. The pricing on all our lines is excellent, the Eight Zero being the most expensive and still coming in around $10 on the high end of the line.
"That’s part of why I think the [forthcoming] SWAG is going to be a knockout line for us. Even though it’s not going to be under the ‘Oliveros’ mark, there will still be some carry over from the brand. And when people smoke it, they might have a hard time believing it’s a Dominican blend."
Habana Cuba been producing Oliveros Cigars – primarily known as a flavored-cigar line – since 2002, but has continuously increased the production of new, premium Oliveros lines since. Now, the Oliveros premium lines represent 65% of production.
And the company is producing cigars in all three of the major countries supplying cigars to the U.S. market:
=> The Oliveros Flavors, Platinum Series, Kopi Luwak and Classic Collection are manufactured at Tabacalera Cinco Estrellas in Tamboríl, Dominican Republic, while the new SWAG line will be made by Jochi Blanco at the Tabacalera Palma factory, also in Tamboril;
=> The Oliveros Eight Zero, Oliveros Gold Series and the Cuban Spliff are manufactured in Honduras under the supervision of Nestor Plasencia, and
=> The King Havano line is made in Plasencia’s factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.
Bischoff noted that King Havano isn’t the only line consistently out of stock. "The Spliffs have been backordered for awhile. The look and the price points make that an easy sell for the stores." The unfinished-looking Spliff line includes the Cuban Spliff, a 6-inch by 52-ring torpedo that features a shaggy foot, a pigtail head and is offered in boxes of 50, retailing for less than $5 each, and the Baby Spliff (4 1/2 x 40), offered in boxes of 20.
With production ramped up, Habana Cuba plans to have up to six months of inventory of all sizes of all brands in its line in its U.S. warehouses, just in time for the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers convention and trade show in New Orleans. "Our goal is to completely eliminate the backorder issues that have arisen," said Bischoff. That means retailers who order cigars at the show can get them immediately, not always possible with many brands which are introduced there, but not available for months afterward.
>> Havana cigars are quite the rage in Paris, but are now the butt of jokes about the free-spending administration of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Le Canard Echaine, a weekly newspaper that famously focuses on abuses by French officials, revealed that Christian Blanc, the state secretary for development for the greater Paris area, had charged taxpayers about 12,000 Euros (about $14,627 U.S.) over the past 10 months for Cuban cigars as "entertainment expenses," including boxes of Cohibas and H. Upmanns! The "affair des cigares" story was complete with photos of receipts from Le Cigare et la Plume, a western Paris cigar shop.
Blanc reimbursed the Treasury 3,500 Euros ($4,266 U.S.) for what he said were the two boxes a month that he smoked, but suggested his chief of staff, William Jublot, was responsible for ordering the rest. So, Jublot has now filed a defamation suit against Blanc.
Now, Sarkozy, himself a frequent cigar smoker, has banned taxpayer purchases of cigars along with a series of other perks available to top-level government officials, and has asked Blanc to reimburse the government for the cost of the cigars. "I have decided the lifestyle of the state must be vigorously reduced," he noted in a letter to Prime Minister Francois Fillon, adding "The state must, more than ever, display exemplariness."
All this comes amid a call from Sarkozy to reform some aspects of French society amid a projected budget deficit of 100 million Euro ($122 billion U.S.) or more. Sarkozy has proposed raising the eligibility age for state pensions from 60 to 62 over a six-year period and other items which are being vigorously fought by political and labor groups.
In the meantime, a blog post by Charles Bremner on the Times of London Web site noted, "Sarkozy is also a big cigar lover, by the way. He doesn’t smoke them anywhere near a photographer nowadays. . . . He helps himself from a wooden humidor of Havana’s best that sits on a side-table in his living quarters. We don’t know who pays for them."
>> George Lopez is a world-famous comedian, actor and, now, host of "Lopez Tonight" talk show that appears on TBS. He is also a major-league cigar smoker and now has his own cigar, named after his show: "Lopez Tonight."
"The idea came from Lopez, who is an ardent cigar smoker," wrote J-R Cigars’ Lew Rothman, who manufactures and sells the brand.
"We sent him various samples to select a blend and wrapper and the Lopez Tonight cigar is the one he preferred. Confidentially, it is the exact same cigar as the Dona Lydia cigar that John Oliva made with his wife's picture on it."
Made in Nicaragua, the blend is medium-bodied, featuring an Ecuadorian-grown, Sumatra-seed wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder and Dominican, Honduran and Nicaraguan-grown filler leaves. Five sizes are offered, all in packs of four priced from $13.50-17.95 each ($3.38-4.49 per cigar). The brand name was, in fact, licensed from Warner Bros., where the show is produced.
"The reason it was made in 4-packs to begin with is that every guest on the show receives a pack of these cigars," wrote Rothman. "Boxes containing 20 cigars each are ‘in the works’ and should be available by the fall." As to the pricing, Rothman added that "Lopez wanted the cigar to be priced reasonably."
They’re available now, saluting the man whose long-time catchphrase – "If you don’t like it, don’t look at it" – is more and more apt in today’s crazy world.
>> Short fillers: Find our latest tasting review, of the latest blends from the Garo Habano Cigar Co. in our News & Views archives for July 2.
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