Americans can slap down cold, hard cash for any premium cigar rolled in the Dominican Republic. . . . except this one.
Money can’t buy you love, someone once told us; but that someone never showed up at the right club with a Louis Vuitton suitcase stuffed with enough greenbacks to buy Paraguay. What money really can’t buy you, if you’re an American sitting on your side of the pond, is a Laura Chavin cigar. Manufactured at the Tabacalera de Garcia in the Dominican Republic, run by master cigar-blender Jose Seijas, the sticks are available only in Germany. And they’re expensive — although through a bit of James Bond-style trickiness we managed to get our hands on one (well, perhaps two or three), and we can tell you that 20 Euros smokes rather nicely — nutty with a hint of hay, strong, with a bit of what we swear is Grand Marnier Lapostolle at the very end. The cigars have become a European favorite, thanks partially to their brand’s cultivated anti-snob air (we still stand that the self-embargo constitutes a bit of snobbery in itself, but we digress). Stored within the 300-year-old cellar vaults of Schloss Hochdorf, the smokes combine aged Dominican Olor and Piloto-Cubano filler with a Mexican binder and Connecticut Shade wrapper; cigar sizes run from Petit Panetela all the way up to Churchill. Just to up the ante for his 10-year-old company, founder Helmut Bührle has introduced a limited edition Belicoso, which featuring a second, extremely delicate leaf between the wrapper and binder, intended to boost the complexity of flavors in the secret blend; the company plans to issue a limited run of 500 boxes per year (priced at €575 for a box of 25), one of which you could probably pick up with little trouble the next time you’re in Berlin. Just pray that the dollar-versus-Euro rate doesn’t worsen. . . . or their cigars will end up burning you a few more bills.