Cigar Clubs in India 


There are many a Cigar Aficionado in India who are looking for a Club of substance, where Cigar smokers meet and greet and do a little bit of business in the bargain. There are more than three Clubs in  India and the Bangalore Cigar Club is the one with the largest number of members. Membership to this club is very exclusive and the Club has partnered with www.cigarsindia.in which is India's leading portal to supply the Cigars to them, and hence they have all the Cigar that money can buy, including some fabulous Non Cubans as well. 

Members meet almost every other day, the Club has rented a posh villa in the Bangalore Whitefield Area and the villa is open at all times and all features and a fabulous stand alone Humidor along with all types of Cigar Accessories. 


Members can sit around tables or lounge on the open area meant for Barbeques and pleasant walks. Also, there is an in house chef who prepares some fabulous meals, I personally recommend the Chicken Steak on Barbeque Sauce. 


The Cigar Club has around 400 members and is soon going to start affiliations with other international clubs, and is also planning to conduct cigars events every other week. All these reasons and more make the Bangalore Cigar Club a unique club that has introduced some fabulous members and Cigars, but please note that membership is by invitation only and wanna be members must go through an interview to qualify where the questions are based around Cigars and culture fit, but the reward is worth the effort. 


Regards, 


Varun Pende
Cigar Club Member 

Buying Cuban Cigars in India 

I recently had this urge to smoke a stoogie and when I returned from my visit to the Big Apple and I had been smoking quite a few cigars there, so when I returned to India, I was really eager to smoke a Cuban Cigar, I asked a couple of friends of mine about where I can find some good places to shop for Cigars and to my surprise, I found that there aren't many places from where you can buy Cigars in India, and especially in Bangalore, but Sandeep asked me to visit www.cigarsindia.in, as he was buying his Cigars regularly from them.

Im not a big fan of online shopping as I like to touch and feel my product, but Sandeep re-assured me that the site was great and I had to check it out, he went on and on about their great customer service too. I visited the website was a greeted with an array of world class cigars that were neatly arranged by categories and I decided to call up and place an order over the phone, I wanted to order for a Box of Cohiba Maduro and wanted them to be delivered to my residence, as I called the customer care number and I was greeted by a gentle yet stern voice. The customer care person took down my order and even decided to allow me to pay by Cash on Delivery and I thought to myself, this is wonderful.

After a couple of days I received my order and the package was absolutely beautiful and the Cigars were as fresh as daisy, I immediately called the customer care person and thanked them from their prompt delivery and asked them to add me on the newsletter list, so I can be updated on all their new offerings. 

I continue to be a regular customer of Cigarsindia.in and I endorse their great service for Cigar Aficionados across our country. 

To comment on any places you would know of to shop for great Cigars in India, you comments on my post too will be much appreciated. 

Cheers.

Amit Malhotra

Cigar Club Bangalore Member 

Black Tiger Cigar Review 

Varun, who is our oldest Cigar Club member decided to order a Box of Black Tiger Trichinopoly Cigars, these Cigars are India's oldest and finest Cigars that were smoked by many British generals during the pre-independence era. So we called Cigarsindia.in, who are our suppliers for all our cigar cravings and placed an order for a Box of 24 Black Tiger Cigars. 

The Cigars took about of 4 days to be delivered but they did arrive in a fabulous yellow box with the Black Tiger logo and it was also neatly wrapped in a thin sheet of film. We opened it up and there were beautiful Churchill size Cigars and I couldn't wait any longer to light it up. 

We bought out our Butane lighters and lit the cigars, the draw was a little hesitant but the on the whole I wouldn't complain too much.

Getting into the first third, I realized that the burn was starting to get a little hesitant and the draw was getting weak too, on the taste perspective, I was getting quite a bit of pepper and a rich of  medium to full body strong tobacco. At this point, this is a very average cigar when compared to the Cubans, the draw was getting even more poor, and the tobacco was also too chunky and hence had completely lost its smoothness. 

In my opinion if you are used to smoking Cubans, I recommend that you be prepared for a massive downgrade to your pallete, as this Cigar is very average, although it does have a lot of heritage and is also India's only handmade cigar, I really wouldn't recommend this to anyone, but I must say that it could serve as a decent gift. Here is my list of positives and negatives of the Black Tiger Cigar. 

Positives: 

• Heritage 
• India's Only Hand Made Cigar 
• Pricing 
• Presentation
• The first 10 draws 

Negatives: 

• Bad Draw 
• Average Tobacco 
• Poor Burn 
• Average Rolling 
• Uneven Binder and Filler  
• In-consistent Smoke Output 

This are our opinions of the Black Tiger Cigars,  if need to order these for tasting you can buy them at the link provided below. 

Cheers,

Rajiv Malhotra 

Cigar Club Bangalore Member 

Mumbai and Its New Found Love for Cigars 

Mumbai has always been a city that has welcomed and enthralled one and all, its complexity and intrigue is worth commenting on and the city will definitely make an impact on anyone who visits it.

I was on a Business Trip to Mumbai when I stumbled upon some fabulous Cuban Cigars, this was during a lunch meeting with my business associates, on of them pulled out a Cohiba Siglo VI, which is one of my favourite cigars. I got to talking to him and I wanted to probe about the Cigar Culture in Mumbai, and he said that Cigars have always been a part of Mumbai’s elite and in the recent years its only gotten better, with more neo rich Mumbaikars taking on Cigars of all types, and yes, the Cuban Cigars seem to be the most popular, although some Nicaraguan Cigars such as the Rocky Patel range have made their appearance, the Cohibas and Montecristos continue to be the best sellers.

He also went onto to say that Cigars are mostly smoked at Barbeque Parties or at lavish Big fat weddings, but there are some who smoke a Cigar everyday, he said that he knew this Retired Army General who smokes three Cubans every single day. He also confirmed that Cigars had made their mark in India but their availability is quite scarce. He said that he buys his Cigars from www.cigarsindia.in and he even went on to campaign for the great quality and prompt delivery of this portal, and even I agree with him on this one, as I buy buy my cigars from the same portal too. He also went to add that in true Mumbai style, one of his friends had organized a Cigar and Vada Pav party wherein, the best cigars that money can buy along with some fabulous vada pavs cooked by the best chefs was on offer.

I guess we can gladly say that Mumbaikars love their Vada Pavs and now some and a growing number of them also like Cigars.
Hope you liked my short insight into the Cigar Culture in Mumbai.

Cheers

Kamal Seth

Buying Cigars Online in India (A Buyers Guide)

Just got back to my hometown of Bangalore after 15 long years in America and I have to say that it feels great to be back. The sound and smells of India continue to enchant me and I feel very much at home, except for the fact that I am craving my cigars, and the ones that I bought back with me are over and I needed to make arrangements to acquire some soon. 

I called Gurpreet who is a Cigar Aficionado in every sense of the word, on how I can buy some Cigars in Bangalore, and he immediately asked me to go online to www.cigarsindia.in and browse through their wonderful collection that they have. I hesitantly went online and found the site to be rather nice, they had all the Cigars that I could possibly think of, along with accessories and everything to do with Cigars. I thought I would try them out and ordered for Single Stick of Montecristo Edmundo, I immediately got a call from a friendly guy who had called to confirm the order and I gladly did so, I wanted to try their service so I didn't talk much and wanted to see if the next day delivery that they had promised would be kept, so I hung up thanking him for the call and went to sleep.

The next day at exactly at 2 pm I was in my office and busy on a conference call when my office boy came knocking on my door telling me that I had received a courier promptly placed the package in front of me. I opened the box and found and a wonderful yellow tube of the Montecristo that I had ordered for, the stick was nice and oily and surprisingly fresh, and I was awestruck with their service. I actually lit the Cigar right then and enjoyed the Cigar till the Nub. I was left thinking that this is great and I can now order a cigar anytime, just then, I received a call from Cigarsindia.in and the same guy I spoke with yesterday was calling to confirm if I had recieved the Cigars and I told him that I had even finsihed smoking it, I chuckled and went on to thank him for their great serive and ordered for a Box of the same, he gladly confirmed the order and the next day the Box was in from of me.

I wrote this article to emphasize the great service that www.cigarsindia.in has provided me and I wanted their service to reach out to more guys like me who may want to buy cigars in India. I hope my short article gave you a gist of the service that this company provides and I endorse the same with the fullest satisfaction.

Regards,

Arjun Chabria
Cigars Aficionado

Top 5 Tips While Buying Cigars Online in India

I have been buying Cuban Cigars for many than 20 years now, from India and abroad and from my buying experiences, I have come up with 10 concrete tips to look for before buying Cigars especially in India.

1) Look for the Band: The band on a Cigar signifies a lot about the Cigar, in terms of authenticity and quality. The band must be rich in colour and must not be cut at the edges. The Hologram on the band must signify the company that it represents. See the image below on how to spot the difference. 

2) Speak with the Retailer: Always make an effort to speak with the Cigar retailer about the Cigar, the retailer must have ample knowledge about the domain of Cigars in general and the product that you are buying in particular. Engage them in a nice conversation and ask probing questions pertaining to taste, blend, construction and the like. I personally buy my cigars from www.cigarsindia.in as they have a very friendly customer support executive and also have the largest collection of original cigars in India.

3) Check Youtube: Most Cigar companies in the world do reviews of Cigars just educate their customers about the new blends and flavour profiles of cigars, so make sure that you search keywords like "cigars india" cigar review india" and see if the retailer is serious about cigars and if they are doing reviews on Cigars.
You can visit Cigars India's Youtube page here

4) Contact a Cigar Smoking Room: Contacting a cigar smoking room ensures that you get feedback from cigar experts who can also guide you to buying the best cigars. When I came back to India, I contacted the Bangalore Cigar Smoking Room, and they were very helpful in recommending the best places to buy high quality cigars in India. You can contact the Cigar Club of Bangalore by email: seeksoft@gmail.com or contact Mr Rajath at 09731856924

5) Buy One Stick: You can just buy one stick for the lowest possible price and test the service of the retailer and thereby move to bigger purchases. This will assist you in gaining your confidence and also find a regular retailer who you can rely on for buying high quality cigars.

I personally recommend www.cigarsindia.in as preferred choice for buying Cigars in India.

Cheers,

Captain Aniketh Singh

Extra Powerful Nestor Miranda Grand Reserve Coming this Year

The second incarnation of the Nestor Miranda Grand Reserve will debut in August at the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers show, and distributor Miami Cigar & Co. tells Cigar Aficionado that it will be the most powerful cigar it has ever created.


Like last year’s Grand Reserve, the 6 1/8 inch by 52-ring cigar is made up of a Nicaraguan bunch and a Connecticut broadleaf maduro wrapper. The 2011 version had the same dimensions and price, but was a medium-bodied smoke. It scored 91 points in the February Cigar Aficionado.


The 2012 Grand Reserve, however, will be bolder because of a significant addition to the blend. Assistant director of marketing Barry Stein said the major difference was Nicaraguan ligero. “We wanted to follow up on the success of 2011 with something new to our portfolio," said Stein. "The cigar is the strongest cigar to date that we have released. There is a lot of power and kick to the cigar, but a tremendous amount of flavor."


The entire limited edition run will debut later this summer, and should reach cigar shops retailers in August. The entire production will be just 1,500 boxes of 10 cigars, and they’ll run $12 per stick, or $120 for a box.


Stein also said that Miami Cigar will be debuting a new line later this year using a Cuban name, though he would not share more details. Look for more in an upcoming issue of Cigar Insider.


This Cigar will be made available by www.cigarsindia.in 

Top 10 Cigars in India

The Bangalore Cigar Club has been in existence for almost 5 Years now, and in these Five years we have noticed a rising trend among various cigars that have caught our eye and prompted us try them and embrace them.

Our club like to experiment with new blends but we do have our favourites and here is a list of our Top 10 Cigars for the Year 2011

1) Cohiba Behike 54
2) Montecristo Grand Edmundo
3) Rocky Patel 15th Anniversary
4) Thunder Robusto by Rocky & Nimish Patel
5) Partagás 8-9-8 Cabinet Varnished
6) Hoyo De MONTERREY EPICURE NO. 2
7) H. Upmann Sir Winston
8) Cohiba Sublime
9) Oliva Cain Maduro Torpedo
10) Padilla Dominus Toro

Email: seeksoft@gmail.com

We would to like to thanks www.cigarsindia.in for supplying us with samplers and some wondefully fresh cigars.

Cigars and a Birthday Party

So it was Harsh Soni’s Bithday and having known Harsh for almost 20 Years now, I can confirm that he is a self proclaimed Cigar Aficionado, and on this day, his wife wanted to surprise him with a buffet of some of the best Cuban Cigars that money can buy, she also wanted to make it memorable and hence didn't offer a budget which meant that I could go all out and shop for the best of the best. So I called our regular supplier of Cigars, (www.cigarsindia.in) and asked them to deliver the following Cigars.

1) Cohiba Behile 54 - (10 Sticks)  
2) Arturo Fuente (God of Fire)  - (10 Sticks)
3) Partagas Serie D 4 - (5 Sticks)  
4) Montechristo Grand Edmundo  - 5 Sticks  
5) Romeo and Julieta (Short Churchill)  - 10 Sticks  
6) Hoyo De Monterrey (Epicure No 2) - 10 Sticks

With the list so fabulous, it had to be a great night and I called everyone else from the club and informed them to be at the venue by 9. I also ordered some fabulous cutters which we were running short of, and with this I had finished all my cigar purchases and was off to rest for a while beacuse I knew that it was a going to be a long night.

I left home at 8-30 and made some final calls just to confirm if everyone had left their respective homes. At the venue I found Meera (Harsh’s Wife) at the door, and she was busy with the servants, instructing them on arranging and cleaning the place in view of the party. I had all the cigars with me and I had walked into the fancy humidor that Harsh had placed in his room, and placed all the cigars in the humidor. Once Suraj, Vikas, and Andrew had made their appearance, they were eager to light up the cigars, but I insisted on surprising Harsh first, with the Cake and the Cigars and then doing the lighting bit, which they reluctantly agreed to.

Once Harsh arrived looking quite tired, everyone shouted “Happy Bday” as he entered the door, and the shock and awe on his face clearly confirmed that he was pleasantly surprised, to much of Meera’s angst, Harsh reached out to the Cigar Humidor rather than the fabulous and expensive cake that Meera had ordered for him. She had to drag him back to the table where the Cigars where placed and he cut the cake and did the usual mouth feeding to his wife  and the rest and quickly came back to the humidor, eager to light up the Cubans. All of us moved to the terrace so we could enjoy our fabulous smokes, and we all lit our Cigars, I chose the Behike 54, which is one the best Cigars that I have ever smoked and Harsh chose what he reckons is the best Cigar in the world, the Arturo Fuente (God of Fire).

Harsh repeatedly thanked everyone for their presence and also for making it a Cigar night and was of the opinion that we should have such cigar get togethers at his terrace, which I thought was a great idea keeping in the mind the fantastic view and his wife's delicious cooking.

We all enjoyed the Cigars till late in the night and hopefully made Harsh’s Bday and memorable one, thanks to some fabulous Cigars.

Cheers

Kuldeep
Bangalore Cigar Club Member
seeksoft@gmail.com

Cuban Cigars Night in Bangalore

So the Bangalore Cigar Club planned to conduct a fabulous night that would be dedicated to just Cuban Cigars, and a fabulous night it was. Firstly our Club President “Jayanth” was in charge of buying the Cigars which he did from our Cigar supplier (www.cigarsindia.in) he kept his choices for the night a secret, just so he could surprise us at the party.

So once everyone had arrived, it was time to light up the Cubans and Jayanth pulled out a nice big box of assorted Cigars and opened it up, and the Cigars looked just fabulous. I grabbed for the Montechristo Grand Edmundo as it was a Limited Edition Cigar, Sameer reached out to the Paratagas Serie D 4, which is a full body beauty, Anuragh chose the Cohiba 1966, which apparently a few Cigar Aficianados in Europe after just a couple of puffs declared it as one of the best cigars that they have ever smoked, and others chose some Cohiba Robustos, Romeo No 1 and Montechristo No 1. 

So the Bangalore Cigar Club planned to conduct a fabulous night that would be dedicated to just Cuban Cigars, and a fabulous night it was. Firstly our Club President “Jayanth” was in charge of buying the Cigars which he did from our Cigar supplier (www.cigarsindia.in) he kept his choices for the night a secret, just so he could surprise us at the party.

So once everyone had arrived, it was time to light up the Cubans and Jayanth pulled out a nice big box of assorted Cigars and opened it up, and the Cigars looked just fabulous. I grabbed for the Montechristo Grand Edmundo as it was a Limited Edition Cigar, Sameer reached out to the Paratagas Serie D 4, which is a full body beauty, Anuragh chose the Cohiba 1966, which apparently a few Cigar Aficianados in Europe after just a couple of puffs declared it as one of the best cigars that they have ever smoked, and others chose some Cohiba Robustos, Romeo No 1 and Montechristo No 1. 

We had bought some good whisky the previous night and we were savouring a bottle of Glenfiddich and some Indian whisky as well. Once the Cigars were lit using our brand new Siglo Edition butane lighters, the aroma of all these fabulous Cigars filled the room, Jayanth’s wife had made some sumptuous Pasta and Lasagna which we would have for dinner, and she joined us for a smoke too, and reached out to a beautiful oily stick of a Montechristo No 4.

All in all, a great night, great cigars, great friends, whisky and food, what more could you ask for.

Cheers,

Abhijeeet  

For exlcusive membership to the Bangalore Cigar Club, please email us at seeksoft@gmail.com

Trichinopoly Cigars Now Available on Cigarsindia.in 


Trichinopoly Cigars have been known for their unique blend of Indian Tobacco for more than a century now, even Cigar Connoisseurs from various parts of the world have taken a liking for these unique creations, and now for the first time in India, they are being made available to Cigar lovers across the world through www.cigarsindia.in 


Ever since Sir Winston Churchill took a liking for Trichinopoly Cigars many Cigar lovers have been inquiring about these creations and factories in Trichy are ramping up production capacities to cater to the demand, and now, about three prominent factories have signed with Cigarsindia.in to supply their best creations, so that customers from across the world can gain access to these heritage filled cigars. 


The variants that will be available would include some beautiful Churchill sizes, including some Box pressed ones and a couple of Cigarillo variants. 

For more information on Trichinopoly Cigars, please contact, Mr R. Abilash at 080-41217723 or visit www.cigarsindia.in 

Cigars and Whisky Night in Bangalore

Our Cigar Club got together this week for a fabulous afternoon with some of the best Cigars that money can buy and that goes for the whisky as well. We lit some fabulous Opus X Arturo Fuente which in my opinion is the best Cigar in the world, but available in India in very few places, I bought mine from (www.cigarsindia.in) and the flavours from this absolutely amazing cigar kept our taste buds kicking for a good hour and a half. We also had some fabulous cuisine that we ordered from Fiorano, which is a popular Italian restaurant, and I firmly believe that Italian food and Cigars are a great combination, especially when you add a little extra pepper to both. From the Opus X, we moved to some wonderful Cohiba Robustos which are always are a Club favourite, and we used our fancy Rocky Patel Triple Jet lighters to fire up these beauties, even the ladies were very impressed with the lighters, as they come with a “Life Time Guarantee”, and the lighter looks absolutely stunning. As the sun started to come down, we ended this amazing day with some Rocky Patel Vinatage 1990, and to be honest, this is one my top 3 favourite Cigars of all time. Next week is Cigars and Cards..catch you then. Akash Cigar Club Bangalore seeksof@gmail.com

Cuban Cigar Market in India

The Cigar market in India is being pegged at around 300 million Dollars according a recent study done by a prominent business magazine, and this combined with the rapid growth of the Food and Beverage industry, we can expect that figure to jump by three folds in the coming years. Although the debate that whether Indians are ready for the Cubans still need to be ascertained, the machine made cigars are the ones that are being sold in the largest quantities.

In the ten years that I have spent in the prominent cities on India, I have smoked Cigars with many a Cigar Connoisseur, and off late I am seeing a rising trend in young smokers taking on Cuban Cigars. I also spoke with some of people from www.cigarsindia.in , I buy from them because they are the only store in India that have all the Cigar brands from South America on one comprehensive platform, and they were of the opinion that the Cubans still remain the preferred brand of Cigars, although we introduced some fabulous Cigars from the Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

Also, on my recent visit to Delhi, which we can conveniently call as the Capital of Cigars in India, I saw people at prominent social gatherings take on the Cubans only, I dint see anyone who smoked a Non-Cuban. In my opinion, I like the Rocky Patel Cigars the most, it is my personal favourite and I have been smoking Cigars for almost 25 years now and light up almost every day. So, the monopoly enjoyed by Cuban Cigars seem to really fascinate me and I wonder whether a lot of smokers are smoking Cubans mainly because of the phrase “Cuban Cigars” or is that they are illiterate in the rich tobacco of the Non- Cuban variants.  Well, I guess we will have to have wait for another 10 years to find out, as we see more brands like Ashton, Rocky Patel and Oliva make their entry into the Indian market, it will be really interesting to see how the market shapes up for the Cuban Cigars who are increasingly coming under some intense competition from the Non-Cubans.

For now…lets just light up! 

Cheers

Bharath

Cigar Aficionado 

Zino Davidoff Platinum Scepter (chubby) Review


Firstly, I was really surprised to find this Davidoff Cigar in India, and happened to stumble upon it when I was surfing online. 


What it is made of:

Zino Davidoff Platinum Scepter (chubby) is blended with 3 Dominican filler tobaccos, a rare Peruvian filler leaf, a 4-year-aged Connecticut binder and a 1-year-aged Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper. Pre-light the Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper on the cigar smelled of sweet cedar. I would say it is the best smelling smoke pre light that I have experienced (well other than pineapple white owls). 

Lets fire it up:

Once I torched this bad boy. I immediately smelled the sweet cedar aroma. I loved just sitting there smelling this cigar. Once I started puffing on the cigar, the flavor was very woody/cedary and crisp with just a slight hint of cream or vanilla. I would say the most noticeable feature was the cedar with a sweet after taste. This cigar was unique because of the flavor, and the flavor was fantastic IMHO. Now on to the second half of the smoke. This smoke went to pretty much an all cedar and woody flavor with less crème but still a slight sweetness. Again the taste was crisp and light and very good. This is definitely a lighter bodied smoke. I detected little to no spice throughout the smoke

Construction:

The construction was flawless, in a beautiful figurado type shape (correct me if I am wrong) but they called this shape the Chubby. It was pretty cool looking none the less. It burned razor straight the entirety of the smoke. The draw at first was a bit tight due to the shape but loosened up perfectly for a full draw of a light bodied smoke. Also, the smoke remained cool the entire time. Speaking of time, this cigar took about 40 mins to smoke. 

Overall I would recommend this smoke if for nothing else a change of pace, or special occasion cigar. At 15 bucks or more I usually like to say that you can get a better smoke for less which you probably can. However, I have never had the shape, or unique flavor for cheaper, and would definitely like a box of these in my collection. I really have nothing bad to say about this smoke, it is worth every penny so do your self a favor and grab one of these bad boys and fire it up. A+  

Also, this Davidoff Cigar is only available from www.cigarsindia.in they will ship to you within 5 working days.