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On Saturday I wandered down to Sautter with the sole purpose of meeting Hamlet. For those of you who are unaware of him (which I imagine is few of you) he is the current roller brought over by Hunters and Frankau doing the rounds of the best cigar shops and demonstrating his skills. At Sautter he is rolling broader and slightly longer cigars than he has been and they are fantastic.
His English is immaculate, probably better than some of our own natives. Now I can talk the hind legs from a proverbial and I quizzed him on his rolling method (which is different to the standard factory method) and his cigars. My main squeeze had accompanied me and hadn't seen cigars rolled before and he was exceedingly gracious answering her boundless questions, explaining about the little details like vegetable glue and bunching.
I had mentioned to Hamlet that I was going to lay some of his cigars aside for a while and see what they were like in a year or two.... and he told me a brief story. He had decided to roll 200 cigars for himself and place them in a locked humidor. The key he gave to his wife, under strict instructions that she was not to return it to him for a set period (which now I forget). He had purchased the humidor for the express purpose of keeping his hands off the contents as he tells me humidifictaion isn't necessary on the island due to the level of natural humidity. Two weeks later he was stood over the humidor, with a hammer telling his wife that he would break it open if she didn't return the key.
It must be fantastic to have the skill to roll cigars that you can't resist yourself.
So on that note:
How desperate have you been to try a particular cigar?
I don't mean as a nicotine fiend standing in the rain at an airport after a long flight, gasping for a fix. I mean waiting for a rare cigar, an aged cigar or something unusual.... or in my case one of Hamlet's finest.
His English is immaculate, probably better than some of our own natives. Now I can talk the hind legs from a proverbial and I quizzed him on his rolling method (which is different to the standard factory method) and his cigars. My main squeeze had accompanied me and hadn't seen cigars rolled before and he was exceedingly gracious answering her boundless questions, explaining about the little details like vegetable glue and bunching.
I had mentioned to Hamlet that I was going to lay some of his cigars aside for a while and see what they were like in a year or two.... and he told me a brief story. He had decided to roll 200 cigars for himself and place them in a locked humidor. The key he gave to his wife, under strict instructions that she was not to return it to him for a set period (which now I forget). He had purchased the humidor for the express purpose of keeping his hands off the contents as he tells me humidifictaion isn't necessary on the island due to the level of natural humidity. Two weeks later he was stood over the humidor, with a hammer telling his wife that he would break it open if she didn't return the key.
It must be fantastic to have the skill to roll cigars that you can't resist yourself.
So on that note:
How desperate have you been to try a particular cigar?
I don't mean as a nicotine fiend standing in the rain at an airport after a long flight, gasping for a fix. I mean waiting for a rare cigar, an aged cigar or something unusual.... or in my case one of Hamlet's finest.
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