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