schase's blog

I remember just over 28 years ago, in March 1982 to be precise, when Jemma’s late father, Nicholas Freeman, returned to London from Havana with the news that Cubatabaco was about to launch a new cigar and that Hunters & Frankau had been appointed as the UK distributor for it. It was called Cohiba.

In those days information about the brand was scant. For example we had no idea that Cohiba had already existed for 16 years, since 1966, nor that it had been reserved for the Cuban President’s personal consumption and for his gifts to foreign Heads of State.

Amongst the outdoor cigar lounges that have opened in London since the smoking ban, the Garden Room at The Lanesborough Hotel stands out. Not only does it offer the club-like comfort of leather armchairs in front of an open fire (the floor is heated too) for the 30 guests it can accommodate, but it is also home to a remarkable collection of cigars including vintage pre-Castro Habanos let alone Cuban Davidoffs and Dunhills.

The other day I took the lift to the fifth floor of Terence and Vicki Conran’s new hotel, restaurant and café complex in Shoreditch called the Boundary. (www.theboundary.co.uk)

On Monday 22nd June I was amongst a throng gathered on Ranald Macdonald's Cigar Terrace at Boisdale of Belgravia to celebrate the 30th anniversary of FOREST (the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Tobacco)

During the celebrations FOREST's Director, Simon Clark, announced the birth of a new campaign to voice opposition to the draconian smoking ban introduced two years ago.

With Obama-inspired speculation mounting about a possible end to the Cuban-American Trade Embargo, it is interesting to hear from a man who was present forty-seven years ago when it was first signed.