The New York State Tobacconists Association and the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) are demanding that the proposed state tax increase to 90 percent on cigars and other tobacco products be voted down before the state loses more money and jobs because of what they say is another small business killer. The New York State Tobacconists Association and the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) are demanding that the proposed state tax increase to 90 percent on cigars and other tobacco products be voted down before the state loses ... Jump to full article >>

The Commonwealth Cigar Club offers a comfortable setting for tobacco aficionados. David Meyer leaned back in a leather-upholstered chair and smoked a Davidoff Aniversario No. 3. Seated nearby, Kelly Morrison savored a Davidoff 1000 and Rich Carney a Davidoff Puro D’Oro. The three lounged and puffed in the members-only Commonwealth Cigar Club one floor above David and Renee Meyer’s Milan Tobacconists retail store in Roanoke. An annual fee of $1,000 and a biometric lock that reads fingerprints offer entry into the not-for-profit club, which formally opened April 16. Cigar aficionados ... Jump to full article >>

I don’t really know how I missed the fact that there was a bar in the affluent Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C., that allowed cigar smoking. Maybe since I moved away in 1999, when there were still numerous places to light up in the nation’s capital, I just didn’t venture outside of downtown where Shelly’s endures and where John and Matt at W. Curtis Draper Tobacconist provide a friendly sanctuary in which to have a smoke. But none of that is an excuse, so I, your intrepid reporter, have now visited Aroma. Just in time and, it seems, a little too late. Aro ... Jump to full article >>

Hundreds of friends and relatives bid farewell to the godfather of Cuban tobacco, who was buried Sunday in a casket adorned with a half-smoked cigar bearing his name and a yellow tobacco flower. Alejandro Robaina, a 91-year-old legend who was the only Cuban to have a cigar brand named after him, died Saturday from cancer after doctors discovered inoperable tumors on his lungs and kidney, his grandson Hirochi Robaina said. Wreaths of flowers filled his modest, ramshackle home and engulfed much of the surrounding porch. Four generations of family and neighbors choked back tears while greeting fr ... Jump to full article >>

It was a memorable evening. The occasion: the first ever of its kind – the inaugural gathering of what is going to be known as the Islamabad Cigar Club. The founder being an extremely pleasing person called Dominique Simon, Head of the Economic Department at the French Embassy in Islamabad. A get-together of about 35 representatives of Islamabad’s civil and business communities — friends of course – at his residence on a fine April evening, turned out to be a refined meeting point of cigar smokers from France, Argentina and Pakistan including notable personalities like Naveed Qamar, th ... Jump to full article >>

Do you remember when Arnold Schwarzenegger was President George H. W. Bush’s chairman for the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports? Arnold was probably the most appropriate spokesperson ever chosen for that body. He remains, to this day, inspiration for exercising and living a healthy lifestyle. But wait a minute. Isn’t Arnold occasionally spotted smoking a $20, hand-rolled Nicuraguan corona? Isn’t this a contradiction to what Arnold preaches? Or does he know something we don’t? On Feb. 15, on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” their min ... Jump to full article >>

Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba’s annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make ... Jump to full article >>

Enthralled by the international impact Cuban cigars have in commerce and tourism, a bunch of renowned artists, musicians and sportspeople are attending the 12th Habano Festival underway in Havana. Invited by Grammy Award winner Chucho Valdes, Brazilian singer Ivan Lins and the Portuguese interpreter Mariza are among the musicians. Both Lins and Mariza will perform together at a special concert at the Havana Grand Theater. Other of the illustrious guests is Christopher Menaul, from Great Britain, a television and movie director who won the BAFTA Prize of the British cinema. The organizers are e ... Jump to full article >>

Philip Morris USA’s domestic volume cigarette sales last year, at 148.7 billion, were 12.2 per cent down on those of the previous year, 169.4 billion. Sales of Marlboro were down by 10.6 per cent to 126.5 billion, while sales of Parliament, Virginia Slims and Basic were down respectively by 26.9 per cent, 17.4 per cent and 23.9 per cent to 4.0 billion, 5.2 billion and 9.2 billion. Sales of ‘other’ brands were down by 6.8 per cent to 3.8 billion. During the fourth quarter to the end of December, sales of Marlboro, Parliament, Virginia Slims and Basic were down respectively 9.3 ... Jump to full article >>

Cigar lovers forced to stoke their stogies outside their favorite watering holes because of municipal smoking bans will love the Crescent City. Famously a place where all sorts of cravings can be satisfied, New Orleans offers all types of bars where smokers can light up with abandon. One of the more elegant is Arnaud’s French 75 Bar in the French Quarter. Enter the discreet side entrance several yards away from the tawdry jangle of Bourbon Street and discover a space that evokes images of an earlier, more elegant era. The long vintage wood bar dominates the narrow, cozy room, once an all ... Jump to full article >>

The weather was surprisingly favorable when Mike and I carpooled down the length of Seneca Street into the city to Cigars Bar and Grill. From the outside, the building looked like a tiny hole in the wall, but once we headed indoors, the establishment was more expansive than it appeared. We found a spot at the gargantuan polished horseshoe-shaped bar toward the front. Jen, a bartender, greeted us right away and served us a pitcher of Michelob Light, a double of Wild Turkey on the rocks and a tall pint glass of Southern Comfort and Diet Coke for $16. This was one of the cheapest rounds I’ve pa ... Jump to full article >>