Segal and Cigars

Romeo y Julieta RyJ Wide Churchill

It’s 7pm on a Saturday night, you haven’t eaten since lunch, the sun is setting, what does one do?

Grab some Dark rum over two cubes of ice, some 5 layer bean dip from Trader Joe’s , a bag of tortilla chips and fire up a big fat Romeo Y Julieta Habano Wide Churchill. 5 1/8 x 55. It’s not a strong cigar, so it really hits that magic sweet spot before dinner.

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Sitting in my backyard watching the sun set over the California coastline somehow makes this perfect cigar …. better….
I really enjoy the wide girth of this WIDE Churchill over the narrower gage (47mm) traditional RyJ Churchill. As the sun drops and I exhale a plume of smoke into the foreground of the golden sky. This is how I picture heaven to be…. Perfection …..

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Highlights of the 2013 Habanos Festival XV

This is the inside press coverage from SegalandCigars.com!

The 15th Annual Habanos Festival in Havana, Cuba was held this past week, and boy did we have an amazing time! From field and factory tours to cigar rolling 101, how to make the famous Havana Club mojito and fancy gala’s, the Habanos Festival has something for everyone. We had a great time meeting people from all over the world who all share the same passion – THE CIGAR..

Below are some highlights of the wonderful people we met with during the festival – some for the first time, others we like to consider long time pals. Coming soon – we’ll have an inside look at the cigar making process, from the field to the factory.

SegalandCigars.com shares the Partagas Serie C No. 3 Edicion Limitada 2012 with James Suckling of JamesSuckling.com at the Habanos Festival XV.. Both of us agree this is one fantastic smoke! Get it while you can because they are already hard to come by.

SegalandCigars tries to get the inside scoop from Nestor Valera, the director of all 160+ La Casa Del Habanos retail shops worldwide. He will neither confirm nor deny the existence of over 1 million boxes of Cuban cigars sitting in warehouses in Havana waiting to be distributed to the United States as soon as U.S. government policy changes!

SegalandCigars shares a moment with two generations of Castro's (Left to right) Fidelito (Fidel Castro's son), and Fidel Castro's grandson (who tells us his favorite line of cigars is the Montecristo OPEN, which debuted in 2009)

David Savona, the Senior Editor of Cigar Aficionado, shares a laugh with SegalandCigars at the Habanos Festival XV Gala Night. Being a fellow press person in the cigar industry, we bumped into each other constantly at the festival! We both agreed that the Cohiba 1966 Limitada 2011 and the Montecristo 520 Limitada 2012 will become great classics. Again, these classics are already extremely difficult to come by.

The new 2013 Co-President of Habanos S.A., Luis Sanchez, shared with SegalandCigars that even though cigar smokers have very few places to smoke these days, international sales of cigars increased by 6% in 2012, and he is still very happy that his home country of Spain remains the largest market in the world.

Englishman Simon Chase, a good old friend to SegalandCigars, who started in the cigar industry over 35 years ago with Hunters and Frankau. He is probably one of the most knowledgeable individuals when it comes to Cuban Cigars. He shared with SegalandCigars his favorite store in Havana to buy Guayaberas.

Danny Glover, along with his wife Eliane Cavalleiro from Brazil, joined in the festivities at the Habanos Festival XV. Danny was very happy to meet SegalandCigars when he realized we were both from Southern California.

The new Co-President of Habanos S.A. for 2013, Cuban Walfrido Hernandez Mesa, formerly VP of Finance. He was excited to see SegalandCigars since we last met two years ago, and shared that while his new position is a lot of hard work, it is incredibly rewarding.

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Highlights from the XIV Habanos Festival

Day Four of the XIV Habanos Festival in Havana, Cuba… and what a festival it has been so far. Here are some highlights:

 


Day One featured Jim Belushi, in a fantastic Blues Brothers style performance! He was wowing the crowd and working up a sweat. After his performance, I caught up with Jim over a beautiful cigar.

Paul Segal and Gordon Mott, palling around at one of the highlights of the event – The Cigar Rolling Seminar.

Gordon is the Executive Editor of Cigar Aficionado magazine.

Here’s a shot of James Suckling and I, smoking the Trinidad T Rebusto, a brand new cigar in commemoration of the 520th anniversary of the discovery of tobacco in Cuba. The cigar features a special band to commemorate the anniversary.

James Suckling is one of the world’s foremost experts on Cuban cigars, as well as the former European Editor of Cigar Aficionado and the former Senior Editor of Wine Spectator. I always enjoy hanging out with James on these trips!

Here’s David Savona and I, holding up the brand new 2012 Montecristo Limitada. This Limitada is bigger than the Grand Edmundo, with a 54 ring gauge. This is one big cigar! Look for my reviews of these never before seen cigars, coming soon.

David Savona is the Senior Editor of Cigar Aficionado magazine, as well as the Director of Cigar Aficionado online.

 

Stay tuned for more highlights from the XIV Habanos Festival, including reviews of these fantastic and highly exclusive cigars! Until then, this is Paul Segal, signing off.

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Smokin’ with Belushi, and More To Come!

SegalandCigars.com will be bringing you some fresh, exciting, new content very soon, so stay tuned.

At this very moment, we are uncovering all of the latest and greatest in the cigar world, brought to you directly from Havana, Cuba.

In the meantime, enjoy this awesome pic – Jim Belushi and I, at the Hotel Nacional en Cuba. Smokin’ a few stogies..

 

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Cigar Review: Romeo Y Julieta Short Churchill (Cuba)

In this episode of Segal and Cigars…

Segal smokes the Romeo Y Julieta Short Churchill

So -- What’s the difference between a regular churchill and a short churchill? And why is it called a churchill anyway??

The Churchill cigar is said to be named such in honor of Sir Winston Churchill (and if you don’t know who that is, GOOGLE him!) Winston Churchill was an avid cigar smoker, at one point smoking 8-10 cigars PER DAY… now that’s serious smokin’!

The Churchill cigar is about a 1hr-1.5hr smoke. It is a LONG cigar. The short Churchill? Well, it’s just that -- a shorter version of the Churchill.

To explain further -- think of terms like Churchill, Torpedo, Corona, etc as general terms. Just like many restaurants would carry a small, medium, and large soda, many cigar makers carry Churchills, Torpedos, and Coronas.  The DIFFERENCE is in the maker. A Romeo Y Julieta Churchill could be quite a different smoke from say, a Hoyo de Monterrey Churchill. Get it??

And in case you were wondering….. CLICK HERE to check out my AWESOME red lighter, which has a cigar punch on the bottom. It’s a dual flame jet lighter with a window so you can see how much fuel is left. Very cool, and very convenient! AND it comes in many colors (although RED is the best in my opinion).

 

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Cigar Review: Partagas Serie D No. 4 (Cuba)

In this episode of Segal and Cigars…

Watch Segal discuss what is considered a classic among cigar aficionados.. The Partagas Serie D No.4

Question of the day -- To punch or to cut?

Segal wants to know: What’s your favorite robusto? (For those newbies, the term “robusto” refers to the size or guage of the cigar)

For your info..

The cigar featured in this episode is the Partagas Serie D No. 4, otherwise known as the “Partagas D-4″

A delicious robusto - The Partagas D4

 

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Cigar review: Bolivar Belicosos (Cuba)

A 30-40 minute walk needs an appropriate cigar. And it was a “LIP Burner”! It was just too good to put down until….it burned my lips! That is a LIP Burner! Will SEGAL burn his LIPS??? Watch the video below…

Torpedo? Pyrimade? What? Check out the video to see & hear.

Torpedo” and “Pyrimade” refers to the SHAPE of the cigar. A torpedo/pyrimade cigar has a sharp, narrow, pointed head.. like this!

A Torpedo... The Bolivar Belicoso!

How to cut a Torpedo? Check out the video for all the info..

Proper lighting techniques

What do you do when you are finished with your cigar??? SEGAL tells all!!!

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