Anibal Delgado Gonzalez at la Casa del Habano

Anibal Delgado Gonzalez has been on a tour of the UK from the La Corona factory in Havana over the last 12 weeks - I think his time in the UK has come to a close as I write this post but we certainly look forward to seeing him again soon to enjoy his rolling skills...

During his time in the UK, Anibal has been visiting various shops and locations (first time I have seen him in action was for example at the Behike cigars launch event at the Goring Hotel in Victoria). 

To have the opportunity to enjoy one last time his cigars, I visited La Casa del Habano in Teddington earlier in the month... Courtesy of Ajay's super assorted humidour (in the picture below), I also smoked a Roman Allones Estupendos - exclusivo Asia Pacifico while taking the pictures.

Anibal has been a torcedor (cigar roller) for over 20 years and as 9th grade roller is able to roll every cigar produced by the Habanos portfolio. He started working as a roller in 1985 at the Romeo y Julieta factory but now works in the heart of Havana in La Corona. In 2000 he was selected to participate in rolling demonstrations around the world and so far has visited Guatemala, Argentina, Uruguay, Bahrain, Greece, Chile and China.

Here is Anibal - rolling makes him happy?

Well, I would certainly be if I could smoke cigars while working like he's doing here :)

I asked Anibal to prepare me a Maravilla extra... this is not an official size but I basically asked for a cigar with the ring gage of a sublime (54) only with additional length. In the picture above I'm posing while Anibal is working on "my" cigar...



This is the result of my request!



And here I'm looking forward to smoke it... Didn't do it just yet as I wanted it to dry it in my humidour at home a little bit (when they are freshly rolled I notice they tend to smoke too quickly, and I want to make sure I will enjoy my unique cigar for the longest possible time... :)