The cigar industry needs your help to exempt premium cigars from FDA regulation. H.R. 1639 / Senate Bill 1461 has been filed.  This legislation would decree that premium/traditional cigars should be off limits to FDA regulation.

Let’s face it, cigars have little in common with cigarettes, and we need to keep it that way. Should cigars fall under FDA regulation, the industry would be gone as we know it. What is their biggest ammo against cigars? Kids. Cigars are in no way marketed towards children. I believe protecting children should fall on the shoulders of those who chose to not use contraceptives. I am sick of protecting the children of lazy parents… But back to the topic at hand.

Some likely scenarios of FDA regulation are:

Regulate cigars in the same way that they regulate cigarettes.

Say goodbye to your premium cigars. The days of browsing the humidor would be gone.

No more cigar events.

You’ll have to ask for cigars behind the counter just like cigarettes at 7-11.

Blends would have to be FDA approved – No more flavor.

New taxes would be implemented to finance regulation. You thought SCHIP was bad.

Who know what else they’ll come up with. Their imagination is the limit.

How can you help? Cigar Rights of America has made it easy for you to pitch in. They have a link to a form that will take you minutes to fill out. OR you can print out this PDF and fax it. It’s that easy.

The FDA is corrupt and fascist, like many branches of government. They are owned by special interest lobbyists and corporations. What happened to “For the people?” Do you need government to help you protect you from yourself by limiting your choices? You’d think they have bigger things to worry about than a small niche market. Such is not the case. Let’s try to keep this one small pleasure intact! While the war on the middle class wages on, I want to at least be able to enjoy a cigar!

Take 5 minutes out of your life and pitch in!

The Grand Cru comes in a Maduro, Connecticut, or Corojo wrapper. The tobaccos are said to be from 2004 and obviously well aged. As always, I paired this cigar with water and offer you my thoughts.

Wrapper: Corojo

Binder: Nicaragua

Filler: Nicaragua

Size: Toro 6 x 50

Price: $4.70

Pre-Smoke & Construction:

The nice tan wrapper looked good, with a slight toothiness and a few veins here and there. Those who are extra picky may notice slight color variations in the wrapper, but who cares… It also had a good hay-ish earthy smell. The foot had that same smell combined with a natural tobacco odor. Overall the cigar was evenly packed, and bounced back to shape when squeezed. The pre-light draw had a slight resistance with a sweet earthy taste.

Flavor:

The first third began with earthiness with a nice peppery punch. After about an inch I started to pick up black coffee. The smoke was pretty thick, as was the mouth feel. As this third came to a close, an ever so so slight sweetness came into the background.

The second third kept that nice peppery punch. It wasn’t over the top and did not burn. It just had a nice medium kick. Earthy and coffee notes were the main flavors. But the sweetness I mentioned before developed into something similar to mocha. It lingered and coated the tongue long after the smoke was expelled. At about the half way point the smoke became creamy and everything seemed to really come together nicely.

The last third saw the sweetness increase in strength, and it definitely was mocha. The earthiness fell to the background, and the coffee stood out with the mocha. That nice peppery zing remained but smoothed out a bit. The smoke feel remained smooth and creamy with a long aftertaste.

Conclusion:

This was a good medium to full bodied cigar. It had a nice start and built from there. I found it to be relaxing and satisfying. Factor in the price point, and I think Perdomo has a winner. I could see this pairing up nicely with a variety of beverages. So pick a few up and see what you think.

Everyone is waiving their flags, getting drunk, and doing fireworks to celebrate the 4th. It is great that we have the right to do such things. We should be thankful to the owners of this place (which by the way, isn’t us).

MP3 Only

I can’t take it anymore… All of these cigar blogs out there, and many of them turn in to crap. They come out of the gate swinging and dwindle to mediocrity. I understand life happens, so why not just end the site or let the readers know what’s up? I it see too often, a post every month or two as the site becomes smaller and smaller. Dying a slow pitiful death…

Before you haters start posting, let me say first… I’m not implying TomsCigars.com is some great model site. I’m not even implying the content here is good. If anything, the message you should get from this place is that virtually any cigar smoker can do this. Chances are quite a few readers will enjoy and learn from you, even if you have an average palate like me. But enough of my sniveling…

David, who runs The Cigar Nut, took a different approach. He found a pattern that was realistic to his lifestyle. Even if it is one or two posts a week, I can always count on consistent reviews. When life gets in the way, he let’s his readers know what happened.

So if consistent, honest reviews are important to you, go visit The Cigar Nut!

After one shop manager grew tired of lacking control, he left and opened up his own shop. The owner of the building and adjacent business (who is also an accountant) decided he would tighten the purse strings even more for the remaining manager. Stock began to dwindle to embarrassingly low levels. There was mostly low to mid-level brands and bundle grade cigars. Even this limited inventory started to become scarce. The humidor went through cycles of having almost enough cigars to dwindling down to almost nothing. Customers were constantly turned away because the cigar they had a few weeks ago ran out and was never restocked. Customers grew tired of this cycle and simply went down the street to a better place.

The website wasn’t accurate, offering many brands that had not been re-stocked in months. While all this happened, the shop manager had his hands tied. He had no control over the budget, hence little control over stock. This cycle went on for months. All the while the owner wondered why the shop was losing money and had virtually no customers. In short, customers grew tired of constant disappointment whenever they walked in to the humidor. Having a good staff and manager doesn’t do any good when they have no control.

To remedy the situation, the staff has been cut and "Changed."  The manager is all that remains to man the shop during daylight hours. At night it will be manned by people from the adjacent business who have no interest or knowledge in cigars. The lounge will now be unavailable at night and on weekends. Basically the cigar shop has finally made the complete transition to an afterthought. The initial problems are still not being addressed or even acknowledged. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time. Unfortunately this once nice place is circling the drain, and it’s demise is inevitable. At this point, turning things around would take over a year. Even then, the public would probably be wary due to it’s shaky past.

On the other hand…

If you want to see how to succeed in the cigar business, you need look no further then Ed. He has this business down pat, and knows that if you want to make money, you have to invest upfront. It took years for him to earn the customer base he has. He slaved and sacrificed with little return at first. A good cigar shop involves planning, sacrifice, focus, persistence, investment and risk. If you aren’t willing, then don’t bother.

The point of this rambling is simple… I hate to see a nice place fail, and since I have a website, I wrote about it. I didn’t name anyone or the shop in question because I’m a nice guy. I suspect the owners are good people, they just don’t have their heart in the cigar business. I think they just lack the commitment to see it through. They should either commit or shut the doors. Their passion lies in the adjacent business.

A cigar shop needs stock at all times. People need to rely on you having their favorite cigar at all times. They want a staff who can help when they can’t decide what they want. Maybe they just want to stop by and shoot the shit. They may be new to cigars, and need a "Mentor" to help them discover what cigar agrees with their palate.  This process takes time, and lots of it. In the end it boils down to simple business philosophy. When you start letting accountants run every aspect of a cigar shop, you will fail. I have proof…