Cigars

[Squink]

I'm looking to buy some cigars for me upcoming wedding in August and the men's favours are going to contain cigars. I'd like large-sized cigars, ideally a recognizable brand that come in individual tubes so that they last a few months, rather than me buying them a safe time in advance and them all being dry on the day.

Budget is ideally a fiver per cigar, maybe going up to £8 each. I've done some searching online and have found a Spanish website that seems to be much cheaper than buying from the UK (thus making my budget more realistic), but it's hard to tell if they use the word 'tube' to mean the cigar itself, rather than it being in a tube. Any cigar afficionados able to provide some recommendations? I'm looking based on price and showy appearance I'm afraid, rather than the flavour.

Cheers

 

[Squink]

Either way just find an old school tobacconist & get a hand rolled Cuban that you like the smell of.

I live in Sunderland, but I think there might be a tobacconist in Newcastle, which is easy enough to get to. It was the budget I was concerned about - is £5-8 realistic in a UK shop?

 

[Squink]

Should only need 30 cigars, but £15 a pop is a lot of money out of our budget. I kind of suspected that it would end up at this price, hence the Spanish website (e-tobaccos.com) being a way of bringing the price down.

 

[Squink]

If you're looking for a softer "starter" cigar I would go for something like Monte Cristo, or if you're looking for something with a stronger, richer flavour then I've always been partial to a Cohiba.

I think what I'm looking for is something that smokers and non-smokers will be happy to receive. As I told my fiancee, every bloke, whether or not a smoker, would like to have a nice-looking cigar-inna-tube lying on the sideboard (assuming it's not smoked at the wedding) for the time they get drunk enough to fancy a cigar. No-one is likely to be among the cognoscenti who recognize the subtleties - it's all about image on this occasion.

I realise it's champagne tastes with 'pint of john smith's' money, but i reckon there's got to be something out there.

EDIT - to go back to my first post, does anyone know if these are in individual tubes, or if the 'tubes' bit means the cigar itself?

 

[Squink]

Sorry for bumping me own thread after so long, but I managed to find a shop in Newcastle that flogs only cigars - got 30 tubed cigars (look to be 6-7" long) from Nicaragua for 235 notes. They look the part - the bloke in the shop seemed to know his stuff, saying that most cigars would be wasted on the people who were going to smoke them and that there's a reasonable amount of snobbishness in the name (i.e. people come in, he explains what's best for the situation/recipient, but they inevitably leave with a Romeo y Julietta because that's what they've heard of). So what I've got is effectively a batch of mild-ish beginner's cigars.

They are tubed and contrary to what a few people have said both here and other places I've looked, he's confident they'll keep for 12-18 months from new (he did acknowledge that if you buy from a place with low turnover a cigar might have already been sat there for 12 months before sale) and I was happy to take him at his word. They're all bagged up and kept in a cupboard above the kettle.

Hopefully they'll be well received come the day!

 

[Squink]

I presume when you say "from Nicaragua", you mean Joya De Nicaragua? That's the only brand I've heard of and to be honest I know very, very little about cigars from there. I'm yet to smoke any Joya De Nicaragua either. I hope they're good for your wedding!

I can't recall what they are to be honest It just says "Charatan" on the box and they are sealed in some sort of plastic bag (just looks like a big freezer bag, but I don't want to open it!)

To the poster above saying that the 'above the kettle' location is a bad one, the bloke in the shop reckoned it's the best place for them as they are in a moderately moist environment, but not sopping wet. Truth be told, I don't have room directly above my kettle, they're actually in a cupboard about 3 feet over.