Sunday, December 03 2006
Tired of making trip after trip to empty one or more ashtrays while smoking with friends? One answer is to get the unique and popular Stinky Cigar Ashtray, a large bowl with three or four rests for cigars of up to 80- ring gauge. If you don't have a table nearby, you can even get a floor stand for it!
But if emptying a Stinky is too much work, Stinky Salviano has the answer for you: the Stinky Cigar Ashtray - Herf Edition!
Originally made as a holiday gift for Drew Estates Executive Vice President Steve Saka in 2005, the display model was such a hit at last summer's Retail Tobacco Dealers of America (RTDA) show in Las Vegas that it was rushed into production.
Also made of stainless steel like the regular Stinky, this giant bowl has a capacity of three gallons, enough to go through an entire 100-cigar tray of The Edge by Rocky Patel! And it has six giant cigar rests, big enough for almost any cigar . . . or some small nerf baseball bats!
It's a phenomenal gift idea, priced from $29.95 for the standard Stinky, or $104.95 for the Herf Edition. The floor stand goes for $114.95.
Although the Cuban Cohiba Behike has been touted as the world's priciest current-production cigar, we've reported that the Gurkha His Majesty's Reserve line is, in fact, at the top of the pricing tree with a suggested retail price of $750.00 per cigar.
Silly us, wrong again. Gurkha chief Kaizad Hansotia had to come out with an even pricier cigar, this time for the more-or-less exclusive attention of readers of the "Ultimate Gift Guide" in the December issue of the guide to conspicuous consumption, The Robb Report.
Included among the 21 gift suggestions that included a $7.3 million, 25-carat green diamond from Swiss jeweler De Grisogono, an $80 million Rocket Racing Team entry (comes with two rockets!) or a $1 million, 806-horsepower, custom-made Koenigsegg CCX super car is a box of 100 Gurkha Black Dragon Edicion Especial cigars offered in a camel-bone humidor made in Northern India . . . for $115,000, or $1,150 each!
"This was a two-year project," said Hansotia. "Only five boxes were made at the Torano factory in Danli, Honduras." It's a strong, full-bodied but slightly spicy blend with a Connecticut maduro wrapper from the 1990 crop, a 15-year-old Cameroon binder and 12-year-old Dominican filler leaves. All of the cigars are double coronas of 7½ inches by 52 ring, same as His Majesty's Reserve.
The 500 finished cigars were all aged for about a year to bring them to the peak of flavor . . . and price! The Black Dragons are only being sold as part of The Robb Reports annual "Ultimate Gift Guide" promotion and are not planned for additional production to be sold at retail. Not yet, anyway!
Short fillers: Nat Sherman chief executive Joel Sherman on the future of the tobacco trade, in the current issue of Cigar Magazine: "I dont consider it a dying industry," he told writer Ronald Margulis. "It's a changing industry. Your better-quality products are increasing in sales, so we need to keep selling those tobacco products that are treated as a pleasure instead of a habit." . . . according to University of Tennessee Extension economist Kelly Tiller, about 92% of all tobacco harvested in the U.S. goes into cigarettes . . . two odd brands of tobacco sticks marketed as "cigars" in Eastern Europe may actually be roll-your-own cigarette tobacco pouches disguised as cigars to avoid taxes, according to reports in Czech newspapers. The brands are called Gulliver and Merlin and are marketed by CZ Tabak . . . find our latest tasting review, of six blends of the La Aurora and Leon Jimenes lines, in our News & Views archives.
- Rich Perelman in Los Angeles
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Reprinted by permission. Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2006; All rights reserved.
