Cigars in the best possible taste

Most cigars come with an builtin flavour all of their own; sometimes it’s great, sometimes not. But there have long been smokers who dip the head of their cigar into their favourite drink, and enjoy the resulting soggy combination. Such people tended to do this when the after-dinner drinks came out. Who else would spoil a great cigar, which surely needs nothing to adorn it apart from your lips, if they were sober? Certainly not the macho-smoker, who wouldn’t have been seen dead sucking on an alternatively flavoured cigar. Such aromatic abominations were either for the ladies, or someone who was so camp they didn’t care. Anyway, it all went tickety-boo for ages until the number of smoker-friendly venues started to seriously decline. We were faced with a growing army of passive smokers who complained about the smell of cigars in an enclosed space. “Cigar smoke is too strong,” they’d say, “too heavy” or “too pungent.” Sometimes even the cigarette smokers would utter the same banal remarks, much to their shame, for they should know better. Then along came a marketing person, somewhere in the world, who thought, “Surely nobody would object to a cherry-flavoured cigar, for its aroma would be far more acceptable. And if you can flavour a cigar with fruit, or booze, why not add chocolate.” Those of us who are of a cynical nature would suggest the same marketing person simply decided to inject some much-needed character into cigars produced from mediocre tobacco, and create a new market for people who didn’t care what they smoked as long the tobacco smoke ‘smelt nice’ and didn’t upset the neighbours. Which is to do some aromatic cigars a great injustice, especially Old Port, a popular mild, sweet cigar which has been around since 1925 and was the first aromatic cigar to be introduced into the United Kingdom, or Mehari’s, whose ‘original’ Mehari’s Java was launched in 1976. A mild cigar with a Java Besuki wrapper that gives it a slightly pungent character, Mehari’s Java is said to be particularly good with Chinese tea, vodka or cold espresso. Currently, aromatic cigars sales are estimated to be around four per cent of the total UK cigar market, while in America some manufacturers are claiming that as much as 80 per cent of the market has been captured by aromatic cigars. “The trend is for people to smoke less but smoke better and that’s allied to people smoking aromatic cigars,” said James Higgs, brand manager, Loretta Cigars, who confirmed that Cafe Crème Aromatic is the UK’s brand leader. “Youngsters are trading from cigarettes to aromatic cigars, which are usually a quick pleasant smoke.” Indeed, aromatic cigars are slowly opening up a new market in the United Kingdom, and adding some much-needed fun. That said, not every brand has reached our shores, for the additives that enhanced their taste have to be approved by the British Government and the European Union. Those that have are, I hate to admit it, really quite more-ish. Even more worrying, I have now taken to wearing a velvet smoking jacket and matching smoker’s cap and started listening to Judy Garland records.