Puff of pride for Jakarta cigar smokers
JAKARTA (JP): Smoking a cigar is a stamp of style. The usual impression is that anyone enjoying one is rich and smartly dressed.
Such an attitude is most often created through films and fictional stories. And many famous people are known as cigar buffs. British prime minister in World War II Winston Churchill, Latin American revolutionary leaders Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, world-famous tenor Luciano Pavarotti and even mafia bigwigs -- the mere mention of these names evokes the picture of a gentleman smoking a cigar.
In Indonesia those known as cigar smokers are President Soeharto, former foreign minister Mochtar Kusumaatmadja and business tycoon Hasjim Djojohadikusumo.
It is clear, therefore, why cigars are then associated with the upper social classes.
In terms of their material, cigars are made from only top- quality tobacco and are therefore produced in a limited quantity. In accordance with the economic law of supply and demand, a cigar is highly priced. A packet of 25 cigars can cost up to Rp 3 million. This high price is all the more understandable because cigars are hand-made. In Cuba, for example, people are trained from the age of five to roll cigars, said Sunny TNG, a Singaporean now working as a cigar consultant in Indonesia.
To him, smoking a cigar is not merely puffing the smoke. It stirs up conversation on topics ranging from where the tobacco comes from, who usually smoke cigars, the journey a cigar takes from the factory to the consumer and the supporting businesses.
You can compare, therefore, smoking a cigar with drinking wine, cognac or champagne. Once a wine lover smells the aroma of a good wine, he or she may be absorbed in a lengthy talk about the drink.
In some places in the West one can smoke a cigar while enjoying a concert, according to John Halim, a director of PT Fortune Star Airport Duty-Free, the company holding the distribution license for Davidoff cigars in Indonesia.
He said that there was no hard-and-fast rule about how to smoke a cigar. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable.
An expert, he said, would twirl a cigar close to his ear. The sound made during this twirling will reveal the quality of the cigar. Many nonexperts do the same before smoking as well, although to them doing this is just following others' style rather than an information-seeking action.
Halim identifies three categories of cigar smokers: those who really enjoy smoking cigars; those who smoke cigars only for appearance and those who know next to nothing about cigars and smoke cigars only to experiment.
Another cigar aficionado, Raymond. D. Rusli, was seen recently in the Mercantile Athletic Club taking out a packet of cigars bearing on their tips the words "Montecristo No. 1", a famous Cuban trademark.
He took one and smelled it. Then he took out a small cutter and cut one end of the cigar to make a hole for puffing. When satisfied he took a match, lit it and burned the other end of the cigar until the whole match had burned. Only then did he begin puffing.
"These are some of my collection," said Rusli, a plastic and yarn producer who is barely 30 years old, pointing to a nearby table. "I leave the rest at La Casa Del Habano, at the Mandarin Hotel. I also have a limited-edition packet of only five cigars, namely Cohiba Lanceros. Each is 19.2 cm long."
Oasis, a five-star hotel in Cikini, has since 1970 provided cigars as part of its services. Other places such as Fashion Cafe, Kafe Jalan-Jalan, business centers, hotels and restaurants are witnessing an increase in the number of guests interested in smoking cigars.
Some of these establishments also provide special rooms where guests can enjoy their cigars.
In some places, the management also provides humidors, specially designed cupboards that stay at a constant temperature, for storing cigars. One can buy cigars from these places and leave them in the humidors.
Clubs
Some cigar lovers form clubs and organize meetings where they can enjoy smoking cigars together. "Ours is not a formal organization. Anyone who enjoys smoking cigars can come and develop friendships with other cigar aficionados," sad Jonathan A. Lewis, general manager of Lawry's The Prime Rib Restaurant, who has initiated one such club in Jakarta.
His club is called the Fraternal Order of Cigar, shortened to FOG, which was established in Texas by U.S. politicians, restaurant managers, leading businessmen and other decision- makers.
Besides famous figures, young professionals and businessmen have also fallen for the allure of cigars.
Rusli himself, who has smoked cigars for three years, can get through four a day. He said that the first cigar one smokes will usually influence the enjoyment of the later cigars. To him the greatest pleasure of smoking cigars is smelling the aroma left in his mouth by the smoke. "It is this aroma that I actually buy," he said.
People start smoking cigars for a myriad of different reasons. Buyung S. Boenarso, a director of PT Suburmitra Grafistama, for example, began smoking cigars when he was studying in London. His girlfriend, annoyed by him smoking cigarettes, sent him a packet of large-sized cigars. Boenarso did quit smoking cigarettes but fell in love with cigars instead.
Ary Satrio, an employee at Bali Bank, said that he became acquainted with cigars when he was assigned to Havana, Cuba, in 1994. It was the intoxicating aroma that made him try one.
Is smoking cigars a male preserve? No, said Pamela Lau, an executive at PT Nagamas Centra Mandiri. "Many women smoke cigars now," she said. She herself began smoking cigars three months ago. She usually smokes one while relaxing to Latin music in the evenings.
Finally the cigar industry is not concerned with merely tobacco. Many items associated with cigars, such as cutters, go into the collections of cigar lovers, who also hoard cigars made in limited editions.
The above is an excerpt from Tiara's lifestyle biweekly. The complete article with sidebars will appear in the magazine when it goes on sale Wednesday. It is printed here courtesy of Tiara.