Some technical problems caused a little delay. Sometimes internet connections are a bit hard to find.

When we arrived in Havana Sunday morning we were pretty much exhausted – just normal after a 30hrs trip. Makes me a bit jealous to see some folk here traveling some 3hrs to get here.

On our way from Varadero airport to Havana we were lost in terrible fog until we found out how to open the windows from our car. Ye gotta start right away – and subsequently we stopped at the first opportunity to have a good Cuban beer with our cigars.

Sunday the first guys popped around and we ran into loads of colleagues from all over the world that just arrived in town. In the last decades the greeting formula included the first question Como esta la familia ( how is the family doing ). This year that questions has been changed to “How is the business going”. Shows me that this years Habanos Festival will be pretty much dominated by that single question – where is that business going to and how will each retailer be affected.

Last night the so called Welcome Cocktail of the 11th Habanos Festival took place at the elegant and fanastic Club Havana again. In fact this location is ideal for a get-together of that size as over 1000 guest flooded into the beach club in Havanas upscale suburb Siboney. I have seen many friends from the business including some importers – and each one was discussing the above mentioned question.

Christopher and Flying Cigar Nino Munoz

After some hours and some Havana Club Rum people got a bit more relaxed. Personally, I think it is great to meet all these characters under the Cuban sky…even a mucky little cigar merchant needs some moments to relax once in while…

In a hidden corner of Club Havana I was charging my laptop and cellphone when running into some famous people having Moet et Chandon Champagne, selected wines and tapas. It looked all a bit too official for me and so I asked the waitress who these obviously important people are and she explained me that the host a US actor whom I should know…I did not. His name did not mean anything to me – what a shame they did not host actors like Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson or Charlie Sheen, - people I would know. Someone gave me a glass of Champagne which I enjoyed very much – but then I grabbed my communication device and searched for some funnier people to be with.

People like Emirates flight captain Keith, Amir Saroony and their company vouch for such fun and so we had some more drinks on the beach and some hell of a laugh talking about bullshit only.

The serious part of the night took place at Havanas Hotel Nacional when I managed to smoke three of the new Montecristo OPEN, a new cigar line launched that night. To be honest I did not fully understand the marketing strategy behind the new products and not even Simon Chase, marketing head of UK Importer Hunters and Frankau could. Regardless of that I smoked them – and I smoked three because I thought the first two ones could not have been IT. But, after the third one, a cigar looking like an Edmundo, tasted just as bad as the previous two ones I was done with them. They look like cigars given away during a Golf tournament. The Monte band is the normal one and then the cigar has a second ring – in green stating the word OPEN and the name of the cigar. I think they are not a revolution to the world of cigars, look like nothing special, and even worse, they taste like nothing special. Some work on the blend is needed and some refinement of the strategy behind the line. Lets see.

Now I will be running to the International Casa del Habano Convention starting this morning. The main issue, believe it or not, is the whereabouts of todays Havana cigar business and the future expectations of the Habanos franchise chain. Nobody wants to know how my family is doing …….

For those interested in some decent smokes LCDH Hamburg offers Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No.2 at refreshing 175 Euro only. This Habanos Festival offer is valid until Wednesday noon Havana time, to our customers from overseas and as long as stocks last. When you want to grab a box of these pls leave order code BLOGOFFER as comment.

When our convention is done and I know more about the future of the worlds cigar retail business I shall be back this afternoon

Happy smoking from Havana
Christopher Wolters
LCDH Hamburg
www.thecigarsmoker.com