The cigar shop in Copenhagen Airport has undergone a refit and now the whole store is a massive humidor. There is a wide range of cigars in both singles and boxes and the staff are helpful and knowledgeable. The prices are comparable with cigar shops in the UK.

There is a rumour of a French made cigar being available in the UK, news will be provided as details become available.

Happy Birthday Fidel Castro, 81 for 13th August.

Winston Churchill is so famous for smoking large cigars that the size was named after him. A typical Churchill is 7" x 50 and could take you a couple of hours to smoke. Even 40 years after his death the moniker has stuck and in February 2004 Jenny Repard, Sir Winston Churchill’s Great granddaughter was presented with a special "Churchill" humidor to herald the opening of the new El Floridita restaurant and 1st Casa del Habano cigar store in London's Wardour Street.

If you want to know more about this icon and his cigar then you can read a new book, Churchill's Cigar by Stephen McGinty a leading author on historical figures.

Or perhaps you could visit the Churchill and Roosevelt statue on New Bond Street, nearest cigar shops are Davidoff, J J Fox, Dunhill or Sauters of Mayfair.

An interesting thing happened when I visted the Davidoff Website it refused to show me any information.

"We are sorry but due to UK legislation we are not allowed anymore to show you our Website www.davidoff.com. Thank you for your understanding."

By using an anonymous proxy I could get to the real site and it prompted for my language (English or German) and wanted to know my age. I was scuppered here because my free proxy service did not support clicking on a form. I'm sure I can work out how to bypass all of this checking and get to to see the site but what particular legislation are they referring to? Will this affect other websites, such as this one?

Floridita has introduced a range of drinks to complement it's Nicotini. Richard Woods the bar manager has added the Smokey Old Fashioned and the Smoked Agave Sazerac. 100 Wardour Street, W1.

There are two new Limited Edition Maduro cigars available in the shops and Aficionado of cigars has had the joy of sampling both of them. The Hoyo De Monterey Regalos is a Corona Gorda at 5"3/4 x 46 and the Romeo y Julieta Escudos is slightly shorter and slightly thicker at 5"1/2 x 50. The Escudos has been a reliable smoke and is ideal for any fans of the Short Churchill, the Regalos that was sampled had a uneven burn and these could benefit from sometime in a humidor to even out the moisture content.

A few Aficionado of Cigars readers have asked where they can find cigar rollers in the UK and I hope to provide a detailed article on that later in the year. However for people in the USA living near Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Connecticut, Philidelphia, and New Jersey then you can talk to Cigar Experience.

From Mike Jones at Cigar Experience

"It has been said that cigar rolling isn't really a skill, but rather an art. Having this art demonstrated by a professional cigar roller live at your event is a great way to entertain your guests, whether it's for a wedding, corporate party, or promotional event. The cigar roller will demonstrate the cigar rolling process from start to finish for your guests."

Mike and his team can also provide custom cigars in a variety of sizes and blends, you can even have logos printed and made into bands for your cigars.

Amazon has introduced a range of cigar boxes that you can't open. Whilst this might seem to be of much use for an aficionado, jugglers will be more interested. These boxes are significantly more expensive than those you can purchase from any good cigar store (usually for a charity donation) but they are also uniform in weight and have no rough edges so are better for juggling.

Cigar boxes have been juggled for over a hundred years with people such as Jim Harrigan and W.C.Fields performing tramp juggling acts.

Thursday 5th July saw the launch of three new Cohiba cigars at the Summer Cigar Party. Guests travelled from as far afield as Manchester and the Channel Islands to be some of the first people in the UK to try these cigars. Although there was a little rain the spirts of the aficionados were not dampened. A live band, a hog roast and mohitos from La Bodeguita del Medio ensured that even the non smokers had an excellent evening.

The three cigars, the Genios (52 x 140mm), Magicos (52 x 115mm) and Secretos(40 mm x 110mm) were debuted at the Habanos festival earlier in the year. These cigars are made from leaves that have been triple fermented and aged for 5 years to give a darker colour. This aging process also gives these cigars a very smooth and complex flavour and many people think they are surprisingly mild. The sizes have also been specially selected to match the latest passions for shorter fatter cigars.

The ban on smoking in public enclosed spaces was started in the UK on 1st July.

Just before the smoking ban takes place the lobby group Forest will be running their second Freedom dinner, this time at the Savoy. This will be their last oppertunity to have an indoor dinner party with smoking. The three course dinner will be accompanied by Boisdale Blue Rhythm Band playing Jazz music and followed with after dinner speakers Andrew Niel and Claire Fox. The Host for the evening is Chef Antony Worrall Thompson and his special guest will be artist David Hockney. To help remember the evening a CD of relavent music will be given to each guest, tracks include 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes', 'Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette' and a new song special written for the event by Alan Plater, 'I'm Going Outside'. At the end of the year the Savoy will be closing 18 months for a major renovation of their restaurants, corridors, foyer and nearly 200 rooms.

Liam Mullone has found himself a novel solution to the smoking ban. He's "pimped his ride" by adding smoking lounge to a hearse and intends to drive around inviting people in for a smoke. Hear about Liams thoughts on Smoking, Jellyfish, stupid signs and Ken Livingstone at his Health and Safety show at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden 16th June 2007 @ 9:30pm.

It seems that the Goverment and Department of Health have been giving with one hand and taking away with the other. The Times Online reported the other week of a list of places where you will still be able to smoke indoors in England after the ban on 1st July. This list places excempt from the smoking ban included Specialist tobacconists. However it is not so simple. The first three requirements (which are confusingly written in the negative) are reasonable and can be met. However the shops also have to provide signage. This is where the problen starts. Firstly there is no documentation on what kind of sign is needed. In addition the Department of Health is telling shops that they have to have the full "It is against the law to smoke in these premises" signage which contradicts the exclusion and would leave smamplers in a very tenuous situation. Aficionado of Cigars has asked Smoke Free England if they know of the required signage but so far they have declined to reply.

One solution to the smoking ban is to pop over to Bora Bora. The Sofitel Motu is on it's own private island with a lagoon and a "unique cigar cave".

As part of the closure of the Regents Palace Hotel, the Astor Bar and Grill, Ramsden's Fish and Chips and Callaghan's are now also closed. The whole site is under threat of demolition and English Heritige has visited the hotel to assess it's state.

On April 30th 2007 Northern Ireland's smoking ban came into effect, time will tell if it will have the same effect as changes south of the border who have had a ban for 3 years now. According to a report from Dublin, the respiratory health of people who work in bars and pubs has improved significantly since the smoking ban came in. Other studies showed that there have been dozens of pub closures in the South since the total smoking ban was introduced and a survey for the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA), representing 750 pubs in Dublin, said compliance was excellent in the capital but sales are down by 16 percent.

March 14th was National Non-Smoking day here in the UK but unfortunately Aficionado of Cigars missed it as he was shopping for Cigars at the time.

One French Man who has already cut out his cigar smoking is the Michelin Man. The Metro Newspaper reports that the new look Michelin Man will be appearing on your TV screens shortly with a healthier view on life and a little slimmer than here.

This week saw the Fair Ambiente in Frankfurt, Germany. Many home and gift items were available for sale including cigar humidors.
Reported by Jemar of Jemar Humidors, Spain

The start of February for the French marked an introduction of a new police team to check that people are not smoking in airports, railway stations, hospitals, schools, shops and offices. Even the office balcony is not allowed as one smoker explained how he was being forced into the street. Fines for the smoker and for the venue will be enforced by 175,000 officers. By the end of the year the ban will be extended to Cafes, Bars and Restaurants.

The latest Montichristo cigar is the Petit Edmundo. This cigar is identical to the larger Edmundo that was released back in 2004. The cigar is a 52 ring gauge is 110mm long and as for the Edmundo, it has a medium flavour.