Friday, April 21 2006
"We all know that smoking cigars and playing golf go
hand in hand" noted Tabacalera Perdomo President Nick Perdomo and he's right. For one thing, it's one of the few places left where smoking isn't prohibited!
To take advantage of the long-time tie between golf and cigars, Perdomo has released his fifth blend in his La Tradicion Cabinet Series Perdomo Reserve line-up, the Perdomo Reserve Limited Golf Edition.
Made in Nicaragua, of course, this will be a flavorful blend using Nicaragua-grown binder and filler and a Connecticut Shade wrapper. Sporting a green-and-gold label, it joins the original White Label blend from 1998, the Red Label maduros from 1999, Cameroon-wrapped Silver Label from 2003, and Connecticut-wrapped Champagne Gold Label from 2004.
The newest line has eight shapes from a modest 4 3/4-inch by 44-ring petit corona to a mighty 9-inch by 52-ring giant called the "Hole in One." Maybe it should have been called "The Driver?" All come in boxes of 25, although a tubed version of the Double Eagle (7 x 54) and the giant Hole-in-Ones also come in boxes of 10.
Perdomo introduced not only a line of cigars, but a whole line of accessories as well. Continuing his partnership with fashion giant Perry Ellis International, a line of Perdomo Golf polo-style shirts and baseball-style caps will be available and an ingenious all-in-one cigar package for a foursome called "The Caddy" is being offered. It contains four Double Eagle cigars in aluminum tubes, four golf balls with the Perdomo Golf logo and a branded cigar cutter. All are being sold through retail smokeshops nationwide.
Who's number one?
In cigars, that honor has to go - on volume at least - to the Dominican Republic, which reported production of nearly 515 million units last year. Of that staggering total, nearly 208 million went to the United States. In comparison, Cuban exports for 2005 were estimated at 160 million.
Dominican tobacco production figures showed that in 2005 there were 6,132 growers on the island on more than 314,000 acres and the tobacco industry accounted for $300 million in gross domestic product and 73,000 jobs. Not bad for a country which 30 years ago exported less than six million cigars.
The French government withdrew a bill which would have imposed a national smoking ban on indoor public spaces similar to those already passed in Spain and Britain.
Facing more civil unrest after the contentious debate on labor, the Chirac Administration called for extensive "consultations" on the issue of where smoking should and should not be permitted. The Daily Telegraph of London reported that although smoking is down from the 50% levels of the 1980s, some 30% of all French smoke today.
One member of the Assemblee Nationale predicted that nothing will be done about the issue until after next years Presidential elections.
Short fillers: With the smoking law now in place in Britain, the Daily Mail reported that British cigarette companies are teaming with pubs to aid or subsidize the construction of "smoking shelters" to allow outdoor smoking in some comfort, complete with space heaters during winter! One pub is reported to have received up to $7,000 from British American Tobacco in exchange for brand exclusivity at that location . . . John Hartigan of Kearny, New Jersey told the Jersey Journal he foresees dire days ahead for smokers now that the state's smoking ban has been activated: "Next thing you know, we're going to have to take a rocket and leave the Earth to smoke," he said. Not if the do-gooders get there first.
- Rich Perelman in Los Angeles
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Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company.
Copyright 2006; All rights reserved.
