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2025 wrap-up and Merry Christmas!

What a year. 🥳 Danli Hamlet and I started in a new Danli Factory January 2025. Hammy was all for it. I was 50/50 knowing deep down that I was now responsible for 35 new people and their families. First cigars rolled off the production table in May and all fears were set aside. We had worked with Factory managers Nahun and Sergio previously. We know their quality and the standards upon which they would build their team around. December 2025, 4 new cigar releases completed, full inventory in stock and a complete 2026 rollout plan (5 cigars) in place. Proud of the entire team. FOH Strength to strength. FOH holds a special place in the cigar world. It isn't Insta/YouTube/Influencer led. FOH launched in 2004 and has transitioned over the years from 100% Habanos to probably 50/50 in terms of the daily cigar appetite of members. It has weathered cigar shortages, cigarmageddon, Habanos shenanigans. FOH has grown up, doesn't take itself too seriously, supports each other, has enough "dodgy" in it that it's members enjoy taking the mickey out of each other. It also is a place of civil discourse. Not an easy thing to achieve in today's world! It is home to many of us. It is our global neighbourhood cigar lounge. Habanos What a shocker of a year. Cigar shortages, Prison rollers, Chen Zhi, Pig Butchering scams and global sanctions. You couldn't really write a worse script to finish off 2025. I will always give Habanos SA one thing. They know how to launch new product. I think it is at times forgotten that Habanos is a marketing and distribution machine. That is their sole role. It is the muppets at Tabacuba that are in charge of production/quality control and all the other "essentials". Habanos SA has some brilliant distributors in H&F/Phoenicia/PCC/ etc let alone a cohort of magnificent retailer ambassador stores around the world. Still I can't help but feel that those distributors and retailers are being let down woefully by Habanos. Get your shit together HSA. Clean up the mess and clean it up quickly. Lean on your best assets which are your distributors, retailers and loyal zealots whom you have ignored for far too long. Cuba Cuba right now is the weak link in the cigar chain...and Jesus, some of those other links are fragile. If you want to picture how the world of Cuban cigars falls apart in short order then look at the potential full or partial collapse of the Cuban state over the next 12 months. There is no good news coming out of Cuba today. Anyone looking for green shoots can stop now. If you were to ask me what are the chances that the Cuban cigar scene in December 2026 will look like December 2025, I will say less than 30% chance. Hold on to your hats people. Top CC cigars 2025 I won't do a top 25/20/15/10. There are some cracking cigars coming out of Cuba. World leading cigars. Cuba has the best tobacco in the world. No argument. Behike/Cohiba Esplendidos/V/VI...brilliant. I don't put them in my list because they are out of reach for 80% of members. My finest for the year, was the Quai d'Orsay Imperiales Travel Humidor. They are simply great. I personally haven't smoked one less than a 94 point utility. Affordable (ish) Regular production you can't go wrong with Partagas D4/Ramon Allones Specially Select/H Upmanns 54/46/50/2/ Hoyo de Monterrey San Juan/Rio Seco/Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill/Bolivar Royal Corona/Petit Corona/Sancho Panza Belicoso/Vegas Robaina Unicos/Punch Punch/Trinidad Topes/Esmeralda. There are plenty of others. QC has been on a steady path since 2022 which is "OK" to good. It isn't "great" and anyone who says it is...well...is playing with themselves. If you have to reach for a "drawpoker" on a $25 cigar...bugger me...a $6 cigar...then it is a FAIL. We made some half a million cigars in Danli this year and my team screws up. They screw up less than I do...but don't tell them. Our fail rate is around 2%. My team are not machines and that is an acceptable rate in my eyes. We retrain/refund/replace/apologise and put systems in place to get better. We pay well, we listen, we train and we support. How on earth can Cuba continue, at today's prices, to have a "good box" still arrive with 3-4 dodgy sticks. FOH Mods. You guys are immense and I haven't thanked or engaged with you enough this year. That will change in 2026. It has been a year of transition for me and you have worked together to allow me the freedom to pursue what needed to be done. Thank you. Legends one and all. Your canvas of work is reflected in the beautiful, informative and inclusive nature of this forum. Kudos. Members 27500 members and only 5 members banned this this year! And none of them were named Ken ! Members of FOH are our family. You are the front door to our house. You are all welcome to lunch/dinner dine/cigar with Dee and myself anytime. Through your friendships you have enriched our lives no end. God we love you good people. Thank you. My Team Steve, Ben, Alex Groom, Alex Retamal, Haley, Katrina. Immense each and every one of you. You call me out, you shorten me up, you believe in the mission where people and ethics come before profit. Not much below...but a smidgeon. You remind me of personal shortcomings (endlessly), you celebrate our wins, you polish our near misses so that they become "wins" or are ditched quickly to the oblivion. I couldn't do it without you. To Diana and Lisa. Combined 50 years with me. We built this together. Love you both. For members I have something special coming in 2026. We will be releasing a line of cigars celebrating these two wonderful cigar community women's 50 years in the cigar world. We have blended 4 cigars along the lines of the Hoyo de Monterrey Le Hoyo Series. Depute/Du Prince/Dauphin/Dieux. The blends are very much along the lines of our Ninfa. Honey, elegant, edgy. They will be boxes (SLB) 25's. 1. Sorellina 110 mm × 38 RG — The Little Sister 2. Bella Sorella 130 mm × 40 RG — The Beautiful Sister 3. Sorella di Notte 155 mm × 42 RG — The Sister of the Night 4. Sorella Reale 152 mm × 38 RG — The Royal Sister Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. To each and every one of you and your families, a heartfelt Merry Christmas and a Magnificent New 2026 Year. As things wind down over the coming days, perhaps take the time to reach out to those family and members who you haven't touched base with for a while. It may make a huge difference to their lives. Huge hug good people. Merry Christmas! Rob

Sunday at 10:29 PM

54 points

Trip wrapup.

Great trip, both immensely enjoyable and successful Rob Fox, Hamlet Paredes, Alexander Groom and myself landed into Kuwait for 5 days. Only Alex had been there before but Alex is a Rock Star of the Habanos world these days and there are few places he hasn't been. Mohammed Al Mansour and his Kuwait team are one of the most professional groups I have ever had the pleasure to witness. From the LCDH to the Cabinet Club to Cohiba Atmosphere, they effectively control the Kuwait cigar community. The Kuwait cigar community is vibrant, educated, welcoming and progressive. Progressive in terms of their CC and NC cigar portfolio, their mastery of events and modern media, their blending of Kuwaiti hospitality with the traditional cigar ethos of sharing, friendship, engagement. CC and NC are sold and smoked side by side. I have never witnessed any cigar snobbery. Our Bond Roberts events showcased the the new Dalia Linea b Number 3 and the Fenomenos Linea E Number one. Both were very well received but the Fenomenos was the one that shined brightest at the events. Our final event was Foxy presenting the Nectares Irish Regional at a casual tasting at the LCDH. Great night where we decided to wear traditional garb. Of course, from memory, we were the only ones Hamlet and Alex groom rocked it! If you find yourself in Kuwait, you will have a great time hanging out with the Kuwait crew. They are 10/10. From Kuwait we headed to Cyprus on the Wednesday leading up to the gala Phoenicia launch on the Saturday of the new Punch Princesas Regional. 3:40 am flight out of Kuwait on the Wednesday, no sleep, took the wind out of our sails for that day. No problem as we had the Bond Roberts launches at a local taverna in Limassol on the Thursday evening with 30 people. This was my second visit to Limassol and I have a love of the local Cypriot cigar community. Our local mates Marios and Haris are leaders of the local cigar community and two of the most decent people I have ever met. They picked the Taverna which we booked out and the night was pure brilliance! The guest list was a mix of local cigar lovers and global cigar identities. The mood was relaxed and the event full of laughter, great endless local cuisine and of course the two new BR cigars which smoked exceptionally well. Foxy and I wanted a night that was relaxed. A night where everyone would have the opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Mission accomplished. The Saturday gala event was simply the most glamorous cigar event I have ever been part of. Walid Saleh, CEO at Phoenicia + his team put on an event for 550 people that will go down in Cuban cigar folklore. I believe there is indeed a time and a place for such events and we had a ball. Hamlet got to catch up with folk he had not seen for 10-20 years. Foxy and Alex are cigar royalty. I was humbled at the level of knowledge and respect for BR and FOH. You couldn't spend 5 minutes alone without being approached for a discussion and a laugh. The location (City of Dreams), music/singers, presentations, cigars, the detail!, the food/drinks, table settings, the dancing/entertainment all set new benchmarks that I doubt any other distributor could hope to match. The card has certainly been played. Takeaways. The rumours that HSA shareholding has/is changing hands (fully or partially) to the middle east was turbocharged. The rumours have been around for 12 months but the final detail/confirmation is still missing. If you were allowed to bet on the outcome, this is a case where bookmakers would have closed all bets on the subject. Good or a bad thing? Given all the shenanigans over the past couple of years, one could only see it as a positive should it come to pass. CC V NC Wow, from NC not having a foothold pre-Covid, everywhere I went in Kuwait/Limassol from stores to hotels to airports, NC had a minimum 50% footprint. Often 60%. The impressive thing is that they are selling well. Speaking with retailers/sub distributors from the Middle East region, there appears to be less resistance in trying NC within the region that still lingers elsewhere. The three issues that were hammered home to me is that pricing, availability, and quality control have opened the eyes of traditional CC purchasers. There is no going back. Overview. The region largely controlled by Phoenicia is immense and a cigar culture powerhouse. The cigar world is booming within the region with new clubs and cigar lovers flocking to the hobby from east to west, north to south. The cigar smoking laws vary from country to country but generally they are far more lenient than most places in the West and Asia. The region competes now with Asia for dominance of the Cuban cigar world and is a beacon for well positioned Non Cuban brands.

December 13, 2025

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