You wait ages for a bus; then two come along simultaneously! That’s exactly how I feel about the cigar venues I’ve been stumbling across in Essex over the last few weeks. First Shenfield Wines and their Sip & Smoke cigar events, now Featherstone Cigars at the Featherstone Barbershop in Benfleet, Essex 🙌
Background
Featherstone Cigars started by selling cigars from a small cigar box in a barbershop and later in a cigar trailer selling cigars at various events such as the horse racing at Chelmsford City Racecourse. Nowadays, Jamie Otto (barber, cigar expert and all-round entrepreneur), the brainchild of FC, has started to expand his empire by introducing a larger humidor and most importantly for me, a small cigar sampling lounge into his barbershop – whilst hosting regular cigar events.
According to their website, “Featherstone Cigar Company is a trendsetting cigar store, offering first-rate products and exceptional customer service to shoppers worldwide. We’re a business of innovators and forward-thinkers with the drive to constantly update and improve your shopping experience.”
As well as cigars, they stock humidors made with high-quality cedar wood and a choice of veneer finishes. From small travel humidors to large humidor cabinets, they have something to meet all needs along with all your cigar accessories, such as jet lighters, cigar ashtrays, travel cases and cigar cutters.
My experience:
I first heard about Featherstone Cigars when I google’d ‘cigar venues in Essex’ – and had stumbled across their Instagram page. As soon as I saw mention of a cigar sampling lounge, I knew I had to pop down for a visit.
Reaching Benfleet train station from South East London is a bit of a trek by public transport. So I’d recommend using a car to get there.
Once I got to Benfleet, I used Google Maps to guide me the rest of the way to the venue. Walking through the streets, passing tons of operational barber shops with clients still getting their hair cut. I finally reached the distinctive green storefront of the Feather Barber Company – the walk from the station was approx 20 minutes.
I dressed a bit too smart – being used to the London cigar scene – I need to remember how less formal and more casual things are outside of the London bubble.
Once inside, I realised that the entire barbershop and the small sampling lounge were being exclusively used for the event – the set up looked bleeding ace!
After saying hello to everyone, including James, the shop owner, and as more folks continued to arrive, in walks Anthony Rossouw, the Davidoff Brand Ambassador. That’s when we got handed our first cigar of the night – cigar caps were cut, and cigars were lit! We started with the Davidoff Late Hour Petit Panatela.
Size: Panatela
Length: 4″
Ring Gauge: 38″
Wrapper: Habano Seed Ecuador
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Ecuador, Sumatra, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua
Anthony guided us like a pro through a tasting, pairing it with whiskey. The more Ant spoke about Davidoff, the more I was hooked. I always want to jot down tons of notes when we’re being introduced to these cigars, but I don’t want to look like a complete knobhead at these events 😂
The website better introduces this cigar:
“Davidoff proudly adds a new family member to its The Late Hour series – The Petit Panetela provides appreciators of the blend with an opportunity for a shorter enjoyment. The Davidoff Master Blenders have risen to the challenge of creating a small-format medium-filler cigar that delights with complexity and signature Davidoff balance and is as multi-faceted as the great aficionado’s character.”
If you follow this blog or my social media, you may know that Davidoff late-hour churchill cigars are some of my favourite full-bodied smokes! I love this cigar – the smaller version of this cigar – it didn’t initially appeal to me, but I am starting to understand why these sizes are essential. This is all based on the time that people have to smoke cigars – the smaller the cigar, the quicker the smoke. Not everyone has the time to relax with a bigger cigar. The smaller sizes also help newbies get up to speed quickly with whether they will like a particular cigar – and the smaller cigars are much cheaper, too. This one was decent – it’s incredible how such a small cigar can pack such a powerful punch.
As we sampled this cigar chat commenced, and it was absolutely lovely chatting with the other customers in the store – this honestly felt like a brilliant night – the atmosphere was spot on!
After about an hour or so, we sampled cigar number 2 – the Plasencia Cosecha 151.
The website describes these cigars better than I can –
“Plasencia Cosecha 151 is a bold cigar that is brimming with flavor and intensity. The journey begins with notes of roasted coffee and pecans, and the smoke continues with notes of dark chocolate and prunes, culminating in hints of cinnamon and oak. This is a full-bodied cigar, and 100% Honduran. This distinctive cigar commemorates the 151st continuous harvest (cosecha) the Plasencias have accomplished, beginning in the year 1865.”
Size: Robusto
Length: 5
Ring Gauge: 50
Origin/Wrapper/Binder/Filler: Honduras
And you can purchase these from the Featherstone Cigars website.
The Plasencia is in my opinon one of the top New World (non-Cuban) cigar brands out there. I also never associated Plasencia with Davidoff, but apparently, Plasencia wanted Davidoff to distribute the cigars as they know what they’re doing to get cigars out to the market – to us cigar enthusiasts.
The cigar was great – I do find it hard to taste and appreciate these cigars when I’m at these events as I spend all my time in deep conversation about all things cigars. But I definitely felt I had a preference for the Plasencia 149 Concesca (which I’ve previously purchased a full box of cigars and smoked) over this new one, because it felt more full bodied.
My rating
My rating: 8 out of 10. What a riot and utter triumph! Jamie Otto has done a stellar job at creating a superb setting for smoking cigars – the lounge itself maybe a little narrow but during the events when there is a takeover of the shop – it’s is pure delight!!! I also love that you can make a reservation for their sampling lounge via their website.
With both Shenfield Wines and Featherstone Cigars – Essex is becoming a lucky place! If you’re local, check both these venues out – I’ve also heard about Aaron’s Army Surplus store that sells cigars in Rainham, Essex, but I am not sure if they’ve got a space to sample cigars as yet – this is possibly another place to check out – https://www.aaronssurplus.com/
Visit
Interested in visiting Featherstone Cigars? All the details are below:
Address:
288 High Rd, South Benfleet, Benfleet SS7 5HA, UK
Shop Open Monday – Saturday 9:00 – 18:00
Shop stays open late when cigar lounge is booked.
Telephone: 01268 931 513
Website: https://www.featherstonecigars.com/
Email: jamie@featherstonecigars.com
If you liked this review, check out my other reviews of Cigar Bars, Terraces & Smoking Lounges.
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