Back again from Havana, missing it already...

[tmac77]

Nice meeting you in Havana Keith, this is the other Keith ;-)

Re. The bug infestation, my 8 boxes at the Melia Havana locker, 5 out of 8 were bug affected, with the bugs running everywhere when I checked my locker on arrival. Apparently, the Air Con was off for 2 months last summer wtf!!! It was not only my locker but others were affected. To be honest they were VERY apologetic and immediately replaced 2 boxes, a 50 Cab of Mag 46 and a Diplo 2 x25. They took the other not so badly affected boxes to La Corona and fixed the cigars (wrapper damage), and to be honest you wouldn't know the difference look wise at least. My only potential loss was a box of x25 RYJ Celestiales Finos from 98 They told me they would have a word with Habanos, and get back to me. I am not expecting more than a similar replacement size wise, as they are log out of production.

They did have the place fumigated after my first visit and I checked a friends locker later in the week, and that was bug free.Interesting that you say they have bug traps there now!!

One thing I learned is that no cigars (from the factories) for the local Cuban market get the freezing treatment!!

Keith.

I always place my boxes in zip lock bags before placing them in my Havana Lockers.

[Balboa]

thanks for the write up. great stuff !

[Lotusguy]

I always place my boxes in zip lock bags before placing them in my Havana Lockers.

I thought tobacco beetles can chew right through Ziplock bags - is that incorrect?

[CanuckSARTech]

I thought tobacco beetles can chew right through Ziplock bags - is that incorrect?

No idea, Claus. I believe they can, but I don't recollect ever seeing that myself, nor hearing from anyone that's seen it either. The thicker freezer bags or the vacuum-pack food-saver bags might be thick enough to be enough of a deterent to stop them from doing so. Just hypothesizing here, but the beetles might be unable to smell anything from outside of the bags due to the thicker material, thus stopping them from carrying on from box to box to box.

[CanuckSARTech]

Further to add...

http://lights-sirens-and-cigars.com/2015/03/12/havana-trip-feb-mar-2015-follow-up-on-cigar-specific-items/

So, tailing my post about getting back from my Havana trip last month, and going through some of my e-notes I made on my iPhone while down in Havana, I've got a bit of a follow-up here solely on cigars - cigar talk, stock at stores, etc. Some people have been asking me for a bit more detail on the status of some stores and whatnot, so I figured I'd expand on that here.

Regarding cigar stock at stores specifically, for those I was able to hit up...

• LCDH at 5y16 (Carlos Robaina's store): heavily picked over, lots of piramides of all types, lots of the cheaper standard-production stuff. Trinidad - only Reyes available; LGC - only MdO No. 4's; PL Montecarlos only. No 50-cabs to be found there at all aside from two not-so-nice-looking Magnum 50's.
• Club Habana: Jorge is up to his eyeballs in custom orders for Monsdales and his new robusto largos, so if you want those, order ahead of time (he's 3-4 weeks lead time right now). Lots of varied production stuff available, good general selection, occasional aged gems to be found in the piles. Found boxes of RA Gigantes, RASS boxes from 2010 and 2011, lots of HdM Epi Especial, fair amount of aged SCDLH, etc. Lots of boxes here of the newer stuff - Trinidad Vigia, PL Picadores, Partagas Seleccion Privada EL, the HdM EL and LCDH stuff, etc., etc.
• Hotel Nacional shop, Casa de Tabacco: LOADS of RyJ and Cohiba (except for the most popular). No cabs at all. Minimal Trini and LGC (just Reyes and MdO 4's again). Boxes and boxes of fairly gorgeous fresh-production Monte Especials - best I've seen in Cuba in years.
• Habana Libre: absolutely RIDICULOUS "special edition" Cohiba Silver humidors available now (will detail this in a separate post, but safe to say if you buy these, you have more moolah than brains). Lots of RA Gigantes and RASS, loads of PL Panetelas and Picadores, HdM Epi De Luxe, Boli Liberatador, loads of Cohiba Maduro 5 stuff, tons of regular RyJ and Montecristo stock.
• Shop at Casa Del Ron y Del Tabacco Cubano (beside Floridita bar): absolutely nothing worthwhile in stock. All newer stuff of regular brands. No room to move in their already small triangular-shaped walk-in humidor, as they're using it for storage for extra boxes of bottles of rum. LOL.
• LCDH at Conde de Villanueva (Reynaldo's shop): as always, a very busy and smokey little shop. Yet again, managed to kief my ******* head off of one of the boxes nailed to the ceiling beams - hate those things, LOL. Minimal selection of stock in there right now, and nothing special found at all. Mostly 10-boxes and simple 3- and 5-packs. Seems to be more and more catering to tourists grabbing simple give-away stuff (not a bad business move though, considering the sheer numbers).
• Partagas factory shop: tons of all stock, except for brand new releases like PL Picadores and Trini Vigias (all sold out from the preceeding week). A fair amount of the new Anejados stuff. Dozens of Sir Winnies boxes. Not too many 50-cabs noticed.
• LCDH at Melia Cohiba: fair amount of customs availble, but they were fairly bland and nothing overly interesting this time. Very faint flavours. Stock very similar in look to that from 5y16 - very picked over, nothing interesting in hand.
• Commodoro: some nice boxes of aged RA gems, like Gigantes, some good Trini stuff. A decent selection, but not much overall volume. Again, pre-eminent placement and quantities of Monte Open, Cohiba Maduro 5, RyJ, etc.
• LCDH at Melia Habana: humidor nicely stocked, not feeling "overly damp" as in the past. Very noticable tobacco-beetle glue trap sitting out on a shipping crate in the middle of the floor near the back by the AC/humidifier. Pretty good overall selection - Trinidad very aromatic here, great Partagas selections, found RA Superiores here, WONDERFUL looking and smelling boxes of Sir Winnies, and some great 25- and 50-cabs too. Lots of 50-cabs here actually - found a wonderful Punch Double Coronas 50-cab even. Lots of Yolanda's customs too, but she's prepping a bigger order for a Chinese customer.

And, regarding some of the various cigar talk and discussions that took place over the week...

• Many of the custom rollers I saw and spoke to said wrapper leaf is still a bit of an issue. While the quality is much better than the green-speckled light claro stuff we saw in November, it's still got a bit of a way to go. Some rollers said they were rejecting a bit of what they got in wrapper leaf, and using it as filler instead if possible. Some were behind in their "normal" production for customers by 3-4 weeks, to upwards of 2 months (compared to usually only a few days for orders, depending on specifics) - definitely call or e-mail ahead if you wish to get some customs from the more popular divans.
• Some of what was normally available in LCDH stores was not there. With many of the brands, selection was few and far between. Sometimes, with RA for example, one store would have loads of RASS but no RASSC, and then vice versa for another store. Same with PL - cabs and cabs of PLPC at one place, and then a glut of Panetelas or Montecarlos at another. But, with Cohiba especially - I was looking for a nice box or two of Cohiba Robustos or Siglo IV's with the newer El Laguito code - there was really nothing to be found in shops of those at all. Lots of Siglo II's, Piramides Extra, various tubos and cardboard packs, and LOADS of the Maduro 5 line to be found, but nothing else generally from Cohiba. I went to El Laguito as a quick hello / pop-in, but did not do a full tour this time, so I can't comment on what production looks like there. But, it was weird to see the state of Cohiba non-available-stock in the stores such as it was with this trip.
• In a conversation with Simon Chase and Mitchell Orchant, we discussed the full colour La Gloria Cubana bands that Simon designed for the Gloriosos UK RE from a number of years back, and overall beautiful design of the box and packaging. Simon stated that he would do something similar to that again, like those or better, if he did a LGC UK RE again (and there was a glint in his eye when he said so, so if one's not already in the works, he seemed passionate to follow through on that).
• Obviously, conversations on Hamlet's move. Many shocked and saddened by it, especially the manner it was done, however everyone seems to understand it also, and everyone wishes nothing but the best for him and his family. Many are excited to see what the future may hold for him, now that he has the freedom to be his own man.
• Anejados cigars - many conversations, not enough room here, LOL. The RyJ Piramides - had one, pushed myself to smoke half, pitched it; smoked another, chucked it after only being an inch in. Crap.
• Amir Saarony - more coming from this collector of all things cigar, and the author of "Partagas: El Libro". I didn't have as much of a chance to have a conversation with him during this trip as compared to November or recently on the phone, but we're going to follow up with another phone chat soon hopefully, and I can hammer down more of what he's coming to market with soon.

Cheers all.

[Strada]

Good recap Keith!

[...]

Thanks for sharing Keith! Going down in less than two weeks so I'll definitely have a look around

[Quint]

Thanks for taking the time to post all this, very cool stuff.

[wabashcr]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading all of this. Thanks for sharing.

[CUBANO]

Thanks for taking the time and sharing this information

[Mr.T]

Great summary of your trip! Thank you

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Habana Mike]

Great stuff Keith though word to the wise, Tylenol's the worse thing after a heavy night's indulgence.

Do your liver a favor and just do the aspirin.

Hope to see you down there again soon!

• Was invited to a relatively new "after-hours" bar that's apparently only available to the waitstaff, bartenders, and security staff that work at other bars/restaurants in the city - only OPENS at 4 am, and runs to 9 am. Very cool place with a giant tree growing right up through the center of the palatial mansion that houses it. Wild to be walking out of there at 7:30 am, blinded by the sun, and seeing everyone else get on buses to go to school or work. There was nary enough Tylenol in my luggage for that day.

[RijkdeGooier]

From the pictures, you all had an entire too good a time of it.

[CanuckSARTech]

Great stuff Keith though word to the wise, Tylenol's the worse thing after a heavy night's indulgence.

Do your liver a favor and just do the aspirin.

Hope to see you down there again soon!

Used to be allergic to Aspirin, so I generally avoid it still. T3's mixed with 500mg naproxen works for me!!!

[CdnLimitada]

This was inspiring! I am headed over there in August and this gets me even more pumped.

Thanks Keith!

[JohnS]

Thanks Keith. I've just read your 3-part post on cigars smoked on this Havana trip. I really enjoyed your insights on recent, as well as, iconic Cuban cigars.

[mrsgucia]

Thanks! Very imformative for me.. Cuba in a week time!

[acidmase]

Maybe to be discussed later, once it's settled in a bit more. Glad to see he can spread his wings and such, and truly hope for nothing but the best for him and his family. It was definitely frustrating for him to not be rolling for customers, and stuck behind the counter doing sales.

But you can definitely see a wake left with his other friends and family still there, and the heartache they're dealing with.

Weird to see that he went to Rocky Patel as well (not a brand/manufacturer that any would have imagined for this), though the nature of all that is still to be revealed.

As some said down there - seems like a Maestro rock-star conductor leaving just before the opening movement of his epic symphony is about to unfold.

THE MAN LIVES IN NAPLES FLORIDA! You don't think rocky took him in and gave a job, car, house, etc! SMH

[CanuckSARTech]

Don't quite get this comment - tongue-in-cheek?

[Ishmael]

Thanks for the recap Keith! Heading to Cuba for the first time in mid May. I'm likely only going to get a day trip to Havana, but I'll make the most of it. This recap (and your post in the Ultimate Visiting Cuba Thread) has got my super excited! Any recommendations for a day trip must see? Did you smoke one of the Vigias? I was thinking of picking up a box as well as whatever RA gem I can find.

[CanuckSARTech]

Thanks for the recap Keith! Heading to Cuba for the first time in mid May. I'm likely only going to get a day trip to Havana, but I'll make the most of it. This recap (and your post in the Ultimate Visiting Cuba Thread) has got my super excited! Any recommendations for a day trip must see? Did you smoke one of the Vigias? I was thinking of picking up a box as well as whatever RA gem I can find.

Yeah, I did. Check out my blog post here: http://lights-sirens-and-cigars.com/2015/03/18/havana-trip-feb-mar-2015-cigars-smoked-part-1-of-3/ That's a Vigia that I picked up at LCDH Toronto though. I haven't smoked one of the Cuban-bought ones from that box yet. Planning to dig into them next month. The PL Picadores are a good price down there as well.

Day trip must-see? Depends on if solely cigar related, or general interest. But, I'd say you must visit the Partagas shop, walk around the Capitolio, walk down Obispo, and then pop into Conde de Villaneuva as well. A bit of everything along that, and it's always enjoyable to walk through Habana Vieja while puffing on a cigar.

[...]

Agree, El Conde is a nice place to spend time. Affordable and decent restaurant, nice LCDH, inside garden for smoking and drinking peacefully...

Any idea why almost all prices are roughly similar between Cuba and international market for most cigars but some, including Picadores and Connie A, diverge so much?

Bought both while in Havana...

[Ishmael]

That's for the tips, I'll add them to the list.

Jeanff - Great question, I was wondering the same thing!

[CanuckSARTech]

Any idea why almost all prices are roughly similar between Cuba and international market for most cigars but some, including Picadores and Connie A, diverge so much?

Bought both while in Havana...

It's something that a number of us have noticed in recent years. Cuba is definitely maximizing the profit margins. There's quite a few things that can be bought through international / online vendors for cheaper prices even than you can find them in Cuba actually. It's all about economy-of-scale on that front.

But yes, Cuba has been cranking up the price more and more lately. Makes it a bit less inviting to buy standard production, unless you find that really special box or cab or aged stock, and that's why so many of us stick to custom sticks.

Just a couple of years ago, there was a lucrative price discount if you bought on the island. Now, they seem to play the market game more.

Rob may have a vendor's take on it to add here too.

[El Presidente]

Just a couple of years ago, there was a lucrative price discount if you bought on the island. Now, they seem to play the market game more.

Rob may have a vendor's take on it to add here too.

There was a concerted campaign by distributors over a number of years to force domestic Cuba prices up. From memory, it was for Cuba prices to be roughly in line with duty free prices in key markets. Give or take some anomalies here and there, I think that is roughly where it is now but I don't keep a close eye on domestic Cuban pricing.