Apologies for the lack of blogging but it has been a very busy month (and a bit) at work... The good news is that I spent some of this past month in Dubai, which is certainly a very convenient location for a cigar smoker!
You can buy cigars - at prices usually at least 50% cheaper than the UK (probably currently helped by the FX a little) - as soon as you land, at the duty free shop in the airport (not quite sure why you would have a duty free in a country with no VAT, but that's another story :))
There are, of course, many Casa del Habano. Here is the local symbol from la Casa in the shopping mall by the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel, right next to the DIFC, Dubai International Financial Centre. If you go to Dubai, you are most certainly going to spend some time in the area - even if you have nothing to do with the financial industry, as there are plenty of shops and restaurants (read alcohol...)
I have to say that some of the cigars I sampled in Dubai were not smoking too well, sometimes they smoked very fast, sometimes they just were too dry. Perhaps the conditions in which they are kept are at times sub-optimal and my suggestion is probably to buy the more famous brands as the turnover would be quicker and therefore they are less likely to have not been stored properly...
The airports has got also its own La Casa del Habano shops - wnhere on my last visit I bought some D Especial. You can see a couple of snapshot of their assortment. Note in the second pictures some Behike (they had BHK 56 the first time I visited in early October but since then I have only seen BHK 52 and BHK 54 if at all). Also note the Partagas P1 jar in the middle on the far right of the second picture. This is a cigar exclusive for travel retail. More about the P1s to come soon.
Quick post... Good to be back!
