Gentlemen may smoke

Cigars represent more than money and power - they also stand for class, culture and style

When a daughter was born to restaurateur A D Singh of Olive Bar & Kitchen recently, he decided to throw a cigar party for friends. Several cigar aficionados, including women, attended the party this week at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Club. “In the West, it’s a tradition that when a child is born, the father passes around a box full of cigars,” says Singh. Fond of good Cuban cigars like Romeo y Julieta and Habanos Partagás — “I’ve tried Dominican cigars, too, but the draw and flavour isn’t the same” — Singh decided to do likewise.

In Delhi and Mumbai, especially, occasions such as weddings, engagements and even dinners are becoming incomplete without cigars to light up the atmosphere. Initially dismissed as a fad, in the last decade cigars have become part of the high life. “I have seen non-smokers, who would never touch a cigarette, turn into committed cigar smokers,” says Manish Datt whose shop, Kastro’s, is located not far from the prime minister’s house on Race Course Road, on a patch of luxurious green.

 

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Kastro’s takes its name from the cigar-toting revolutionary who became Cuba’s president. A mix of heady aromas hits you the moment you step into the shop. The shelves are lined with hundreds of cigars. A humidor, a wooden box in which cigars can be kept at ideal temperature and humidity (65-75 per cent), rests on a table. This evening 25 cigars, priced at around Rs 1,400 each, will be packed in this humidor and sent off for a cigar evening in an upscale part of Delhi.

Datt, a former commercial pilot who made cigars his business 11 years ago, has seen such cigar evenings multiply. “When I started out, I sold only 25 cigars a month,” he says. Now he organises two or three cigar evenings a month — besides selling cigars routinely to his clients, some of whom store their cigars in lockers in the shop’s walk-in humidor. During the festival months, October to December, he handles as many as 50 cigar parties. In the past, he has fixed a humidor on a bike to deliver cigars at home and has organised a week-long ‘cigar art’ camp. His oldest client is an 87-year-old man who smokes three cigars a day.

It is no longer unusual to find Indians who smoke up to five cigars a day. Some avoid socialising outside the home because of the anti-smoking laws; they visit only those friends who welcome a cigar into their homes.

Those in the business say the world now views India as a benchmark for the entire Asian market. Habanos, Cuba’s government-run cigar company, has already found a market here. Dominican and Nicaraguan companies are looking at India as an entry point to Asia. Arturo Fuente, the leading cigar brand in the Dominican Republic, is becoming popular. At Rs 2,500 per stick, it is by no means easy on the pocket. In fact, at Rs 3,000 per stick, Arturo Fuente Opus X is a super-premium cigar.

Last year, when ITC launched its first cigar, Armenteros, it did so in arrangement with La Aurora, a Dominican cigar manufacturer. Cigar Republic is the first retail outlet for its cigar brand. The store-cum-lounge, at Delhi’s ITC Maurya Hotel, has about 120 boxes of hand-rolled Armenteros cigars in its humidor. It also has a smoking room and accessories including ashtrays, butane gas lighters that do not interfere with the cigars’ aroma, cigar cutters and travel humidors. At Rs 500-1,000 per stick, depending on size, Armenteros is lighter on the pocket than the Cubans. The biggest Armenteros is the Churchill, seven inches long with a 47 ring gauge. The smallest is the Petit Corona, five inches long with a 42 ring gauge.

Dabur India Chairman Emeritus Vivek C Burman, who has been smoking cigars for over 30 years, has tried the Armenteros. “I find the product very good, and the packaging and presentation too are of a high standard,” he says. “As I am the Consul-General of Nicaragua, I have tried cigars from there and also from the Dominican Republic, but Cuban cigars remain my favourite. Earlier, my favourite was Montecristo Torpedo No 2. Over the past few years I have switched to Cohiba Robustos.”

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The cigar lounge which opened at the Oberoi, Gurgaon, four months ago stocks strictly Habanos.

“Mr Oberoi [P R S Oberoi] likes only Cuban cigars,” explains the executive at the lounge. “His brand is Siglo V.” Among the regulars at the lounge are three youngsters in their mid-20s who come every evening for the same brand of cigar. “

The cigar lounge at the Aman in Delhi is also dominated by Cuban cigars — Cohiba, Don Diego, Davidoff and Romeo y Julieta — all in the range of Rs 800-2,500 per stick. “We have two varieties of Nicaraguan cigars costing Rs 900-1,100 per stick, but the bent is towards Cuban cigars,” says the executive in charge.

Dariel Carroll started the Bombay Cigar Club three years ago. He says most members bring their own cigars to the monthly meetings. For the rest, there are Armenteros. “I inform ITC officials and they send a humidor packed with cigars,” says Carroll. The Club started with three members, and now has 650.

Another Mumbai-based group, the Cigar and Single Malt Society, encourages its 200-plus members to experiment with new cigars. “If you keep smoking one cigar, you will not learn,” says the society’s co-founder, Mehul Patel. “We source our cigars from India and also handpick them when a member travels abroad.” For the last six months, the society has been trying to convince the nephew of Alejandro Robaina, Cuba’s most acclaimed cigar roller who died last year, to visit India for a live cigar-rolling demonstration. Cingari, which offers over 200 varieties of Habanos, has about 5,000 customers and 94 points of sale around India, besides the Cingari Tasting Room in Delhi and the Cingari store in Mumbai. Cingari Director Ameeta Seth swears by the Montecristo No 4.

Datt, meanwhile, cautions against fake and cheap (or mass) cigars, plenty of which are circulating in the market. “Take for example the American brand King Edward; even the paanwala sells it.” This plebeian cigar is named after the king who opened the doors of British high society to cigars, reversing the ban imposed by his mother Queen Victoria. On the day of his succession, one of the first things Edward said in court was: “Gentlemen, you may smoke.”