My day at Port of Falmouth, Jamaica LCDH

[JohnS]

Greetings friends,

I wanted to share the wonderful time my son George and I had in meeting Raj at his LCDH store in the Port of Falmouth in Jamaica last week. The store is a duty free store which only operates when cruise ships come into the port. On this day a Royal Caribbean and Disney ship were docked in the harbour. The Port itself was completed around 7 years ago at a cost of $US220 million to the Royal Caribbean Cruising Company. The Store opened at the port about a year later.

Let me preface this story by mentioning that I had no expectation of what I'd find when I visited the store last Wednesday. My family love Cruise holidays and we have cruised with Royal Caribbean in the past around the Pacific. We boarded this cruise in Orlando and visited Labadee, Haiti (i.e. a private Royal Caribbean beach enclave), Jamaica and the modern wonder of the world, the Mayan temple at Chichen Itza, Mexico on this 7-day cruise.

When I entered the store I immediately brought attention to myself, albeit in a positive way, because I totally ignored the glass cabinets (in the middle of the store) holding the Romeo y Julieta, Cohiba, Partagas and H.Upmann tubos that tourists go for when they want to try Cuban cigars. I was very interested in smoking the Cohiba Coronas Especiales on the shelf. I made a friendly acquaintance with the store owner Raj, told him of my passion for Cuban cigars and culture and he then asked me if I knew the image of the fellow on his phone (i.e. "Do you recognise this man, my friend?" he said). When I replied instantly that the man was Ravi from Hong Kong, Raj clasped my hand and gave me a Jamaican handshake, which is like a fist bump but you lock hands with your forearms pointing upwards. Raj asked me to join him for a smoke but I told him I had a tour organised at the beach with my family, but I would return in the afternoon.

When I returned in the afternoon, what transpired to 90 to 120 minutes of time in the shop felt like 2 days! George and I chose our Cohiba Coronas Especiales cigars, Raj offered some complimentary 15 year-old Jamaican rum and we preceded to talk about his cigar journey. He has been in Jamaica for 27 years, and he enjoyed discussing his meetings with Fidel Castro at special dinners and also winning slow smoke competitions (as well as blind tasting competitions). I shared with Raj the latest news in regards to Habanos culture, the changes to smoking in public, plain packaging and the hiatus of some current Cuban marcas/vitolas. He greatly appreciated this conversation. I spend some time telling him how superlative the Trinidad La Trova was, how our forum members loved the cigar, couldn't find it anywhere and were desperate for more boxes. Raj stated that yes, it was a LCDH release and he had 4 or 5 boxes on the shelf. He also had other hard to find stock such as Cohiba Siglo VI, at least 4 or 5 boxes of that too.

Raj asked me if I recognised another friend of his on his phone. When I said that it was Sunil Gavaskar, the great ex Indian Cricketer, well, that started another inspirational conversation about past cricket games such as the 1983 World cup when India sensationally upset the West Indies. To me, it only seems like yesterday and I told Raj that I watched that game live in Australia as a 12 year-old.

The time had come to leave so we went to the part of the store where the stock was shelved. I went for the La Trova sticks and I was very fortunate to 'eye' some Sancho Panza Molinos from 2011. I took some sticks and coincidentally Cameron and his partner, Hinia came into the shop. A few days before I met them on the smoking deck on the ship and we got to know each other whilst smoking cigars. They both lamented the steady discontinuation of long and skinnies, they both loved lonsdales. Hinia asked me what I was getting and I mentioned to her that I found some Sancho Panza Molinos. At the beginning of the day Raj had 8 sticks in the box, by the end they were gone, thanks to myself and my recommendations I guess. Raj saw me in the corner and smiled. It was a wonderful day.

On board, I met Kevin the next day and we discussed the Port of Falmouth LCDH store. Kevin loved Bolivar, especially Belicosos Finos and Coronas Gigantes Churchills. He told me saw some Coronas Gigantes boxes in the store. "Did you get any?" I asked. "No, they were too expensive!" he replied. This time it was my turn to smile!

[Markspring1978]

What a fantastic and enriching experience for your vacation. So nice when you make human connections like this abroad. 

I am insanely jealous of the TLT. How many of those boxes did you pick up? 

[Derboesekoenig]

Amazing how the small island of Cuba and cigars can bring together people from all walks of life, and from all over the world. 

If I ever make it to Jamaica, I'll have to check it out.

[cigcars]

*I didn't know there was  LCDH in Jamaica...   Never saw one referred to there, either.  **Went back and read the opening article a little closer; and now see that it just opened about 7 years ago. Nice! Really nice!

[JohnS]

2 hours ago, Markspring1978 said:

What a fantastic and enriching experience for your vacation. So nice when you make human connections like this abroad. 

I am insanely jealous of the TLT. How many of those boxes did you pick up? 

Boxes? I wish...you should see the insane laws for duties levied for bringing back tobacco to Australia. No, I had to settle for a 1/3 of a box, on account of the fact that I pay enough tax as an Australian Citizen, both for my income and my cigars!

What I also found interesting in the shop was the way the shelves were stocked. Maximum space was given to Romeo y Julieta, Cohiba, Montecristo and Partagas because that is what sells. H.Upmann, which is the most popular marca amongst our members based on a few polls in the last few years, barely takes up 1/4 of the space Cohiba takes up. I guess that's the reality. Only a few marcas account for the majority of sales. Of course, this is not the case for us enthusiasts.

[WarriorPrincess]

[GrouchoMarx]

I'll hitting that place in less than 3 weeks! Looking forward to it! (our first port on our cruise)

What were the selections and prices like?

[peteando]

Great read.  Thanks for sharing.

[SwissPEP]

Great to read

Thanks for  sharing

[JohnS]

On 1/21/2019 at 12:21 AM, GrouchoMarx said:

I'll hitting that place in less than 3 weeks! Looking forward to it! (our first port on our cruise)

What were the selections and prices like?

The best answer to this question is to say that the prices are higher than on-line options, in general, yet still cheaper than the tax-affected prices we are used to in Australia and Canada. If you find some hard-to-find gems, I think you'll be satisfied, such as the Bolivar Coronas Gigantes sticks still being available, for example.

[brainninja]

This was a great read! Thank you for your feedback on this location. I am relatively new to Cuban cigars (I'm American) and will be visiting Falmouth in 1 month. Could I possibly trouble you for some recommendations on purchases? I was looking at picking up a couple boxes.
I've had a limited number of CC at this point but greatly enjoy the Monte Open series, Quai d'Orsay, and Bolivar.

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[BrightonCorgi]

Never seen a picture of Ravi before, but I may rolled the dice and said that if he asked me...  Pretty neat experience.

[JohnS]

6 hours ago, brainninja said:

This was a great read! Thank you for your feedback on this location. I am relatively new to Cuban cigars (I'm American) and will be visiting Falmouth in 1 month. Could I possibly trouble you for some recommendations on purchases? I was looking at picking up a couple boxes.
I've had a limited number of CC at this point but greatly enjoy the Monte Open series, Quai d'Orsay, and Bolivar.

The main thing to know is that the sliding glass cabinet that is in the middle of the cigars section is mainly all tubos and for tourists. Spend your time looking at the shelves on the wall around that glass cabinet in the middle. What you want to do is remember that the global brands are along the back wall and the local brands are on the side walls. So, to the left of the back door of the shop is Hoyo de Monterrey and Montecristo, to the right is Cohiba and Partagas...these are the big 4 with the most stock. Bolivar is on the right side, I am curious if he still has some Churchill-sized Coronas Gigantes, which has been discontinued since 2017. If you see these, do not hesitate. Honestly, I'm not aware of Quai d'Orsay other than to say that current worldwide demand wouldn't reflect demand in that shop, which usually has business from tourists, not enthusiasts. I am confident that he'd have some good Quai d'Orsay options. I'm guessing recent QdO 50 and 54 is less likely than finding aged Coronas Claros. If you find Imperiales, since deleted from 2014, again, do not hesitate to purchase.

Let us know what you find. Also, feel free to let Raj know about our forum and current trends in the Cuban Cigar community. He loves that type of talk!

[brainninja]

The main thing to know is that the sliding glass cabinet that is in the middle of the cigars section is mainly all tubos and for tourists. Spend your time looking at the shelves on the wall around that glass cabinet in the middle. What you want to do is remember that the global brands are along the back wall and the local brands are on the side walls. So, to the left of the back door of the shop is Hoyo de Monterrey and Montecristo, to the right is Cohiba and Partagas...these are the big 4 with the most stock. Bolivar is on the right side, I am curious if he still has some Churchill-sized Coronas Gigantes, which has been discontinued since 2017. If you see these, do not hesitate. Honestly, I'm not aware of Quai d'Orsay other than to say that current worldwide demand wouldn't reflect demand in that shop, which usually has business from tourists, not enthusiasts. I am confident that he'd have some good Quai d'Orsay options. I'm guessing recent QdO 50 and 54 is less likely than finding aged Coronas Claros. If you find Imperiales, since deleted from 2014, again, do not hesitate to purchase.
Let us know what you find. Also, feel free to let Raj know about our forum and current trends in the Cuban Cigar community. He loves that type of talk!

I want to thank you for your advice in Jamaica. I wasn't able to get into the port lcdh but I did make it to the one at half moon. I grabbed the coronas Gigantes that were in good shape as well that were from 2014. Prices were a bit steep but I enjoyed my first trip to an LCDH. I was also excited to pick up some Caribe REs that were left over. Thank you again!

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[JohnS]

12 minutes ago, brainninja said:

I want to thank you for your advice in Jamaica. I wasn't able to get into the port lcdh but I did make it to the one at half moon. I grabbed the coronas Gigantes that were in good shape as well that were from 2014. Prices were a bit steep but I enjoyed my first trip to an LCDH. I was also excited to pick up some Caribe REs that were left over. Thank you again!

That's fantastic to hear!