Remember dear old dad

Dear Son / Daughter / Wife / Friend,

I am writing you on behalf of dear old dad. This has been a tough year for him, he has spent hours upon hours working, watching football, tinkering in the garage and slaving over his grill. This year he probably has replaced the oil in your car, or helped you out with school tuition. He deserves a little something for all his effort. He deserves a membership to the best cigar club around!!

Dad will be smoking cigars with his buddies in no time with Stokes Cigar Club's monthly club selection. Every month our 4 cigars are hand packaged and gift-wrapped, and laid on a bed of Spanish Moss. We also ensure freshness by including a humidifier that lasts up to 6 weeks.

Sign up Dad for a membership today. Memberships range from 1 month to 1 year and we guarantee you won't get a better price, better selection, or better service than what you will get at Stokes Cigar Club.

Order today by 8pm CST to get it there in time!

Tell Dad you love him with Stokes!

Best,
James and Jon
Stokes Cigar Club Founders
stokescigar.com


PS - We now carry hygrometers, humidors, ashtrays and cigar cutters too!

Urban Cigar Legend

"A man bought several boxes of cigars and had them insured against fire. When he had smoked them, he put in a claim against the insurance company that they had been destroyed by fire.

The company refused to pay, and the man sued. The judge ruled that the company had given the man a policy protecting against fire, and must pay.

As soon as the man accepted the money, the company had him arrested on a charge of arson."

Do you know where this originated? Snopes.com says that it originated from a book published in 1965. Interesting how an old story can get new legs on the internet

Toraño Takes Over Dunhill Cigar Distribution

Toraño Takes Over Dunhill Cigar Distribution

The Dunhill Signed Range has been hard to find in the U.S. market. Produced by Toraño Cigars in Nicaragua for tobacco giant British American Tobaccos, the cigars had been distributed in very limited form by a unit of Reynolds Tobacco, but that changed last week. The cigars are now being distributed in the United States by their maker, Toraño Cigars, which sells to 1,400 cigar shops.

Read the rest from Cigar Aficionado

Gispert cigar review

Gispert cigars. Stokes Rating: 91

Last night I smoked the Churchill and a friend smoked their Robusto. Both of us were very impressed. Construction was top notch. For a cigar that competes on price and has such a nice wrapper, it was good to see it hold together all the way through. Draw was consistent and burn was even.

These cigars are not going to knock you down when you smoke them and some smokers may eschew them due to the American fondness of a bold and strong cigar. If that is what you are looking for, then look elsewhere. Perhaps a CAO or Padron might be more up your alley, but if you are looking for a creamy, almost light smoke, in a great package then this is for you. To use the word light might be a misrepresentation. These cigars have plenty of body, and a certain woody/cedary taste to them. There was little to no bite or harshness and sat well on the palate.

I would recommend this for new cigar smokers or a nice summer smoke fit for a day at the lake.

self portrait

On vacation I took this as my self portrait... Kind of dorky and trying to be hip, but I thought I would share it with my loyal 3 readers anyways!

Courts Side with NYC Cigar Bar

From Cigar Aficionado

The Cigar Lounge at Merchants NY

A New York State Supreme Court Justice last week upheld the rights of a Manhattan cigar bar to stay smoky.

The Cigar Lounge at Merchants NY, a go-to smoke spot in the Big Apple since 1997, has been under fire from the New York City Health Department over its status as a "tobacco bar." The eastside lounge, located on 62nd Street at First Avenue, had been fighting the health department in the courts over the past few years. The department claimed that the establishment was not in accordance with the city's Smoke Free Air Act, which went into effect in March 2003. To legally be labeled as a "tobacco bar," a bar must have been in business since December 2001 -- without expansion or change of location -- and annually generate at least 10 percent of total gross revenue from the on-site sale of tobacco products.

"We opened as a cigar bar in 1997, and that's the way it was designed," said Richard Cohn, who owns the bar with Abraham Merchant. "We've never closed and never stopped – we are enforcing our rights…."

Merchants NY contended that it was in accordance with the law because it met all the specifications for exemption and that the health department was endeavoring to find ways in which to deny it its right to allow customers to puff indoors. The health department pointed to a change of ownership in 2003 and improperly reported revenues as grounds to refuse exemption.

The establishment counts its basement-level cigar lounge as a separate and self-sufficient business from the upstairs restaurant: having separate ventilation, bathrooms, hours and financial records. Both Merchants NY and the health department were in agreement that the 10 percent requirement for the lounge was met, but the department argued that the lounge and the restaurant had to be considered one entity and therefore did not meet the criteria.

Justice Alice Schlesinger's conclusion favored Merchants, ruling that it met the conditions for exemption and that the claims made by the health department were both "arbitrary and capricious in form and substance."

cigars heal the world's ills?