📩 The Hidden Cigars of Antwerp
An H. Upmann Half Corona, a hidden courtyard, and the freedom to find another way.
In Todays Letter...
I found myself in Antwerp, my desire for a cigar growing by the hour.
La Casa del Habano Antwerp is a small, charming shop in the centre of the city. I entered and asked to see the humidor.
To my surprise, viewing a humidor is no longer permitted in Belgium.
As the cigars could not be displayed, I was handed a short menu instead, made shorter still by the continuing shortages from Cuba.
Alas.
Part of the pleasure of buying a cigar is seeing what catches the eye.
The shapes, sizes, colours and stories.
A band that creates a question. A box that stands out.
Yet here, at the heart of the European Union, there was no window through which to browse. Only a list.
I chose the H. Upmann Half Corona without hesitation.
With no cigar lounges in Antwerp, the next question was where to smoke it…
I noticed a courtyard inside an Autograph Collection hotel in the centre of the city. Quiet, sheltered and open to the sky, with soft music playing in the background.
Sapphire House Antwerp, Autograph Collection
The Autograph hotel collection has always held itself to a high standard. I used to frequent one on Threadneedle Street in London, in the heart of the banking district.
They tend to understand atmosphere.
This courtyard certainly did.
I lit the Half Corona.
For such a small cigar, it carried surprising weight. Earthy, creamy and immediately familiar, but with far more nicotine than expected.
It hit like a cigar twice its size.
A true pocket rocket. Proof that good things can come in small packages.
Perhaps restrictions do not always diminish an experience; in fact, restrictions change the route far more often than they change the actual destination.
A closed door asks us to look elsewhere. To notice another entrance. To discover that what we were searching for may still be available, only in a form we had not expected.
The Half Corona burned down as the music continued around me.
No humidor, no lounge, yet still a great cigar, in a great place.
There is nearly always something to be found when we look beyond what is missing.
Story Behind The Cigar
The H. Upmann Half Corona was introduced in 2011, specifically designed to deliver the full flavour of a Habano in a shorter smoke. At just 90mm long, it is an unusually concentrated expression of a brand founded in Havana by German banker Hermann Upmann in 1844.
Last week I asked: “What is the most memorable place you've ever smoked a cigar, and what made it so special?”
One of our readers, Daniel, shared an experience I am sure we all would have enjoyed:
“I was smoking a Cuban in a Mexico City hotel and began talking to an older gentleman. He negotiated kidnapping ransoms for Lloyd’s of London. What amazing stories.”
What is the best place you have ever discovered by accident while looking for somewhere to smoke a cigar?
Reply to this email. I may share my favourite answer in next week’s letter.
Until next time.
Yours truly,
The Cigar Lover
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Cigar Letters
No. 27
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