UK Cigar Scene Magazine March Issue 3 | Page 4

NEWS & GOSSIP Habanos Festival Update The 2015 closed last week with the Gala Dinner on the Saturday night. The format of the festival was slightly different this year with the Gran Reserva a Romeo y Julieta Gran Reserva Cosecha 2009 Wide Churchill announced and sampled on the Monday evening’s welcome dinner. The midweek event saw the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the La Casa Del Habanos franchise and to mark this milestone a special La Gloria Cubana humidor containing 30 Robusto Extra and 30 Piramides was launched. The Gala Dinner commemorated the 80th anniversary of Montecristo with guests sampling two new cigars, including the new Montecristo 80th Aniversario cigars. The cigar which will measure 165mm x 55 ring gauge, slightly larger than a Sublime. 30,000 boxes of 20 Filthy Hooligan arrives in time for St Patrick’s Day The Alec Bradley Black Market Filthy Hooligan 2015 has arrived in the UK. This is a Limited Edition, released in time for St Patrick’s Day with only 150 boxes available in the UK. The cigar is made in the same way as the Alec Bradley Black Market but the cigars come dressed in a vibrant grassgreen Candela wrapper. The wrapper colour is achieved by a 72 hour heat curing which fixes the chlorophyll content of the wrapper. The cigar is available as a 6 x 50 ring gauge Toro. cigars will be produced. The second cigar introduced was the new Montecristo Medias Coronas, a half corona measuring 90mm x 44 ring gauge. The evening was rounded off with the traditional Humidor auction. The six lots sold raised a total of 740,000 dollars for the Cuban Health Service. To see a gallery of the new cigars from the festival and the humidors please follow this link to the Gallery. New Rum to perfectly match the Cohiba Siglo VI Havana Club has launched a new premium rum brand in collaboration with Cuban cigar producer Cohiba. Havana Club Union is designed to be the "perfect match" with a Cohiba Siglo VI cigar. The brand's Master Ronero Asbel Morales said its name represented "the two icons of Cuban culture, rum and cigars." Morales worked with renowned cigar sommelier Fernando Fernandez on the launch. Davidoff announces major acquisitions in Nicaragua and Honduras Davidoff has announced that it has acquired over 150 hectares of land in Condega, Nicaragua, and in Jamastran, Honduras. The company also announced that it has acquired almost 450’000 square feet (41’000 m2) of land near its box factory to build a new cigar factory in Danlí, Honduras. This comes as a result of the 60% growth in production output and the growth of Camacho and other Honduran brands which has outgrown the capacity of the current factory New C.gars store in Norfolk The C.Gars expansion continues this month with the opening of the new Turmeaus Tobacconist Norfolk store on Tuesday 24th March. The opening evening will feature a guest of honour Brian Shapiro of Oliva Cigars. For full details see the link on our diary page. 3 Hamlet There is news from Cuba that a Cuban friend to many Hamlet, who many will have met when he travelled as a roller in the UK. He has left Cuba to join Rocky Patel in Florida and we look forward more news of that venture.