"Why I Opened a Cigar Company in Asia
It's 5:45pm: another business meeting at my favorite local business hangout in Beijing. I order my regular, an Old Fashion, grab the cigar menu and there it is: Cuban Cigars. A typical smoker’s paradise, but my own Dante’s Inferno.
The usual suspects are all on the list. Cohiba, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Fonseca -- the list is endless, dropping ‘big names’ effortlessly and shallowly. I have an insatiable urge to have a cigar with my Old Fashion, even at the exorbitant price of $45USD a cigar. This is my conundrum: it’s not the price that drives me insane, it’s the fact that there’s a good chance that these cigars are either counterfeit or stale because of improper storage.
I place the menu down, use my common sense, and ignore my urge to smoke. However, after three drinks, my common sense has kissed me goodbye and walked out the door. I give in. I grab the menu and I order a cigar. Using whatever’s left of my instincts, I think to order a lesser-known brand, maybe a Fonseca or Cuaba, because maybe there’ll be a chance that they’re actually genuine.
I call over the waiter, point to the cigar, and he scampers off, bringing me a box of cigars, cutters, and a torch. I pour over the box, looking, touching, and smelling them with all of my 25 years of experience, and I pick the best out of the bin. I’m not convinced; I’ve smoked Cubans in Zurich and Canada, and I don’t remember them being quite like the ones in front of me.
So, I take a drink and proceed with my ritual of lighting. I gently remove the label, pour over it for one more time to check for any tell-tale signs of it being counterfeit, but at this point I can’t have any buyer’s remorse. I start gently warming my cigar, and then I start toasting it, blowing gently to get an even amber cherry glow. Once I see that fully rounded red amber cherry, I proceed to cut my cigar.
I place the cigar in my mouth, strongly puff it to have a proper burn, lay the cigar down grab my drink cleanse my palate. I take a gentle slow puff, I hold it and slowly expel the smoke and then it hits me like a ton of bricks. This tastes disgusting. It’s a fetid slurry of hamster urin and aromas of dumpster, but, maybe I’m wrong. I puff again, but to no avail. It’s just another bad cigar in Asia.
I sit there in my sorrow, order another Old Fashion and refuse to smoke the cigar I ordered. I reminisce all those cigars I smoked back home in Miami, and I ask myself why I can’t find them in China.
There begins my quest to educate and bring quality non-Cuban cigars to Asia."
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT This press release contains certain "forward-looking" statements, as defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Statements, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements. The Company, through its management, makes forward-looking public statements concerning its expected future operations, performance and other developments. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates reflecting the Company's best judgment based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the Company. They include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to develop operations, the Company's ability to consummate and complete the acquisition, the Company's access to future capital, the successful integration of acquired companies, government regulation, managing and maintaining growth, the effect of adverse publicity, litigation, competition, sales and other factors that may be identified from time to time in the Company's public announcements.
By: Franjose Yglesias of Cathay Cigars of Asia
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