The art of handrolling cigars is one that’s easy to become blasé about. Once you’ve been around the cigar world for a while, you will get the privilege of seeing rollers quite regularly. While the travelling Havana expert roller itinerary, which used to see the best rollers from the city’s factories come over to regularly to showcase their talents in the UK, has been defunct for several years, if you’re lucky enough to hit the Cuban cigar shops, you’ll come across a roller soon enough.
Cuba grows while you watch it. Everywhere you look, thick, green, verdant undergrowth; perhaps a rich slash of vermillion as a riot of flowers reaches for the sky. Tobacco is no different.
There are times in everybody’s calendar that world-weariness takes hold. It’s often around now, in the back-end of what has seemed an interminably long and grey-cloaked Winter.
Sautter are not a bunch of Resolutionists, on the whole. We prefer to live our lives as best we can at all times rather than rely on a self-help reboot on January 1. However, as a line in the sand, it does provide a useful moment to pause for thought – and as usual, this also (however loosely) applies to our cigar hobby.
There things that naturally go as well with cigars as fish does with chips or Lennon does with McCartney. Think cigars and Scotch, cigars and Cognac, cigars and coffee, cigars and celebrations. There are also things that may need a bit more shoehorning together, but nonetheless work. Ever tried a Cuban cigar with good vanilla ice cream, for instance? Amazing.
If you’re a regular at Sautter, you’ll probably understand that thinner is not always a winner here.
Most of our regulars – and El Jeffe himself, of course – favour large cigars. In some cases, very large cigars. As an example, take a look at our sneak peek video of the monster Super Mario; a 60 Ring Gauge by 101mm titan (it’s rolled exclusively for us in Cuba) on the Sautter YouTube channel.
It’s not very British to blow your own trumpet. In fact, it’s frowned upon, although maybe not quite so much as it once was. Today, after all, is the age of boasting what you’re up to on Instagram; having selfies with ‘celebs’; humble bragging about your charity work; making sure the world knows what you had for breakfast on Facebook. It’s enough to make one shudder.
A little cigar knowledge goes a long way – and gives you a greater enjoyment of your smoke.
