Cigar Weekly

Los Angeles - The introduction of the torch lighter has made the lighting of large ring-gauge cigars much easier. But getting a torch to work consistently has often been a problem.

One of the reasons is the difficulty in properly re-filling such lighters with butane gas. If you read the instructions - and how many people do that? - almost every manual notes that to properly fill a lighter, the fuel tank has to be completely emptied. That means bleeding the lighter dry by tipping the nozzle so that all remaining gas is expelled before adding new fuel.

This is necessary because unless the tank is really empty, air bubbles can form in the tank and interfere with the flow of butane to the ignition site. Then you begin wondering why your lighter isn't working.

Colibri has ended this problem with its ingenious Reload lighter, introduced at the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) convention and trade show in Las Vegas. The new concept in this lighter is a removable and replaceable fuel tank.

Once emptied, the ABS-plastic fuel tank is simply discarded and replaced with a new tank, pre-loaded with butane. There's no worry about air bubbles or having the wrong nozzle size on your refill can. Just unscrew the bottom cover - the screw is big enough to handle with your fingers and does not require tools - pop out the empty tank and insert a new one! As the Colibri folks note, "Lock. Load. Fire."

As befitting such an advance in lighter technology, the Colibri Reload has a high-tech look to it and is designed to keep your fingers away from the flame. It is designed for easy operation with one hand and comes in four color styles: black and silver, all silver, silver and gunmetal and gunmetal and silver. The price is quite reasonable, too, at $49.95 retail, including the lighters and two (full) fuel tanks.

The disposable fuel tanks are also well thought out. They are made of perfectly-clear ABS plastic, so there's no doubt about the amount of fuel left. And the replacement tanks are offered in easy-to-buy three-packs for a suggested retail price of $7.49 each.

>> "In local currencies, sales in the second quarter increased by 16 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, while operating profit increased by 4 percent."

In a nutshell, that's the story of Swedish Match's cigar business from March through June of this year: successful, but still not where the company wants to be. Comments in the second quarter financial statements released last week included another acknowledgment of the importance to Swedish Match's U.S. cigar business of the recent acquisition of retailer Cigars International:

"During the second quarter, U.S. premium cigar volumes started to return to more normal levels, but were still below the level of the previous year (excluding acquisitions). Sales in local currencies (excluding acquisitions) were down about 10 percent in part due to lower shipments, and in part due to mix shifts toward smaller and less expensive cigars. In the U.S., Cigars International, acquired in September 2007, has shown a strong performance." Strong is an understatement; Swedish Match's U.S. premium sales were up 43 percent over 2007!

Swedish Match chief executive Lars Dahlgren told Reuters that the U.S. cigar situation was "nothing drastic; but what we hear, feel and see indicate that the premium market in the U.S. this year is unusually weak.

"People consumed slightly smaller and cheaper cigars. Maybe that's an indication that people give things an extra thought under these economic conditions."

>> A Los Angeles legend and one of the few cigar makers left in Southern California, Gilberto Leon, passed away on July 14.

His tiny shop - Leon Cigars - on 6th Street in midtown Los Angeles was well known to cigar lovers all across the area. The entrance was often blocked with bales of tobacco that had just arrived and for decades, Leon didn't use a cash register, but made change out of a cigar box.

A detailed obituary in the Los Angeles Times noted that Leon passed away at age 87 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. He was a native of Cuba, of course, and worked in Cuban factories and even had his own shop before being forced by the Castro regime to work in the sugar cane fields for five years. He was then able to leave Cuba and came to Los Angeles in 1971.

He opened Leon Cigars in 1979 and he and two other rollers were able to make about 600 cigars per day. Open six days a week, the store's Leon blend offered primarily medium-bodied cigars with Ecuadorian wrappers that retailed for $3 to $6 each. It was common to see motorcycle cops park their bikes in front, only to see them return minutes later with a lit Presidentes (7 1/2 inches by 50 ring) firmly clenched in their teeth and trailing smoke as they rode away! Leon's third wife, Carmelina, told The Times that she planned to keep the store open.

>> Short fillers: Jack Priestly is a retired baker living in Pinchbeck, England. He turned 100 on July 12, enjoying a lifestyle which includes 10 cigars a day and a shot of whisky with his breakfast tea! "I love my cigars," he told the British newspaper The Mirror. "I wouldn't be without them. I don't care about the brand - a cigar is a cigar. But the bigger, the better." Priestly, whose wife died in 1993 (she was 83), thinks he has smoked about 153,000 cigars and 715,400 cigarettes in his lifetime, not to mention about 925 bottles of whisky. He started smoking cigarettes at age nine, but switched to cigars in 1966 because he believed them to be healthier. He started adding a shot of whisky to his breakfast at age 24. "I've been operated on from toe to head but I've still got a good set of lungs. There's nothing wrong with them." . . . find our latest tasting review, of some of the new cigars introduced at the 2008 IPCPR trade show, in our News & Views archives for July 25.

---

Want more? Join us for daily coverage of cigars, accessories, people and issues at www.CigarCyclopedia.com.