For the week of February 18-22, 2008

Los Angeles – There’s no doubt that the Camacho Corojo is a cigar worth celebrating. Its debut in 2000 was one of the catalytic events that has created an unquenchable appetite for fuller-bodied cigars among American premium cigar smokers. But that cigar would never have been except for the work of the Eiroa family in creating the modern version of the Corojo leaf that originated in Cuba more than 70 years ago.

Developed from seeds procured from one of the originators of the Corojo plant – named for the Vega El Corojo in Cuba where it was created – it took several years of work before authentic Corojo that was usable for cigar wrapper was harvested about ten years ago. And that’s what the Camacho Corojo 10th Anniversary cigars are all about.

Like its sibling, the Camacho Corojo, the 10th Anniversary line is made from all Corojo tobacco grown in Honduras. This blend is considered medium-to-full in body with a rich and creamy flavor and will be offered in boxes of 21 in four sizes. All of the cigars are receiving extra aging in advance of their release in March. All are also double-banded with the words "Edicion Limitada" on the footer band. About 300,000 cigars will be made in total.

>> Magnum’s Cigar, Wine and Liquor Emporium filed suit on February 8 against the Arizona Department of Health Services for declaring that the store is not a tobacco retailer under the meaning of the Smoke-free Arizona Act. Passed by voters in November 2006, the Act specifically exempted the category of "Retail tobacco store" so long as such store is "physically separated and independently ventilated so that smoke from retail tobacco stores does not infiltrate non-smoking areas." A "retail tobacco store" was defined by the Act as "a retail store that derives the majority of its sales from tobacco products and accessories."

The state’s Department of Health Services issued its own interpretation of the Act in "Substantive Policy Statement #SP-087-PHS-EDC" in which it stated the "Arizona Department of Health Services’ determination that a bar or a restaurant cannot be either a retail store or a retail tobacco store. Similarly, an establishment that uses the retail tobacco store exception of the Smoke-Free Arizona Act to permit indoor smoking cannot also be a bar or a restaurant."

This creates a major problem for Magnum, which has a bar inside the store. "We are not a bar that sells cigarettes," said owner Aram Patel in an interview with ABC15 in Phoenix. "We are quite the opposite. We are a cigar store that happens to have a bar in it." Magnum offers a smoking lounge with a small bar in it, along with a massive, 500 sq. ft. walk-in humidor and a wide selection of beers, wines and spirits. Patel said if the state’s policy is upheld, his cigar business is finished. Magnum’s attorneys sued on the basis that the Department of Health Services is changing the Act passed by the voters (which contains no such exclusion) to suit its own agenda.

>> "You are no longer welcome in my shop" reads a sign addressed to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that’s posted on the door of Tower Cigars & Pipes in Sacramento.

Owner Mark Just told KOVR-TV that Schwarzenegger is no longer welcome in his shop on Land Park Drive in the state’s capital city because of his support for a now-defeated plan to provide universal health-care insurance in California primarily by raising tobacco and hospital taxes. The bill would have increased cigarette prices by $1.75 per pack (a 200% increase) and forced a corresponding increase in the taxes on cigars and other tobacco products. For cigars, already taxed at 45.13% of the manufacturer’s wholesale price, the increase could have tripled the tax to 135.39%! "It doesn't matter how many good things are in the bill if there isn't money to pay for them,"said ultra-liberal State Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) as her Senate Health Committee voted down the $14.9 billion plan by a 10-2 margin on January 29.

>> Short fillers: The merger of Altadis, S.A. into Imperial Tobacco took a major step forward with the resignation of nine directors of the existing company and their replacement by eight directors nominated by Imperial. The eight new directors will join seven holdover directors on the 15-member Altadis board. Robert Dyrbus will become the new Chief Executive of the company, with Jean-Dominique Comolli, who came into Altadis as the chief executive of SEITA, the French half of the company . . . find our latest tasting review, of three blends each from Arganese Cigars and the Fundacion Ancestral lines, in our News & Views archives for February 15.

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Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2008; All rights reserved.

Cigar Cyclopedia

2/19/08

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