Cohiba 55th Launch Event in Kuwait

[Ryan]

Landed in this morning from London for some Bond Roberts research. My second time in Kuwait but the first time I’ve ever seen the Apple weather app give the forecast as “Dust”.

A nice afternoon of a meaty lunch with Hussain who has the 21 cigar lounge here, Mohammed and some Dutch and Swiss retailers. Nice guys.

The event itself hosted by the La Casa del Habano here and great to catch up with so many faces I haven’t been able to see since lockdowns started.

I haven’t smoked one of the cigars yet but they are getting good reports. That’s good, given the rumored prices.

Breakfast meeting at 8 in the morning. Havana doesn’t have an “8 in the morning”. There’s “8 in the evening” and another 8 later that night.

Hussain with a portrait made from cigar bands of Simon Chase at his lounge. I’ve started saving bands for my portrait. “Davidoff-cream” for my head, though maybe “Punch-red” after this trip.

 

[inter4alia]

Very cool portrait of Chase. 

[MrFolgers]

whats the "rumored prices" in the going rate of siglo VI? 

[madandana]

Looks nice. Thanks Andy

[Fezztone]

Amazing portrait!

[El Hoze]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing! 👍🏻

[Tollickd]

Was at the cyprus event! No idea what the prices will be but bet they will be well over priced!

[HarveyBoulevard]

I very much enjoyed the Talisman and I thought that was large...that thing is a baseball bat!!

Very cool pictures and thank you for sharing.

[99call]

20 hours ago, Ryan said:

Landed in this morning from London

Hello Andy, Firstly thanks for posting this. 

Quick question.  with these kind of events,  what would you say is the percentage of people actually smoking and tasting these cigars?  against those just pocketing everything they are given to flip?.   The reason I ask, is that If people are always pocketing stuff, it must make for a bit of a buzz kill, if theres nobody actually tasting the cigars. 

What are your thoughts, were there many people tucking in?

[CaptainQuintero]

14 hours ago, Tollickd said:

Was at the cyprus event! No idea what the prices will be but bet they will be well over priced!

Toll, I hope you're 4 foot tall or that thing is a walloper!

[Ryan]

5 hours ago, 99call said:

Hello Andy, Firstly thanks for posting this. 

Quick question.  with these kind of events,  what would you say is the percentage of people actually smoking and tasting these cigars?  against those just pocketing everything they are given to flip?.   The reason I ask, is that If people are always pocketing stuff, it must make for a bit of a buzz kill, if theres nobody actually tasting the cigars. 

What are your thoughts, were there many people tucking in?

At the Kuwait event, I’d guess around 50% lit one up.

[El Presidente]

Great stuff Andy!

[99call]

9 hours ago, Ryan said:

At the Kuwait event, I’d guess around 50% lit one up.

Yep must be a strange one.  In one regard smoking the cigars should be the focus, but I imagine a good percentage of the crowd (even if they are not flippers)  would like do the cigars justice, and let them have a good rest before smoking.  Thanks for feeding back Andy

[Ryan]

1 hour ago, 99call said:

Yep must be a strange one.  In one regard smoking the cigars should be the focus, but I imagine a good percentage of the crowd (even if they are not flippers)  would like do the cigars justice, and let them have a good rest before smoking.  Thanks for feeding back Andy

Well that's it. There are a couple of reasons. To be honest, there were very few flippers in the audience in Kuwait.

There were two retailers at my table. Like me, neither of those guys lit them up and there's a couple of reasons for that. Many smokers like to save a special cigar like this (as yet unreleased) for a quiet time where they can have a bit of peace and quiet in a comfortable spot and enjoy it with a drink or other pairing of their own choice. The room was smoky, loud, with a lot of stuff going on (performances, speeches, conversation etc.) that could interrupt a good cigar. Certainly not a room conducive to concentrating on a rare cigar.

I'll be lighting mine up soon when I get home and I'll do a review here. My drink of choice with a cigar is illegal in this country..

Others like to let their cigar rest for a while. Nothing new there.

Many retailers will have clients, to be honest often high-end clients, biting their hand off to try something new, especially these days. So they'll pass them on. It's hard for retailers to say no to that. They're in cigars as a business and relationships are important.

 A very nice guy beside me, a Kuwaiti furniture maker newish to cigars, was going to light his up. He asked me if he should. I told him why not, it was his cigar to enjoy whenever he likes. Someone else told him to wait so he sheepishly put it away again. Personally I think people should light their cigar up whenever they want (in a place where it's legal). 

[99call]

6 minutes ago, Ryan said:

Personally I think people should light their cigar up whenever they want (in a place where it's legal). 

100% agree.  It's special, and a personal indulgence.   I think it's always important to be the master of your passions, and not let your passions be the master you, by thinking something is too valuable, or too rare.   The memories they can create often far exceed value on paper. 

I guess I just found it fascinating in a way, (as I will likely never attend such an occasion) that there is so much glitz and focus, but in a way the main star of the show is sort of missing. I.e. it gets reserved, and people end up talking about something else.        Thanks for shedding light on this, it's an eye opener

Best, Stefan

[juri]

1 hour ago, Ryan said:

 Personally I think people should light their cigar up whenever they want (in a place where it's legal). 

Iranian courts as recently as 2012 upheld death penalties for people convicted of drinking alcohol 

 

I know it’s not the same place but good call 🤯

[BrightonCorgi]

Were people drinking liquor in the Champagne style glasses?

[Fuzz]

2 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Were people drinking liquor in the Champagne style glasses?

Sparkling apple juice.

[Puros Y Vino]

So. From the presentation there's going to be two box formats? Flat box, 1 row of 10 and narrow box 2 rows of 5?  I guess I really shouldn't be too concerned as I'll probably never see either for sale or at a price I'd consider paying. 😳

[BrightonCorgi]

2 hours ago, Fuzz said:

Sparkling apple juice.

Do they serve liquor at hotels in Bahrain like UAE?

[GavLew79]

Superb mate. Watched the live stream. Sound was awful. Looks stunning. 

I've seen one-five-seven euros per stick mentioned on a list. 

Whilst that is obscene, it's also not that obscene. A BHK will cost you more. 

[Fuzz]

21 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Do they serve liquor at hotels in Bahrain like UAE?

In Bahrain, booze is available in hotels and can only be sold through licenses to non-Muslims. Get caught intoxicated in public, and you are in trouble.

[Ryan]

On 5/16/2022 at 4:59 PM, Puros Y Vino said:

So. From the presentation there's going to be two box formats? Flat box, 1 row of 10 and narrow box 2 rows of 5?  I guess I really shouldn't be too concerned as I'll probably never see either for sale or at a price I'd consider paying. 😳

Yes, two formats.

A "Premier" edition of a box of 5, a fancy Boîte Nature for the first 50,000 cigars/10,000 boxes. Cigars in those boxes will have special "Premier" bands.

After that a varnished box of 10 with separations in the box between each cigar.

I've heard rumours of the prices but nothing concrete. Some people in the know don't think it could be priced higher than a Behike 56 at launch, as Behikes are the "pinnacle" of Cohiba, but who knows.

Both booze and pork illegal in Kuwait. No exceptions for hotels etc.

 

[Fuzz]

Booze is illegal to buy and sell, and public intoxication is also illegal.... but technically not illegal to drink. So if you have booze in your house, and the public can't see you, you can drink.

People find ways of getting booze.

[Ryan]

On 5/16/2022 at 1:02 PM, BrightonCorgi said:

Were people drinking liquor in the Champagne style glasses?

Sorry I missed this. There was a round of drinks where all participants, in the various locations by video-link, raised a toast.

In Kuwait we got sparkling grape juice in that champagne flute. It wasn't bad at all.

There are some good drinks for grown-ups in that part of the world without alcohol. It's not all water and Pepsi.

Coffee is very good. Hussain took us out for a 12-course lunch on Monday. I had a frozen mango/pomegranate juice drink with a little jug of sparkling lime water on the side to add to the main drink to taste. That was very, very good. The flavour changes as more lime water is added and the frozen fruit dissolves. Just the job when it's 39C and a dust storm outside.