The Smoke Blog – Cigar Reviews – New Cigars

The makers of Macanudo and C.A.O. cigars are joining forces. Today, the European parent companies of both cigar brands signed a letter of intent to merge their cigar and tobacco operations, creating a new joint venture the companies said would be “one of the largest cigar companies in the world.” Anders Colding Friis, chief executive officer of Scandinavian Tobacco Group, would run the new company, and the deal could close by June.

Scandinavian Tobacco, headquartered in Søborg, Denmark, and Swedish Match AB of Stockholm, Sweden, announced their intent to form a new cigar company by merging their cigar and tobacco operations. If the deal moves ahead as described, Scandinavian Tobacco will emerge as a 51 percent owner of the new operation, which will combine the cigar, pipe tobacco and fine cut tobacco business of Scandinavian Tobacco Group with the tobacco assets of Swedish Match, including General Cigar Co., the company’s premium cigar unit, as well as its remaining pipe tobacco and accessories businesses. The new company would have annual production of more than 2.5 billion cigars and have annual sales of nearly 700 million euros ($1 billion).

Swedish Match will own 49 percent of the new venture. The company is not contributing its mass-market cigar business to the venture, which includes such machine-made brands as White Owl, Garcia y Vega, and La Paz.

The deal also includes Swedish Match’s highly successful retail arm, Cigars International.

Scandinavian Tobacco will pay Swedish Match about 40 million Euros ($57 million) to compensate the company for valuation differences.

Scandinavian Tobacco’s cigar brands include the premium C.A.O. brands, including C.A.O. La Traviata, C.A.O. Lx2 and many others, plus mass-market Café Crème, Henri Wintermans, Colts and Mercator. Swedish Match owns General Cigar Co., makers of some of the world’s biggest premium cigar brands, including Macanudo, La Gloria Cubana, Punch, Partagas and many others.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania is poised to maintain a long-standing tax exemption on the sales of cigars and smokeless tobacco, despite two attempts by Gov. Ed Rendell over the past three years to remove it.

Even though all other states tax the items, such a tax is not expected to appear in a nearly week-old budget agreement that is still being hammered into shape in the Capitol.

Earlier this year, Rendell proposed the tax to help wipe out the state’s multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall. His attempt in 2007 would have helped underwrite an extension of state-subsidized health insurance to adults who lack coverage.

Resistance by Pennsylvania’s legislators can be attributed to their desire to protect tobacco growers in southeastern Pennsylvania, cigar makers that employ hundreds and heavy use of snuff and chewing tobacco by miners and steelworkers in southwestern Pennsylvania.

“That would be a very unpopular tax in my communities,” said Sen. Richard Kasunic, D-Fayette. “And I’d rather not have to vote on that.”

In addition, Pennsylvania is home to four of the nation’s eight leading cigar retailers. One, Cigars International of Bethlehem, would have to consider moving to Florida if Pennsylvania approved a tax on cigars, company president Keith Meier told the Senate Finance Committee at a February hearing on Rendell’s proposal.

legislative leaders did, however, agree to extend a new tax on games of chance played by clubs and nonprofits with liquor licenses and tickets for cultural institutions and performing arts events.

They also agreed to raise the tax on cigarettes by a quarter to $1.60 per pack while introducing that tax onto the growing sales of little cigars called cigarillos, which are not made in Pennsylvania and compete with cigars.

Public health groups argued that extending the tax to cigars and smokeless tobacco would be good public policy and a substantial source of revenue if the tax were to be commensurate with the one imposed on cigarettes.

But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre, said many of his colleagues did not think the $50 million that could be raised under Rendell’s proposal was worth it.

The FDA appears to be trying to halt distribution of so called e-cigarettes by curbing imports.

The makers of the cigarettes, which are white with a brown filter and tip that glows red, say the cigarettes are safe because they don’t contain tar or other chemicals. They do, however, contain liquid nicotine.

A major distributor of electronic cigarettes compared the cigarettes to a nicotine patch. “There are no ingredients in our e-cigs that can cause cancer. However, it is a pretty new product, so we are not 100 percent sure of the side effects at this point,”

The World Health Organization has called for clinical studies and toxicity analysis to determine the safety of the cigarettes.

By Jerry HirschSeptember 23, 2009

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday banned cigarettes with fruit, candy or clove flavors.

Authorized by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act enacted in June, the ban represents an effort to reduce an easy entry point for youth into smoking and tobacco addiction. Some cigarette makers favored and others opposed giving the FDA this new authority.

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S., the government says.

The FDA also is considering bans on menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco.

“Almost 90% of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers. These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg. “The FDA will utilize regulatory authority to reduce the burden of illness and death caused by tobacco products.”

The FDA said studies have shown that 17-year-old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored cigarettes as smokers over age 25.

We here at the Smokeblog.com know that aside from cigars, food is highest on the hierarchy of needs. So in the interest of eating good food, we have compiled a few of the greatest recipes for the foods we love.

Blazing Hot Chicken Wings

Ingredients:
Creamy Roquefort dip:
1/2 cup Roquefort cheese , crumbled
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1/2 cup sour cream
12 chicken wings, disjointed
Oil, for frying
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup hot red pepper sauce

Preparation:
In a medium size bowl, cream the Roquefort and cream cheese until smooth. Mix in the remaining ingredients and blend well. Chill for 2 hours.
Using a fryer or a large pot, heat oil to 350 degrees F. Deep fry the wings until golden and crispy, approximately 10 minutes.
In a separate bowl, melt the butter, add the hot sauce and heat thoroughly. Immediately toss hot wings into sauce. Place wings on a platter and serve with creamy Roquefort dip.

Asian Style Ribs

Ingredients:
1 pound beef short ribs
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
1 tablespoon rice wine (sake)
Pinch of black pepper
1/2 piece of fresh kiwi, juiced in a blender

Preparation:
1. Distribute the sugar evenly on the beef short ribs by sprinkling it on each piece. Allow beef to sit for 10 minutes.
2. In a bowl, mix together soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, sake, and black pepper. Put aside.
3. Massage the beef with the kiwi juice using your hands. The kiwi works as a tenderizer. Add the sauce and mix. Allow the beef to marinate for 2 hours before barbecuing.

Boston Red Sox “Yawkey Way”  Lunch at a Home Afternoon Game

Preparation:

1. Make sure you have plenty of money after you paid $50.00 for parking
2. Find the nearest Draft Beer Vendor and wait in line for a half hour.
3. Our expert opinion you should at least order  6 piss-warm $8.50 Draft Beers before entering the game.
4. Take out one of your El Tiante Cigars and light it up, and blow it right in a yuppie’s face.
5. Enter the game and steal a Season Ticket Holders Seat because you probably couldn’t afford them anyway, don’t worry they are stuck in Boston traffic.
6. Sit Back and Watch the Red Sox Kick Ass!

 by Peter Corbett – Mar. 6, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Valley cigar stores, already hurt by a shaky economy, are bracing for a huge federal tax increase next month that they fear will further dampen sales.

Large cigars will be taxed at 40 cents per cigar starting April 1. That is up from a nickel per cigar but below a $3 to $10 per cigar tax that Congress had considered.

A good 5-cent cigar, if there is such a thing, would nearly double in cost to 9 cents under the tax increase on small cigars.
“Politicians go after sin taxes rightly or wrongly; that’s what they’ve always done,” said Michael Jaye, owner of Oggie’s Cigars in northeast Phoenix.

In early February, Congress approved the tax increase on cigars and other tobacco products to raise $35 billion for health care for uninsured children.

It is a tax increase that could not come at a worse time for the cigar industry, which produces 6 billion machine-rolled cigars and 333 million handmade cigars, according to industry estimates.

In the Valley, cigar stores spread when the economy was red hot in the mid-2000s.

Joel Schwartz, owner of Ford and Haig Tobacconist in Scottsdale, said the Valley went from about 15 cigar stores in the past decade to almost 70 in recent years.

Now, the abundance of stores has fragmented the customer base, leading some stores to close and others in the market to fear more contraction as the economy continues to falter.

“I think we have more stores per capita than anywhere in the country,” said Schwartz, whose store has been open since 1958. “The pie is only so big.”

A number of shops have already closed, including Lonsdales in Scottsdale and Matchstix in Chandler, Schwartz said.

“All of us are fighting for crumbs,” said Jaye, of Oggie’s.

Customers are going to react to the tax increase by trading down to lower-priced cigars, he said.

Lawmakers have often used so-called sin taxes on tobacco, alcohol and other stigmatized products to raise revenue.

In this case, cigar-shop owners and industry officials say they are not opposed to state-sponsored health care for children, but they complain that smokers are being unfairly singled out to fund the program.

Schwartz, of Ford and Haig, questions taxing a declining industry, which over time will mean less revenue for children’s health care.

Chris McCalla, legislative director for the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association, said it would make more sense to tax candy and soda because of the growing problem of childhood obesity.

The association represents 2,000 members worldwide, including 45 in Arizona.

Tobacco is an easy target for lawmakers to go after because smokers account for only about 20 percent of the U.S. population, McCalla said.

Now, with smoking bans, cigar shops and lounges have become like old-fashioned barbershops, where a mostly male clientele can enjoy camaraderie and fine cigars, a relatively affordable luxury item.

“People think of rich bankers and attorneys when they think of cigars,” McCalla said.

“That’s the biggest misnomer. There is wide demographic of cigar smokers that will be affected by the tax increase.”

Valley store owners do not expect a huge surge of sales this month to avoid the new tax because most cigar smokers buy in small quantities.
 

By Andrew Nagy

Jack Priestly celebrated his 100th birthday on July 18 like any other day—by firing up a cigar and drinking a shot of whiskey mixed with his morning tea. Then he ate breakfast.

“I love my cigars,” Priestly recently told The Telegraph newspaper of Britain. “ I wouldn’t be without them. I don’t care about the brand—a cigar is a cigar. But I’m not a fan of the small ones. The bigger, the better.”

Priestly started smoking cigarettes at the age of nine before switching to cigars for good in 1966. (A doctor advised him they were “healthier.”) He says he has smoked 153,000 cigars and 715,400 cigarettes. The cigar consumption amounts to about 10 cigars a day for the past 42 years.

The whiskey habit, learned from his mother-in-law, didn’t start until the age of 24.

Despite his smoking and alcohol indulgence, Priestly says he has suffered no serious related health problems.

“I’ve been operated on from toe to head but I’ve still got a good set of lungs. There’s nothing wrong with them,” Priestly said.
Priestly, of Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire, England, is not only a grandfather, but also has six great-grandchildren.

There are lots of opinions posted on the ‘net about the importing, sale, and
possession of Cuban cigars in the US. I can’t put these in the FAQ without
reasonable assurances that the info is correct…

Many of these posts are based on urban legends and rumors. Before we go into
the specific law regarding importation of Cuban products, let’s look over an
advisory letter dated June 1, 1995, from the Director of the Office of Foreign
Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury. This letter was sent to
members of the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America, Inc. (Yes, I have a copy of
the original letter for verification)…

Pretty strong stuff, and pretty clearly worded.

“You may include in your personal exemption not more than 200 cigarettes
(one carton) or 50 cigars, or 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs.) of smoking tobacco, or
proportionate amounts of each. An additional quantity of 100 cigars may be
brought in under your gift exemption. NOTE: Cigars of Cuban origin are
generally prohibited entry, even for personal use.“

The Trading with Enemy Act…

Still have doubts? Here’s one of the specific regulations governing the
importation of Cuban products.

CONCORD – The New Hampshire Senate gave cigar bars in the state permission to serve liquor to their guests, but imposed strict rules on their operations.

The bars, which allow customers to smoke cigars indoors, can offer drinks only if 60 percent of their business comes from the sale of cigars and cigar-related products like cases, humidors, lighters and ashtrays. Internet and mail sales are excluded from the formula.

The strict amendment to House Bill 392 passed on a 21-3 vote. It requires any cigar bar serving liquor to ban smoking of cigarettes, ban minors, and have a humidor on premises. It is not allowed to serve any food.

Each potential worker would have to be warned in advance that smoking takes place in the business, and that working there has “serious and permanent negative health effects” like cancer and heart disease.

None of the limitations were in the House version of the bill, so the House will have to agree with the changes before the bill can become law.

The Senate Commerce, Labor and Consumer Protection Committee split 3-3 on whether the bill should pass. Several senators said allowing liquor in cigar bars would give them unfair advantage over other bars.

“I don’t think any of my friends in the hospitality industry will think this is very fair,” said Commerce chairman Sen. Deborah Reynolds, D-Plymouth, adding that the bill will chip away at the state’s recent ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.

Sen. Jacalyn Cilley, D-Barrington, disagreed. “Exceptions are carved out in many states that ban smoking. This is not a slippery slope at all,” she said.

The compromise that won over most of the Senate came from Senate Majority Leader Maggie Hassan, D-Exeter, who sponsored the amendment that helped it pass the full Senate.

Sen. Jack Barnes, R-Raymond, said estimates are that the state has 26 cigar bars. He said he thought the fuss was unnecessary and that people ought to make their own decisions about their health.

“Smoke yourself and drink yourself silly,” he said.