EXPERIENCE Nº 05 · THE FOUNDER'S LOUNGE

The Cigar Lounge

At the front of the lounge, under the lamp, with Bangkok thirty floors below.

OPEN THE BOX ↓ THE CIGAR MENU
The corner under the lamp in the Founder's Lounge, painted from the designer's drawing

THE HUMIDOR · TEN CIGARS

Every evening under the lamp opens the same way

  1. The seal, broken with a thumb.
  2. Then the cedar: it keeps the cigars at seventy per cent humidity, and lends them its scent.
  3. Ten cigars inside, from seven houses, every one of them from Cuba.
  4. Choose one. The rest of the night takes care of itself.

Two ways into the box

Chang, the lounge's oldest member, an elephant in a velvet smoking jacket, puzzling over his cigar NEW TO CIGARS The School Five small lessons with Chang, the lounge's oldest member. A gold band for each. BEGIN THE LESSONS → Cigars in a cedar box, from pale to dark FOR THE CONNOISSEUR The Humidor Choose by strength, by time, by taste and by the evening you have in mind. A pour to go with it. OPEN THE HUMIDOR →

THE SCHOOL · NEW TO CIGARS

Five lessons under the lamp

  1. THE PARTS
  2. THE CUT
  3. THE LIGHT
  4. THE DRAW
  5. THE ASH

LESSON I

What a cigar is made of

Only tobacco leaf, rolled by hand. Tap each part to meet it.

A cigar lying on a tobacco leaf, painted in watercolour

Six parts to find.

LESSON II

The cut

Cut only the cap, about two millimetres, just above the shoulder where the head starts to curve. A straight cut, a V-cut or a punch are all fine.

LESSON III

Toast, then light

Hold the flame just below the foot, never in it, and turn the cigar slowly until the whole edge glows evenly. A soft flame, a cedar spill or a butane lighter; never petrol. Hold the button, and let go when the ring is all glowing.

LESSON IV

Slowly. And never inhale.

Take the smoke into your mouth, taste it, let it go. About one draw a minute keeps the ember alive without cooking it. Here a minute lasts four seconds: draw when the ember starts to fade. Three good draws.

LESSON V

The ash, and the end

The ash is two centimetres long. What do you do?

A third is left and you have had enough. Now?

THE HUMIDOR · FOR THE CONNOISSEUR

Choose by taste, and by feeling

STRENGTH · Medium MILDFULL
TIME
TASTES · as many as you like
THE EVENING

THE REST OF THE BOX · in order of how well they suit you

    Cigars are sold one at a time. Prices in Thai baht, subject to 7% government tax.

    A cigar resting in a crystal ashtray beside a glass of whisky, Bangkok lit up beyond the window

    THE CORNER

    At the front of the Founder's Lounge, the room was drawn with a low table under a lamp, deep chairs around it, and the city beyond the glass. That corner is kept for cigars: thirty floors above Sukhumvit, Bangkok lit up below, and an evening that slows to the pace of the smoke.

    The lounge pours to match, by the glass or the bottle: Hennessy XO, Rémy Martin VSOP, Ardbeg Uigeadail, Nikka From The Barrel. What is said under the lamp stays in the room.

    MEMBERSHIP

    Reserved for those
    who belong

    Membership is considered, never sold. Applications are reviewed by the Committee in the strictest of confidence.

    BECOME A MEMBER RESERVATIONS

    Continue the night

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