London’s luxury cigar scene is under threat

[El Presidente]

 

 ‘It will be catastrophic, because it will essentially make a product illegal without making it illegal, kill off small businesses and affect the reputation of England [as a cigar centre],’ says Jemma Freeman, the chair of Hunters & Frankau (est. 1790), the UK’s exclusive distributor for Havana cigars.

https://spearswms.com/luxury/london-luxury-cigar-tobacco-and-vapes-bill/

[ha_banos]

Yeah it's creeping closer. Those swanky places in the article are way out of my reach. But I'm hoping the outdoor terraces and gardens like the Melody and pubs for that matter will remain. Bye bye sampling in bad weather though. I'll have to build a hut!

But who knows?

 

[RichUK]

It does seem to be creeping ever closer, sadly.

[El Presidente]

Outdoor terraces and gardens should be fine this round. I think everyone is waiting on news of a "carve out" for the lounges. I doubt many will survive without one given such a high % of sales are overseas travellers to London. 

Lot's of good people in UK cigar world. Hoping this gets sorted suitably and quickly. 

[Dlowil]

I’m sure we’ll all in agreement that lumping premium cigars with vaping is wrong. The thing that kills me is the grouping (premium cigar and flavored tobacco) has happened in the US and states are starting to repeal it. The other concerning thing is the precedence this sets for other industries (e.g. wine tastings). I’m all for protecting children. This is a classic government overreach with the inclusion of premium cigars…end of rant.

[Stevieboy]

3 hours ago, ha_banos said:

Yeah it's creeping closer. Those swanky places in the article are way out of my reach. But I'm hoping the outdoor terraces and gardens like the Melody and pubs for that matter will remain. Bye bye sampling in bad weather though. I'll have to build a hut!
But who knows?

There hasn't been a sniff of being able to smoke a cigar inside in Scotland since about 2009. I've always been amazed how England has allowed it. Long may it continue though. I know all the places in Edinburgh but there are only a few left these days. So difficult. Outside only of course. Imagine smoking anything in January at -5C...Sheesh!

I went to Copenhagen a few years ago. Completely set up for outside smoking. Lots of heaters, blankets and in one place there was even fur onesies to climb into.

[Fireball]

Why does everything seem to be an all or nothing proposal. In my state in the US, indoor smoking is banned inside all businesses and public buildings - unless you derive a large majority of your income from tobacco sales. No one smells smoke who doesn’t want to. 

Unless it’s marijuana smoke, then no one cares if it’s smoked everywhere. 🤷‍♂️

[Fugu]

Overreach, yes, that’s exactly what it is. I mean how much of the adult population is consuming premium cigars - where are we at currently? One percent, half a percent? Add to that that there is no detectable negative health effect of smoking cigars in moderation (and smoking cigars is a synonym for moderation), it’s a non-issue really. A non-issue that doesn’t call for political action, less so for regulative intervention by law. I lost hope they’ll ever learn it.

Still, I don’t find myself in line with the “all luxury” angle of that report reeking a tad too much of pretentiousness for my liking.

[BrightonCorgi]

Vanquishing of tobacco is inevitable. A tobacco free world is what so many have championed for decades. 

 

[my happy place]

I'm sure they'll continue increasing tobacco taxes before it's vanquished.

[Arabian]

My cigar identifies as weed. Proceed to smoke sir.

[El Presidente]

11 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Vanquishing of tobacco is inevitable.  A tobacco free world is what so many have championed for decades. 

BS 

The creation of a thriving underground/secondary market is inevitable. 

[chasy]

I've never been to the Middle East, but I'm becoming more and more intrigued with the idea of living in a monarchy.

[BrightonCorgi]

1 hour ago, El Presidente said:

BS 

The creation of a thriving underground/secondary market is inevitable. 

Criminality will always be a part of society.

[Arabian]

5 hours ago, chasy said:

I've never been to the Middle East, but I'm becoming more and more intrigued with the idea of living in a monarchy. 

Monarchy is fine until you get a mad king. 

[Lucas Buck]

3 hours ago, El Presidente said:

BS 

The creation of a thriving underground/secondary market is inevitable. 

Civil disobedience.

[chasy]

2 hours ago, Arabian said:

Monarchy is fine until you get a mad king. 

I like to think, as a worst case scenario, I could assume court jester responsibilities. Tell a few jokes, laugh at all the king’s jokes. Tell him he’s awesome and hopefully be relatively left alone.

[JohnS]

5 hours ago, El Presidente said:

BS 

The creation of a thriving underground/secondary market is inevitable. 

This is so true. The subject, "Melbourne Tobacco Wars" now has its own wikipedia page, friends!

[ha_banos]

Meanwhile in the UK. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/smoking-data-map-regions-uk-london-study-cancer-b2791579.html

I read this and I try to contemplate the number of premium cigars compared to cigarettes. I struggle to imagine any relevance we have at all!

"Every week, around 550 million cigarettes are still smoked in Britain – that's enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool."

I'd love to see such a pool full of the relative numbers of cigarettes and cigars consumed in a week... I smoked 4 cigars this week! That's a good week!

[ha_banos]

UK in a few years for regulars

 

[Hookmaker]

I've never been to the Middle East, but I'm becoming more and more intrigued with the idea of living in a monarchy.

AFAIK Royal Jordanian Airlines was the last airline to allow smoking cigars on-board, so yes it might as well be so, - but apparently everything comes to an end down the road


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[queen_annes_revenge]

On 7/10/2025 at 7:27 PM, chasy said:

I've never been to the Middle East, but I'm becoming more and more intrigued with the idea of living in a monarchy.

Monarchy is the ideal system for sure. Unfortunately the English monarchy has a long history of tobacco repression, so you'd have to sort that out.

[looseleaf]

In an essay first published in The New Yorker, "Within the Context of No Context," George W.S. Trow recounted: 

'A night out with his friend Warren Lyons, son of gossip columnist Leonard Lyons. They're at a club watching a singer, Genevieve Waite, perform a song called "Romance Is on the Rise": Trow: "Romance is coming back, Warren." Lyons: "You know what's coming back? Everything; then it's going away for good."'

[MrBirdman]

I’m pretty skeptical the lounge amendment will make it into the bill. The Lords seems more concerned with vaping. It’s also the only cigar-specific amendment tabled as of May 15th (yes, I checked). Even if they send that amendment back to the Commons, I doubt they’d approve it - the juice doesn’t seem worth the squeeze for Labour right now. Part of the reason this has political appeal is that it won’t really start to bite for many years.

The bill is going to pass eventually. It had a 300+ vote majority in the Commons. Fewer than 50 members voted against it. 

[SCgarman]

On 8/5/2025 at 7:07 AM, ha_banos said:

UK in a few years for regulars

Personally I would choose to live in Scotland. All those wonderful whisky distilleries, and lots of wide open spaces to hopefully enjoy a cigar without any drama from others. If it's good enough for James Bond...