View Full Version : All You Cigar Smokers - Gotta Read This!
If you are a cigar smoker then Florida is the right place to buy - there is no tax on cigars except the 7% or whatever sales tax.
You can't legally get Cuban imports, there are expensive fakes around but you can get everything else, including many grown from Cuban seed which are excellent and much much cheaper.
Only problem is - where can you buy them at the right price? And the right product stored properly? There aren't many cigar stores any more and the one there are tend to be expensive.
After years of looking I found one in Tampa who import huge quantities of cigars and sell all over the USA by mailorder, they also have a storefront near Tampa airport.
They are dirt stinking CHEAP!
Have a look at thompsoncigar dot com
I can specially recommend Boxes (not bundles) of their Cuban Delight Churchills (made in Dom Rep from Cuban seed tobacco and a Conneticut wrapper), and the Sonador Maduro Wrapper Gordos or Gigantes if you like a really big cigar that lasts an hour or so!
Everyone likes something different and they also sell samplers, they'll even give you the odd one if you ask nicely, you can sit outside and smoke a few before buying a box.
Customs Limit is 50 cigars of any size into UK, so get big ones.
I reckon I save about £4 per cigar on UK prices and a dollar each cigar on other cigar shops in Fl so if if you are going to Busch Gardens its about 10 miles away from there.
They do not sell cigarettes, but do sell cigar accessories like humidors which can be good value.
You can apply online for a catalogue which may have a discount code printed on it, with that you can buy mailorder and maybe get them sent to your villa while you are in Florida if you don't want the drive, but I would recommend going there in person at least the first time.
Its like Cigar Heaven.
florida4sun
23-06-2007, 16:40
If you wnatb try and really good cigar, try the Sosa Family Pyramid Number 2, they have a a shop in Downtown Disney. One of the best cigars around. Cuban cigars are eay to get i florida, just ask a cuban[msnwink]
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by anorak
If you are a cigar smoker then Florida is the right place to buy - there is no tax on cigars except the 7% or whatever sales tax.
You can't get Cuban imports but you can get everything else, including many grown from Cuban seed which are excellent.
Only problem is - where can you buy them at the right price? And the right product stored properly? There aren't many cigar stores any more and the one there are tend to be expensive.
After years of looking I found one in Tampa who import huge quantities of cigars and sell all over the USA by mailorder, they also have a storefront near Tampa airport.
They are dirt stinking CHEAP!
Have a look at thompsoncigar dot com
I can specially recommend Boxes (not bundles) of their Cuban Delight Churchills, and the Sonador Maduro Wrapper Gordos or Gigantes if you like a big cigar!
Everyone likes something different and they also sell samplers, they'll even give you the odd one if you ask nicely, you can sit outside and smoke a few before buying a box.
Customs Limit is 50 cigars of any size into UK, so get big ones.
I reckon I save about £4 per cigar on UK prices so if if you are going to Busch Gardens its about 10 miles away from there.
They do not sell cigarettes, but do sell cigar accessories like humidors which can be good value.
You can apply online for a catalogue which may have a discount code printed on it, with that you can buy mailorder and maybe get them sent to your villa while you are in Florida if you don't want the drive, but I would recommend going there in person at least the first time.
Its like Cigar Heaven.
[/quote]
I buy genuine Cuban Guantanamera cigars in Spain,they are quite good and reasonably priced, I've always avoided getting involved in anything even slightly illegal in US as I value my clean criminal record.
Somehow I always associate anything which is located around Disney as overpriced, even gas as you go up 535 goes up by 30c a gal or so as you approach Disney area.
But we are not Disney people unlike most of the punters on here, we've still got unexpired tickets from before they opened Animal Kingdom.
We'll use them one day I guess........when we have grandchildren.
Katys Grandad
23-06-2007, 19:29
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by anorak
They are dirt stinking CHEAP!
Customs Limit is 50 cigars of any size into UK, so get big ones.
[/quote]
I do like the occasional good cigar but when I've brought a box of 50 home, I end up with about 35 stale ones. Even with a decent humidor, you'd have to be smoking about 5 a week to always have a nice 'moist' cigar. After 1 July, there won't be anywhere to smoke them anyway.
I will have a look at your recommendation though.
florida4sun
23-06-2007, 21:25
Its not illegal, cuban leaf is readily available for rolling, the stock is grown in Puerto Rico and as you mentioned the DR. The only other Sosa Shop is little Cuba in Miami, so it was handy having the shop in Downtown to buy them. You cannot buy Sosa cigars anywhere else, I was simply recommending a good cigar, budget is a different thing.
I never look at the price of fuel, i just put in it and it goes. Any tourist area will carry premium prices, nothing new there.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by anorak
I buy genuine Cuban Guantanamera cigars in Spain,they are quite good and reasonably priced, I've always avoided getting involved in anything even slightly illegal in US as I value my clean criminal record.
Somehow I always associate anything which is located around Disney as overpriced, even gas as you go up 535 goes up by 30c a gal or so as you approach Disney area.
But we are not Disney people unlike most of the punters on here, we've still got unexpired tickets from before they opened Animal Kingdom.
We'll use them one day I guess........when we have grandchildren.
[/quote]
This is also a cigar smokers Heaven
http://www.jrcigars.com/
WR
I have been told - and found it to be true - that its not only the seed that the tobacco is grown from but also what the soil is like, how the cut leaf is matured, in what way, for how long etc.
The Cubans really know how to do it,can take a few years to mature, in other countries some cigar companies rush it and you end up with a greatly inferior product.
For me a true Cuban cigar is made in Cuba and as such has been illegal to import into US for a long time now. I think it was Kennedy who banned them but not before he ordered a big load of his favorite ones in for his smoking plesaure.
Talk about double standards, still he was a politician.
Anyway have a look at the thompsoncigar.com website, costs you nothing to look, but I guarantee that if you buy from them once you'll be buying again.
They market cigars a bit like viking office products, get a catalog you'll see what I mean, but they really know what they are talking about when you're past the hype, and they are cheap.
Thanks for the other link WR1, I'll be having a comparison with that one too. They are in North Carolina so you would pay shipping but probably not sales tax.
florida4sun
23-06-2007, 23:01
I used Thompson Cigar about 4 years to order Humidor liquid and I am still waiting for it to be delivered[msnsad].
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by anorak
I have been told - and found it to be true - that its not only the seed that the tobacco is grown from but also what the soil is like, how the cut leaf is matured, in what way, for how long etc.
The Cubans really know how to do it,can take a few years to mature, in other countries some cigar companies rush it and you end up with a greatly inferior product.
For me a true Cuban cigar is made in Cuba and as such has been illegal to import into US for a long time now. I think it was Kennedy who banned them but not before he ordered a big load of his favorite ones in for his smoking plesaure.
Talk about double standards, still he was a politician.
Anyway have a look at the thompsoncigar.com website, costs you nothing to look, but I guarantee that if you buy from them once you'll be buying again.
They market cigars a bit like viking office products, get a catalog you'll see what I mean, but they really know what they are talking about when you're past the hype, and they are cheap.
Thanks for the other link WR1, I'll be having a comparison with that one too. They are in North Carolina so you would pay shipping but probably not sales tax.
[/quote]
Thats bad, I don't think I would have left it so long, I use something called propylene glycol in mine, think it might be the generic form of the brandname product, its not expensive while they charge about twenty odd $$ for the liquid.
I bet if you called Thompson they might put things right, they seem pretty much into decent customer service from what I know of them.
I ordered some leather conditioning products, about $70 worth, on Ebay recently and it didn't come. I queried it and got a tracking number, UPS said they delivered it to my front door but could not produce a signature.
I found it a week later in my neighbours porch where it had been left all that time.
Even when I am in UPS or Fedex or USPS often just ring the doorbell, drop the package and are off down the drive before I can get there.
Lucky we live in a safe crimefree (so far) street.
florida4sun
23-06-2007, 23:32
We are now back in the UK so it really is not wrth the hassle trying to sort it out now. I had ordered it to bring back with me. Pretty sure I disputed the charge on my CC.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by anorak
Thats bad, I don't think I would have left it so long, I use something called propylene glycol in mine, think it might be the generic form of the brandname product, its not expensive while they charge about twenty odd $$ for the liquid.
I bet if you called Thompson they might put things right, they seem pretty much into decent customer service from what I know of them.
I ordered some leather conditioning products, about $70 worth, on Ebay recently and it didn't come. I queried it and got a tracking number, UPS said they delivered it to my front door but could not produce a signature.
I found it a week later in my neighbours porch where it had been left all that time.
Even when I am in UPS or Fedex or USPS often just ring the doorbell, drop the package and are off down the drive before I can get there.
Lucky we live in a safe crimefree (so far) street.
[/quote]
I have 3 Humidors and have always used water from the kettle when it has cooled down.
You can make your own very cheaply, it's only a mixture of distilled water and a food preservative, Propylene Glycol. There's an article at the link below, I've been using it for nearly 10 years.
http://www.humidor-guide.com/humidifier-liqud-propylene-glycol-2-3.php3
There is a great Cigar shop in Dr. Phillips. just cant think of it's nmae at the moment, again huge selection, and can sit inside or outside at there coffee bar, I try and have a different one according on how I feel, mainly like Monte Cristo No 12, or a strong Cohiba, thought I just had a Davidoff, and that was nice, Tampa is famed for it's cigars, we where at Ybor, where there is a factory outlet, the ones grown from leaf, in another countries soil, are just not the same as a real Havana.
ALan
Cigar Bar Opens in Walt Disney World
Cigar-smoking fathers dreading the family trip to Orlando have reason to rejoice: Walt Disney World now has its very own cigar bar.
Fuego by Sosa Cigars opened in June on Disney's Pleasure Island, the adult-oriented area of the iconic Florida theme park. Fuego sports a bar that looks like a slab of melting ice, seating for around 30 people and a complete selection of alcoholic beverages.
A smoky, boozy bar may seem like an odd fit for Disney, best known for smiling children, charming music and an image reminiscent of America in the 1950s. Smoking is prohibited throughout much of Walt Disney World, and since 2000 Disney has allowed smoking only in designated smoking areas. In the Magic Kingdom, for example, there are 14 designated smoking areas, including "the alcove behind the clock tower" in Adventureland.
Sosa Cigars is part of the Arturo Fuente Cigar Family, and the Sosas have run a cigar shop in Disney for the past decade called Sosa Family Cigars, which stocks 80 cigar brands, humidors and cigarettes. Sosa is the only spot in Disney where one can buy tobacco products.
The cigar shop on Dr. Phillips is the Corona Cigar Company in the Plaza Venezia, they also have an outlet at Lake Mary/Heathrow in the Colonial Town Park. I tried one of their Nicuragual Cohiba Especials with the Cameroon wrapper and didn't think it was anywhere near the quality of my original Cuban Esplendidos.
Parrothead
10-08-2007, 21:47
Columbia Restaurant at Celebration town, also has a good selection of cigars. Always have one on the terrace after a superb dinner:) Columbias is a Cuban restaurant by the way.
So, recognising this is an ancient thread and probably of interest to only a very few subscribers, I would nevertheless like to seek advice from anyone with an interest in my favourite hobby.
I'm off to New York for a few days at the end of the month and am looking to spend a couple of hours in a relaxing cigar bar. I am well aware most have long since shut down, but there are still a few around. Does anyone have any suggestions or recent experience?