Tuesday evening we went to Brooklyn, NY to help Mitchell Orchant celebrate 25 years in business with CGars Ltd, a London based purveyor of fine cigars. You may be asking: CigarCraig, you don’t smoke a lot of Cuban cigars, how did you end up on the guest list for such an exclusive event? Let me tell you a little story. Sometime around 1997 I received an e-mail from Mitchell, who I knew as “SmokeyMO” on the alt.smokers.cigars Usenet group. It was asking me to have a look at his new website an offer any advice. I told Mitchell that “Montecristo” was one word, not two. I ended up meeting Mitchell in 1999 at an event in Las Vegas. We’ve been friends ever 
since, my wife and I even attended his wedding in London back in 2006, which led to my only appearance in Cigar Aficionado magazine (December 2006 with Dennis Haysbert on the cover). So, even though I’ve been a very infrequent customer of his over the years, we’ve maintained a friendship. So that’s how we ended up in Brooklyn on a Tuesday evening, smoking great cigars with some old friends.
The event was held at The Liberty Warehouse, overlooking the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor. The food and deserts were amazing, and we saw several old friends. There was a great latin band playing throughout the evening. If it hadn’t been so 
windy, we would have spent more time outside watching the ships in the harbor, but cigars don’t deal with the wind well, and the cigars provided were the best of the best. It was a fantastic evening, celebrating a milestone for a great business and family, with great friends. One of these days I hope to get back to the U.K. and visit some of Mitchell’s shops!
I smoked one of the cigars last night from the party, the La Gloria Cubana Exclusivo Andino, which is exclusive to the Andes in South America. I haven’t had a Cuban La Gloria in 20-some years, and I have been off of Havanas for the most part over the last decade or so. This was an excellent cigar, rich and buttery with some spice. I quite enjoyed it, thank you, Mitchell for it and for an incredible evening.
That’s all for tonight, until the next time,
CigarCraig
