Eduardo

is the name of the new Montecristo cigar, the first since 1971.

It's a 52 gauge and just slightly longer than a robusto.

It was released in London today as it's "birth" to the world. I was at the release party at Dunhill London. How did I wind up there?

If you read yesterday's entries, you'll know today was shopping day. I completed my tasks and decided to check out St. James' st. This street is one end of Jermyn Street, a three block street that has awesome cigar shops and the local stores of Davidoff and Dunhill.

I ducked into Dunhill, wanting to see the humidor room. I was invited into the launch party where they had bigshots from H. Upmann (Montecristos are made in their factories in Cuba) and a roller (who was in reality, the deputy production manager), the London distributors for Montecristo and one woefully underdressed tourist (me).

There was free champagne and coffee but you still had to purchase a stick to smoke it. Which I did. I figured, I haven't gone out since I've been in London so this is OK. �14 for a Montecristo Eduardo. Do the conversion yourself.

I hung out, drank several flutes of champagne and had an expresso afterwards. Heard some history about the brand and it's relationship with Dunhill. Did you know that Montecristo was initially created for Dunhill shops and that they used to have that on the bands and boxes until the early 70s? Or that pre-70s boxes were twice as thick? Etc etc.

The UK has some stupid law that says you cannot promote a tobacco event because it would "encourage" people to smoke. Likewise for promotional events. Usually if there was a roller making cigars like at this event, they would be free with a purchase, etc etc. Now they have to charge, but usually a small amount. Here it was �5 for a freshly rolled Cuban leaf cigar.

Got one!

No pix though. It was an event, to take snaps would have been incredibly tacky considering the big shots there and I was told media was there eariler. Bummer!