Up In Smoke

That’s right, we’ve got our first off-site event, what we hope will be the first of many to introduce our customers to some great smoker-friendly establishments in and around south and central Orange County.

Our first event will be on Wednesday, March 25th from 7 until 10pm at Boosters Sports Grill in Mission Viejo. Your low-priced ticket to this event will get you the following:

• 2 free cigars from our friends at Perdomo Cigars
• A great dinner plate with 5 different sausages selected from Mad Mike’s Sausages
• 3 micro-brewed beer tastings and one full glass of beer from The Bruery’s line of great, locally produced varietal beers

Tickets to this event are limited so you will want to buy your tickets online or at our store as soon as you can so you don’t get shut out of this fabulous event!

You can get directions to this event from Google or here is an interactive map for you driving pleasure:

Yes, now you too have the opportunity to become one of the few, the proud, the fans of the Tobacco Barn on our newly launched FaceBook page. That’s right, the Tobacco Barn now has a presence one of the fastest growing and hottest social networking sites for adults. Yes, you must be at least 18 to become a fan but fans of all ages can come to this page and check out the latest pictures, comments, discussions and events all from the comfort of your own wall FaceBook.

Our hope is that this will become a virtual extension of our non-membership lounge where people of fine character (and a few low characters too) can network and share ideas any time of the day or night.

Not a FaceBook member yet? Not to worry, you can still visit our page and view the upcoming events and many of the other features of this page. However, you’ve got nothing to lose by joining FaceBook and “fanning” us. Who knows, you might be able find the next big business deal or reconnect with lost friends through this service.

So check us out at http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Lake-Forest-CA/Tobacco-Barn/60402654768 and become our fan!

The Tobacco Barn is proud to announce the arrival of Tobacconist’s Choice Pipe Tobacco Cigars from Battleground Cigars. We’ve searched high and low to find the best Pipe Tobacco Cigars and decided that these great sticks are perfect.

These hand-made cigars are the brainchild of Michael Tarnowicz and are truly a family tradition. At any time you’ll find many members of the Tarnowicz clan working to turn out the best cigars from Connecticut shade and broad leaf tobaccos. But not just any Connecticut tobacco; their products are turned out from product certified to have been grown in Connecticut in the US!

We are currently carrying 3 flavors of their Pipe Tobacco Cigars: Smuggler’s Rum Sweet Vanilla and Triple Cherry. Tom and I sampled these at the IPCPR trade shown this last August and have been anxiously awaiting their arrival ever since. You’ll find those around you will enjoy you smoking these cigars as much as you do with their traditional pipe aroma.

Give them a try today and you’ll too be convinced that these aromatic cigars are perfect for those times when a pipe is just too impractical.

http://www.tobacco-barn.com/p-8283-tobacconist-choice-pipe-tobacco-cigars.aspx

Picture of rollers above courtesy of Battleground Cigars via CigarCyclopedia)

Everyone who attended the Perdomo Cigar event at the Tobacco Barn really seemed to enjoy themselves. Special thanks to Chuck for being a gracious host and introducing the denizens of the Barn to some fantastic cigars from Perdomo including the value priced, single-farmed Lot 23 cigars, the fabulous Perdomo Habano cigars as well as the Perdomo 10th Anniversary cigars.

Weren’t able to make the event? Here are some pictures and perhaps you’ll be able to make our next event. Keep an eye on your inbox for annoucements of our next event or in this space as we announce next year’s cigar events at the Tobacco Barn pipe and cigar shop in Lake Forest, CA.

Don’t let the popular press, and television in particular, fool you. This isn’t just about cigarette smokers and their “drain on the healthcare system”. It isn’t “about the children” as the sound bites might indicate. What it is about is the unfair taxation of a very small portion of the population (less than 10% by some estimates) to fund a program that affects ALL of the citizens of the US.

The following is a press release from the National Association of Tobacco Outlets advising all responsible consumers of tobacco products to make their voices heard on this subject. It is imperative that we all band together and speak out against this unfair taxation of a small segment of society. Why put this on our back?

A Call to ACTION on SCHIP Tax Increases!

If Congress passes a bill early in 2009 to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by significantly increasing the federal cigarette and tobacco taxes, the fallout from this expansion of government subsidized health care will likely include major cigarette and tobacco sales reductions, large increases in the number of store robberies because the value of tobacco products would be so high, a floor stocks tax on cigarette and tobacco inventory adding up to an estimated $5,000 per store, employee layoffs and even store closings.

The SCHIP program is a top priority for Democrats and may result in the single largest tax increase on one industry’s products in the history of the country. With President-Elect Obama a supporter of SCHIP, the possibility of a tobacco tax increase to fund the expansion looms large even though Obama made campaign promises not to increase taxes on any one who earns less than $250,000. The 2007 SCHIP bills proposed the following increases in the federal tobacco excise tax rates:

Tobacco Product	Current Tax Rates	SCHIP Bill Tax Rates	Percentage Tax Increase
Cigarettes	39¢ per pack	$1.00 per pack	156.4%
Large Cigars	20.719% of manufacturer’s price; cap of 4.875¢/cigar	53% of manufacturer’s price; cap of $3.00/cigar	6,000%
Little Cigars	4¢ per pack	$1.00 per pack	2,197%
Pipe Tobacco	$1.0969 per pound	$2.8126 per pound	156.4%
Chewing Tobacco	19.5¢ per pound	50¢ per pound	156.4%
Snuff	58.5¢ per pound	$1.50 per pound	156.4%
RYO Tobacco	$1.0969 per pound	$8.8889 per pound	710.36%

The Time to Act is NOW!!!

NATO’s legislative staff members are sending out to association members customer alert sheets to place on store counters and personalized letters addressed to each retailer and wholesaler’s particular U.S. Senators and Representatives. NATO members need to call their Congressional representatives, urge their employees and customers to do the same and fax the personalized letters to Washington, DC. All the names, phone and fax numbers of the particular Congressional representatives are being provided. NATO members need only dial the phone and fax the letters. Your voice and the voice of your customers need to be heard.

Turbulent Time for Tobacco Requires Grassroots Efforts

No one can say with 100% certainty how the SCHIP legislation will finally be resolved by Congress in 2009. What can be said is that the SCHIP bill is just the beginning of what will be a turbulent year for the tobacco industry. With some in Congress supporting federal cigarette and tobacco tax increases to expand SCHIP and more than 30 states with large budget deficits some of which will also propose higher tobacco taxes as well, NATO wants to remind its members that they must continue to contact their elected officials to be heard on tobacco issues. Maintaining that dialogue and urging customers to make phone calls continues to be an important part of opposing unfair tobacco legislation.

So don’t sit by idly and watch your cigars get taxed by an increase of up to 6000%, write, or better yet, call your local congress person or senator and let them know that this is just plain WRONG!

Please join us Thursday Evening, December 11th for our Perdomo Event

We'll be rounding out the year with our favorite Perdomo rep to talk about the great Perdomo line of cigars.

• Lot 23 Cigars - PERDOMO LOT 23® is a medium to full flavored blend that offers a well-balanced, complex smoking experience. The dark Ecuadorian Connecticut-shade wrapper lends not only a stunning aesthetic appeal, but it adds an elegant creaminess which complements the robust Nicaraguan fillers.
• Perdomo Habano Cigars - Available in Corojo and Maduro, these cigars combine full-flavored tobaccos from Esteli with aromatic tobaccos from Condega with the naturally sweet tobaccos from the Jalapa Valley for the best Nicaraguan cigar fo the price!
• Perdomo Reserve, the 10th Anniversary Cigar - This will be the showcase cigar for this event. Come and learn all about it! The PERDOMO RESERVE 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY cigars are made with attractive Cuban-seed wrappers that impart a symphony of complex flavors including almond, coffee and cocoa with a smooth, silky finish.

Here are some of the great savings and freebies you'll find on the day of the event:

• Buy 3 Perdomo cigars, Get One Free*
• Buy a box of Perdomo Cigars and get your choice of a Perdomo Vector Thundra 3 flame lighter or 4 premium Perdomo cigars FREE* 
• And of course, we'll have a drawing at the end of the night for all those who've purchased at least one of the packages above. The more you buy, the better your chances!

So mark it on your calendar and plan on being there for our last cigar event of the year!
* While supplies last

Looking for that special gift for the cigar lover you know, or perhaps one to give to that killer client? Consider our custom label cigars. We just added a number of new samples in our Custom Labels Photo Gallery.  You’ll find examples of great gift ideas like Personal Labels, Military, Corporate or Special Events. Perhaps you’ll find something that spurs your imagination.

Of course we also have examples of all the old stand-by’s: Birth Announcements, Wedding Bands, Bachelor Parties, Birthdays and Graduations.

Here are some of my favorites

Don’t wait too long though as we’ll be accepting orders for custom label cigars up to 7 days before Xmas in order to get them to you on time.

Now this is a mug you probably won’t see on the front of the other cigar magazine’s out there, although the header on Dan Piraro’s blog BizarroBlog certainly looks like out-takes from a magazine cover shoot.

Know his sense of humor (to call it off-beat is a serious understantement) one wonders if he is a brother of the leaf or just poking fun. The cartoon shown on the page at left talking about “Naughty Potato” shows a character, obviously hell-bent on displaying his Smokerism being restrained by a bystander who explains away the actions of the cartoonish-looking man with a cigar as “It’s okay, he’s a cartoon”.

Check it out and decide for yourself and leave us some feedback below and tell us what you think of his work…

When Smokerism wasn’t rampant and you could find such fine commercials on TV.

Now that there isn’t a Republican in the white house to kill it, Congressional Democrats claim to be making SCHIP a Top Priority. CQ Politcs reported on Friday, November 6th that Democrats in the US Congress plant to move quickly in the New Year to pass a major expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was interviewed on National Public Radio the day after the election and stated that the expansion of SCHIP “will probably be one of the first bills we would put on President Obama’s desk.”

For those who recall recent events, the US Senate and House both passed a $35 billion dollar SCHIP expansion bill TWICE but it was vetoed both times by President Bush and the legislative branch was unable to swing enough votes to over-ride the veto both times. 

What Does This Mean To You?

Why is this important to pipe and cigar smokers you may ask? Well, because this bill would be funded almost exclusively on the backs (and out of the pocketbooks) of smokers of ALL types.

But that isn’t all, the CQ Politics article points out that the tax increase shown above won’t even cover the cost of the expansion of this program. In fact, the congressional Budget Office issued a report in August of this year which found that a five year expansion of the SCHIP program as envisioned by the House and the Senate will cost close to $45 billion, not the $35 billion they are hoping to raise.

The current SCHIP program is set to expire on March 30, 2009 so they are going to move fast on this. We responsible smokers need to speak out loud and clear that this funding proposal is not only unfair, it is UNSOUND!. Not only will it not fund what they want it to do, thereby continuing to grow our budget deficit even further but it also unfairly targets a small percentage (less than 10%) of the US population to pay for something that they claim is a universal need.

Not only will this hit YOU directly in the wallet in these trying times, but it will likely cause for the closure of many tobacconists around the country that are barely hanging on as it is. This, in turn, will dramatically affect the volume of cigars purchased yearly, decreasing the amount of money raised by this tax increase as demand drops; widening the difference between the funds committed to fund SCHIP and the funds available to pay for it.

And if we look out beyond our own selfish needs, IPCPR and many other organizations predict dire results for the economies of the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras as a result of this flawed legislation.

What Can I Do To Help?

Well, we all need to band together and show our elected officials the errors of their thinking in this flawed bill.

Let your US Senator and representative in the House know how the negative impact of this legislation will affect you, affect small businesses in your community and how you feel it will affect our neighbors in cigar producing countries. Make sure that you reference SCHIP in your conversation and how you are rallying your neighbors and fellow business owners to defeat unfair taxation. You should also remind them that as a voting block in their state/district, you WILL remember those that fall prey to the “but it’s for the children” sound-bite mentality behind those supporting this bill.

Helpful Links:

A listing of all the current Senators

How to find your local Representative

Your IMMEDIATE action is the only thing that will keep this proposal from becoming a LAW! Please respond today!

As always, we encourage your responses in the comments section below.