Puff of pride for Jakarta cigar smokers
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.