Hello and welcome to the new JJ Fox website!

 

With the acquisition of the Robert Lewis brand in the last century my family is able to lay claim to retail cigar experience dating back to 1787. However those of you with good memories, who know us well, will recall that the Fox name only dates back to a mere century before the acquisition when, in 1881, James John Fox, my great, great grandfather, opened our first shop. His philosophy was simple – to build and pass a viable business onto the next generation of Foxes. Four generations later, mine is to ensure it reaches the next generation in even better shape than it was when it arrived to me. Success in achieving this will ultimately be determined by you, our customers. I like to think that much in the same way as each of our customers has their own story; there is a story behind every cigar and brand. Many of these stories began well before I was born with each generation of customers adding to them in some way or other over time.

 

 We as retailers are the custodians of these stories. I believe the industry has to some extent started to rely on the cigar brands to sell themselves. It cannot any more. Nor must we rely on reputation alone to sell our wares. It is my view that not nearly enough effort is made to articulate the “nature” of our product to aficionados – I am very keen that we develop our knowledge and experience and work on novel ways to impart this knowledge to you, the customer. For years we have been accumulating a vintage cigar inventory which is the envy of any competitor, and are continuing to build these stocks with a view to releasing them in time, for sale to discerning connoisseurs.

 

We will only stock and sell cigars with an unquestioned provenance and which meet our quality standards. We do not have a monopoly on cigar knowledge, if you have sampled a cigar you can add to that cigars story and we want to hear it. Where better than in our blog? Our online store is going to be a very valuable tool in leveraging these strengths as we develop them further. We value your feedback and we will listen. The pride we have in our heritage in this industry is difficult to articulate through the internet; to sample it most effectively I would encourage you to visit our flagship store on 19 St James Street in London where I trust you will receive a warm welcome and a memorable insight into our proud past.

 

Stuart Fox

Chairman

Many thanks to everyone who attended our fantastic event on the 25th of February 2010. We all had a wonderful evening enjoying a truly hidden gem produced in Cuba - Saint Luis Rey. 

The reviews on this wonder cigar from those who completed the tasting notes has been extremely positive.  The vast majority of these being consistently and bags of flavour. From the different sizes Saint Luis Rey produce, the Regios and Petit Coronas received the highest marks as an excellent all rounder.

The photographs from our event can be found on our facebook, freddie@jjfox.co.uk , which you are welcome to view. For those who attended and would like to leave their reviews about the cigars they smoked or the event in general, please kindly post your comments here. Customers or world wide web visitors, have you tried Saint Luis Rey cigars? If you have done in the past you are also most welcome to post your comments here.

Here is a small selection of pictures taken on the night.  Some of these pictures were taken in our new sampling lounge area above the shop.

Happy Smoking!

 

SAINT LUIS REY CIGARS

 

 

 

For the month of February 2010, we would like to invite you to try this fantastic cigar at our promotional price. Saint Luis Rey cigars are made in the Romeo Y Julieta factory so the flavors are very similar. February 2010 is the perfect opportunity to try Saint Luis Rey Cigars as we have made our prices very competitive to your traditional Romeo Y Julieta Cigars. The added beauty to these cigars is that they are already aged for three to five years. Please see our table below for price comparisons between Saint Luis Rey and  Romeo Y Julieta. Happy Smoking!

Fox of St james february 2010 promotion

 

 

ROMEO Y JULIETA			Saint Luis Rey
		Internet Price	Internet Price	OUR PRICE
Size Name	Pack			Per Pack
Exhibition No.3.	25’s	300.00	SERIE A	£265.00
Exhibition No.3.	1’s	12.00	SERIE A	£10.50
Coronas	25’s	260.00	Coronas	£230.00
Coronas	1’s	10.50	Coronas	£9.50
Exhibition No.4.	25’s	265.00	Regios	£235.00
Exhibition No.4.	1’s	10.95	Regios	£9.50
Petit Coronas	25’s	200.00	Petit Coronas	£175.00
Petit Coronas	5’s	45.00	Petit Coronas	£40.95
Petit Coronas	1’s	8.00	Petit Coronas	£7.00

 Construction of Saint Luis Rey

  There are three parts to each cigar:

·        Filler

·        Binder

·        Wrapper

Filler

The filler is the centre of the cigar and is made with leaves from three different parts of the Criollo plant. It is the blend of these leaves that determines the strength and flavor of the Saint Luis Rey brand.

Binder

The binder leaf is wrapped around the three filler leaves, holding them in place. The binder leaf is wrapped around the three filler leaves, holding them in place. The binder leaf is also from the Criollo plant.

Wrapper

The wrapper leaf, the one you can actually see, is from Corojo plant. This is a very fine leaf with a silky appearance. It is graded into colours: Claro (lightest), Colorado Claro, Colorado, Maduro (darkest). Customers often choose a box of cigars because of the colour.

How the leaf is grown

Although Cuba has five main tobacco regions the plants used for export are mainly from one region in the west of the Country, the Vuelto Abajo in the Pinar del Rio province.

During the summer the fields are often ploughed using animal traction. From October seedlings of about 15cm in height are planted. The plants need about 45-50 days to reach full maturity.

Corojo plants (for wrapper leaf) require very special treatment. Their fields are covered with muslin cloth to protect the delicate leaves from direct sunlight.

Criollo plants (for filler and binder) are exposed to the sun to produce the wider variety and greater intensity of flavours for the different blends of tobacco required for each brand.

Harvesting begins 50 days after planting. Leaves are then hung in barns for another 50 days. Following this they are packed into large bundles, a fermentation takes place that lasts up to 30 days. The leaves are now moistened and classified according to their particular type. They are re-bundled and undergo a second, longer, fermentation.

The leaves are packed in bales and stored in warehouses during an ageing period after which they can be sent to the factory.

 

Making a cigar

At the factory the Corojo (wrapper) leaves are gently moistened and carefully colour graded. These are now ready for the roller.

The Master Blender at the factory sorts the filler and binder leaves to make the perfect blend for Saint Luis Rey. These leaves will vary considerably in strength and flavor. Some will be 12 months old, with others over two years. Secret recipes for brands are closely guarded.

The cigar rollers only tools are a wooden board, a sharp curved blade called a Chaveta, a guillotine and a pot of vegetable gum. The average daily output per roller is about 120 cigars.

Once rolled the cigars are kept in conditioning rooms, often for months, to allow them to lose some of the additional moisture gained during rolling.

The final stage in the factory is dedicated to achieving a perfect presentation of the cigar. They are once again colour graded (with 65 different shades) to ensure that each box has a consistent colour. Even then in each box cigars are packed dark to light – left to right with the best side of the cigar facing up.

The Saint Luis Rey box

Products of outstanding quality are common prey for imitators. Each box of genuine Havana cigars carries five identification marks:

·        The green Cuban Government Warranty Seal (that was introduced in 1912).

·        The Habanos chevron (A corner sticker introduced in 1994).

Three ‘hallmarks’ imprinted into the base of each box:

·        Habanos sa logo (that has appeared since 1994).

·        Hecho en Cuba mark (that has appeared since 1960).

·        Totalmente a mano (since 1989).

The EMS (English Market Selection) sticker is a Hunters & Frankau initiative and is attached to all boxes of their brands that they sell to the trade within the UK. Clearly Saint Luis Rey boxes will not have an EMS sticker.

Flavour

Saint Luis Rey is regarded in the light to medium category in terms of strength and flavor.

Sizes of cigars

There are over 50 shapes and sizes of Havana cigars, although most sales in the UK are from the sizes within the Saint Luis Rey range. The diameter, called Ring Gauge, is measured in 64ths of an inch. Therefore a 42 ring gauge is 42/64ths of an inch.

Saint Luis Rey	Length (inches)	Ring Gauge
Double Coronas	7  5/8	49
Churchill	7	47
Lonsdale	6  1/2	42
Serie A	5  5/8	46
Regios	5	48
Corona	5  1/2	42
Petit Corona	5	42

 

Scott here…Getting ready for the annual pilgrimage to the IPCRA Show in New Orleans; the biggest and most exciting cigar event in the world. Here at JJ Fox we have a long  heritage of trading in fine cigars since 1787 and a reputation as the Retailer of choice for many British cigar smokers through our London stores and this website. Our American partners love to see us and show us their new products.

With many of the best rated cigars in the world being produced outside of Cuba, by families such as the Olivas, Fuente and Padron to name but a few, we are going to see and sample some fantastic cigars  during the show. I will be spending time renewing old acquaintances and looking forward to making new ones, so  if anyone out there is looking for something new, now is the time to tell me and I will investigate for you and get back to you.

I will be looking to see if we can bring some of these guys to London to do more stimulating consumer events, such as the amazing Nub evening we had in Spring at St James’s which showcased Sam’s rolling skills and was ably supported by Jose Oliva and Brian Shapiro.

The Show starts the 8^th August until 12^th, so please get in touch with your ideas and watch out for my updates on what I am seeing and sampling in New Orleans.

August 6th - The arrival

We have arrived in one piece, only just!! We nearly lost my colleague Robert at Heathrow airport whilst still on the plane as he was almost decimated by a flying suitcase that a young lady was struggling to put in the overhead locker…then just as we were about to take off down the runway, the plane developed a leak…so with the delay that this ensued, this made our transfer at Chicago very interesting and we just made our connection. So a cold beer and a small cigar was a welcome reward at midnight last night..

 

Having established that the Exhibition Centre is a 12 minute walk from the hotel, or in our world, a senorita away…we are now on our way to the French Quarter to mix with the cigar folk, and being typically British we are going to walk there through the 93f and 85h conditions.

 

We are meeting up with Kris and his partner Jo from the UK tonight; Kris is a young UK cigar retailer from the North of England who won first prize in a competition run by our sister UK distribution company to visit New Orleans and the IPCPR show at our expense. He called me at 4.30am New Orleans time to let me know he was on his way…you can guess the response he got!!

 

Emails are starting to fly in from our US partners showcasing their new lines for this weeks event. There looks to be some exciting new products on the way. We will keep you up to date as we find out more; please remember to send me any requests, and I will investigate and feed back my thoughts to you.

 

Got a great email from Colin Ganley confirming that we are guests of the European Cigar Cult Journal on Monday night for their 15th Anniversary Party…will let you know how that goes. Having breakfast with Colin in the morning

 

Christian - thanks for getting in touch, I hope you had a great experience in our St James’s store in London, and to be sure, lets hope we meet up. Is there anything new that you are especially looking for at this years show?

 

That’s it for today, All good

  

Friday 7th August

We beat the heat, and set off early to explore New Orleans.

Our first port of call was the New Orleans Cigar Company where we met Julie who told us whats hot at the moment. She told us that with the recent tax hikes on cigars in the States, bundle cigars are becoming more prominent than ever before.
From here we wandered down into the French Quarter looking for the place SJF told us about in his comment - we never quite got there, instead we found Alex in Havana Dreams, 1101 Decatur Street. This is a great store with a vast selection of cigars, comfy leather sofas and a pool table. We had a tough decision to make; sit and enjoy a cigar in these great surroundings, or find a bar with a cold beer and have a beer and cigar…Alex magically directed us next door to Mollys Bar.
Our great plan was to have one cold beer and then move on, however the locals had other ideas for us… Jack, the resident multi millionaire sitting at the end of bar sent us down a couple of drinks, then another, then another…you get the drift. Being very British, we politely accepted until we had enough ‘free drinks’ to by everyone in the bar a drink. We settled back with a Bud and an Oliva Series O Perfecto each and enjoyed the banter with Loran who planned out our week for restaurants, hot spots and places to avoid…the coup de gras was the introduction of the legendary Jazz musician Coco Robicheaux, a great friend of Herbie Handcock and the late Johnny Cash, who told us his fond memories of performing in the UK. If you are ever lucky enough to visit this cigar friendly bar, you will find my parting gift of a Scotland cricket cap now proudly diplayed above the bar with caps from all over the world.
When we finally made it back out into the sunshine, we found the Cigar Factory further along the street. This is a fantastic shop with 7 rollers working flat out producing their own house brand.The President, Shawna Sharruf gave us a royal tour, and there was no way we were leaving without trying the ware. We each had a long panatella whilst taking in the special ambience of the store. We agreed to meet up with Shawna at her stand at the IPCPR Show.
Had a relaxing evening with Kris and Joanne from the UK, the highlight was watching hundreds of people dressed in red dresses (men and women…)  mingling around the streets in preparation for a big charity event today…more about that tomorrow.

 

Saturday 8th August

On Friday night I told you that we saw lots of people wearing Red dresses. Today we saw thousands !! so much so that we felt out of place wearing normal clothes, have a look at http://nolareddress.tumblr.com/ and you will see what I mean. The scary thing is that after a while is became normal to see guys walk past you in their Red finery…
After registering for the show, we had a relaxing lunch on the banks of the Mississippi watching the Paddle Steamers slowly chugging along. This was too good an opportunity to miss, so we sat back and fired up an Ashton VSG Illusion - perfect.
To get out of the heat, we needed a cold beer to cool down with. We found the Don Leoncio Cigar Lounge on Canal Street. We chose a Pinar Del Rio Clasico Corona Gorda, one of their house brands. Sitting back to enjoy the cigar, we noticed a familiar face in Reinhold Widmayer from the European Cigar Cult Journal, along with Katharina Tepe - they asked us to join them, and we had a real fun hour or so…Reinhold is still talking about the Nub Event in St James’s, but so not enthusiastic over his airline succesfully losing his luggage enroute to New Orleans.

The next familliar face to walk in the Lounge was Stephan from Agio along with a colleague of his, Marcel. Fortunately I happened to have a packet of a Mehari’s in my pocket, Stephan was most impressed.
Back to the hotel, and into the gym. Only in America will you find a copy of the Cigar Aficionado on the rack alongside health and fitness magazines in a gym!!
Early bed, with some exciting meetings planned for tomorrow.

 Sunday 9^th August

The Show begins…

 

Monday 10th August.

Red Dress Man - which one were you? I was wearing my kilt LOL. Trying the Cain today and will leave my comments.

 Tuesday 11th August

Ludo - as ever the smooth guy! Thank you for the kind words and look forward very much to all the plans coming together that we talked about for Ashton cigars and JJ Fox in London. I have my Ashston VSG Enchantments in my humidor, and plan to smoke one tomorrow before we head back home to the UK.

The blog would not be compete without mentioning Milly (not her real name, but she may sue or shoot me if she ever  reads this)  …we bumped into Milly from a nearby state, who told us very early in the conversation she has 2 ranches, 5 jeeps and 47 guns!!! Her knowledge of London included visiting a suburb called Edinburgh…

Tomorrow is the last day of the show, very much a huge success so far.

SJF - we are struggling to find the Bugler, lots of blank looks when we ask, are you sure you weren’t in some form of haze when you smoked it?

 

 

 

Last Day.

The guys at the ECCJ kindly presented us each with a special one off ECCJ Illusione that were made to commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the European Cigar Cult Journal, so we have one of a very very limited edition …thank you so much guys!!

We smoked a Padron 1926 with Jorge Padron before the show closed, and he has reaffirmed his desire to come over and host a Padron cigar party in St James’s London - Jorge is an extremely busy man, so we will try and sort out dates and post them on here - watch this space!!

We will recommend our favourite restaurant in New Orleans as Irene’s, 539 St Philip Street. Fantastic service and great food. The best bar award goes to Fritzels, 733 Bourbon Street, a cigar friendly bar that is the oldest operated Jazz Club in New Orleans, where we finished our week off with an Ashton VSG Enchantment listening to some great live music.

So the message coming out of the show is that Nicaragua is making the best cigars, the UK is an important market for New World cigars, and if all the Cigar Masters can organise their diaries, we can look forward to seeing the Oliva, Fuente, Padron and Ashton clans in London over the next 12 months, and with great support from Nub and God of Fire, the age of the New World cigar in the UK is alive and kicking!!

SJF - we found your Bugler!!

Back to Blighty now - All good, Scott

 

The new Montecristo OPEN range has arrived in the UK. JJ Fox online and our three retail shop are happy to be stockist.

I would love to hear your views or comments on these.

Many thanks,

Ryan

Dear Visitor,

A warm welcome to our new website. We hope you enjoy your visit with us. It is with great thanks to our loyal customer base for their fruitful comments which we have taken onboard to create the website we now have today. In the near future we will again be looking to upgrade by  introducing a club area. We will appreciate your comments and thoughts on this to deliver a service thats best for you the customer.

All the very best,

Ryan Curtis