Football and Cigars  – Watch the Seahawks vs 49ers at Whisky John’s

The NFL battle for the West is being fought on Thursday October 18 when the Seattle Seahawks visit Candlestick Park to take on the San Francisco 49ers.  Join us at Whisky John’s for a pint of domestic, a pound of award-winning wings and two cigars for just $20 including HST.  Kickoff is at 8:20 but we plan to  start arriving at 7:30 to ensure beer and wings are in-hand.  Just FYI – there is a live band that evening starting at 10 pm so you can enjoy music while watching the game.  Tickets are on sale now!

Summer of 69 Cigars

They’re back in Stock!  We’re extending this promotion indefinitely; the Summer of 69 just became Endless Summer … a bundle of 25 naked Nicaraguan robustos is $69 at Victory Cigars.

Pipe Night

Mark your calendars – Wednesday October 17 is pipe night at Victory Cigars.  Pipes and accessories will be on sale.  The evening runs from 6-9 pm; come and see what your friends are smoking these days.  If you are new to pipe smoking, our seasoned veterans will give you their tips for packing, lighting and smoking their pipes.  In fact, we will have a presentation by pipe legend Michael Parks on pipe use and care.

Cost to attend is $10 including HST – this gets you swag, including a beautiful pipe tool, a barbecued burger and beverage, and product samples.  Tickets are on sale now!

Cigar of the Week:  Gran Habano Corojo Rothschild #5

We should start out with a disclaimer:  we really like the Gran Habano line.  Not only are the cigars great, but so are the people who make them.  Today’s Gran Habano business is in transition as the founder, Guillermo Rico passes the business on to his son, George.  (If you purchase Smoke magazine then you will have seen George on the cover along with Pete Johnson and Jonathan Drew; they are the cigar world’s equivalent of the Rat Pack).

A third-generation tobacco producer and cigar maker, Guillermo Rico believes in patience. Building his business slowly and steadily through careful exposure of his cigars to the marketplace, his hallmark is attention to detail and a high reliance on strict quality control in traditional tabaquero fashion. “The greatest shortcoming I see with many cigars is a lack of consistency, in both the processing of the tobaccos and in construction,” he says. “Bunchers are not sufficiently trained, or they aren’t concerned with exact placement of the ligero in the center of the bunch, which causes off-center burns.” Perhaps even worse, notes Rico, is when bunchers fail to follow the master blender’s recipe, which calls for exact proportions of each leaf in the overall blend.

In 1998, Guillermo opened a factory in Danlí, Honduras where he developed his new line of premium cigars in bundles and sold them to America’s horde of new cigar devotees. He also landed private label cigar customers, and in the 10 years following, the factory’s work force has expanded to 250 – 300 workers and output grown to 15,000 cigars daily. Mr. Rico continued to purchase his own farms, one each in Panama, Nicaragua’s Jalapa Valley, Colombia, and Costa Rica, an emerging hotbed of tobacco, with major holdings by Nestor Plasencia and others. With four farms and a factory in place, he now had control of growing, leaf processing, manufacturing, and marketing – from seed to finished product.

In 2003, Guillermo introduced his Gran Habano family of long-filler, handmade cigars. The brand consists of Blend #1, a mild but rich cigar with a Connecticut shade wrapper; Blend #3, a medium-bodied cigar in Habano wrapper; and Blend #5, a peppery, full-bodied cigar in Corojo wrapper.   Every bunch is draw-tested before wrapping. Finished cigars are inspected carefully at multiple stages of the production process.

We’ve selected the Gran Habano Corojo #5 (the strongest blend in the Gran Habano line) as this week’s feature cigar.  The filler consists of Costa Rican and Nicaraguan long leaf tobaccos bound together by a Costa Rican binder.  The cigar is finished with a noticeably red, flawless Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper.  The combination produces a rich, bull bodied flavour that veteran cigar smokers will enjoy.   The feature size is the robusto, 5 x 52; the feature price is $9.64.

Cigar of the Month October 2012:  Partagas Serie D No. 4

It’s Cuban month at Victory Cigars, so celebrate by enjoying one of the best production robustos on Earth, the Series D No. 4.   www.cigars-review.org has 58 pages of reviews on this cigar, with an average user rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars!  At Victory Cigars, we smoke this cigar whenever we get the chance.  It is by far and away the best Partagas for the money; we feel it is Partagas’ signature cigar.  Flavour profile:  Medium.  Feature Price:  $20.99

About Victory Cigars

Conveniently located in Oshawa, Victory Cigars carries a wide range of Cuban cigars, as well as cigars from the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua. Pipe smokers rejoice in our selection of Brigham Pipes and loose or packaged pipe tobacco. Many different smoking accessories are in stock including humidors, pipe tools, flasks and cigar cases. We carry a good selection of Xikar cutters, lighters and cigar punches. Victory Cigars is also an authorized distributor for Lampe Berger fragrances and lamps, as well as Zippo lighters and accessories.  Lastly, we have a fine selection of Gentlemen’s walking sticks by America’s Harvy Canes.

So next time you need a Cohiba or Montecristo cigar, or a filter for your Brigham pipe, come and see us; you’ll be glad you did. Whether you come from Ajax, Pickering, Whitby or right here in Oshawa, we know you’ll feel at home in our cigar shop.  Please follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/victorycigars), Twitter (@VictoryCigars) or the worldwide web (www.VictoryCigars.ca).