CONTACT
Paul Magier
PUROS DE ARMANDO RAMOS
888-231-1082

Andrew Reddy
CLUB HAVANA PREMIUM CIGARS
408-871-2199

                                     For Immediate Release                                                      

"Leading Local Retailer To Sell CUBAN CIGARS... Legally"

Sept., 2001 New York NY/San Jose, CA

A New York based cigar manufacturer and CLUB HAVANA PREMIUM CIGARS, a leading Bay Area cigar retailer announced today an arrangement for CLUB HAVANA to carry the first Cuban Cigars to be legally sold in the U.S. since the institution of trade sanctions in the early 1960's.

"The cuban cigar has always been the cigar smoker's holy grail" said Andrew Reddy of CLUB HAVANA" for flavor, for construction, for mystique, Cubans have always stood alone. We've all seen smokers risk substantial legal consequences and pay exorbitant prices over and over for the pleasures of a Cuban cigar. And every new cigar to come down the pike claims 'Cuban Style' or Cuban Flavor' or Cuban Heritage'."

The new cigars however, dubbed PINAR P2000, enjoy the absolute distinction of being rolled with Cuban tobacco imported legally in the late 1950's, well before the embargo was put in place.

"The discovery of some of this tobacco (Rosado Corojo Pinar, from the Pinar del Rio region of Cuba) in a defunct factory building in Trenton is the stuff of legend." said Rafael (Rafe) Ramos Vice-President of Puros de Armando Ramos, the cigars creator, "The research authentication of its provenance, the decision to roll it ourselves rather than sell it to a larger producer, these were business matters" continues Ramos "but the true magic is all in the tobacco itself. My father (Armando Ramos) recalled it well in Cuba."

"It was a rare event then" added the elder Ramos for the rolling and especially for the smoking. The chance to work with it again, here in America, today is a pleasure unlooked for. This beautiful rosado leaf, aged for 40 years by accident, this for me is a miracle."

Some of the tobacco, originally imported in 1958 by RED DOT CIGAR of Trenton, NJ. has been blended with subsequent purchases of other pre-embargo Cuban tobaccos, imported by The Grossman Cigar Co..

The P2000s come as 7^1/2" x 52 ^"MAGNUM'S, 7" x 48 ^"CHURCHILL'S, 5^1/2" X 50 Toros and Torpedos and 4^1/2" x 50 "ROTHSCHILD's. Additionally unblended 100% Cuban, 4^1/2" x 30 "Habanitos" are offered.

"Some, many,  have already suggested that we could charge whatever we wish for such Cigars, but our industry suffers from too much of such thinking" grumbled the senior Ramos. "The price should benefit the product not the measure of our greed" he continued.

"This is also why we have resisted the urge to sell all the cigars directly to one or two very large retailers (they all wanted it)" added Rafael, "we hope to prevent stockpiling and let the cigar reach as many as average smokers as possible. Limiting the PINAR to only a few carefully selected stores with strong local reputations, such as CLUB HAVANA, is a part of the same strategy."

CLUB HAVANA located at 860 El Paseo de Saratoga in San Jose is one of the state's most highly respected cigar retailers, providing a broad selection of major national cigar brands and numerous rare and difficult to find cigars as well.

NEW YORK CIGAR/PUROS de ARMANDO RAMOS is among the oldest and now possibly the last of the New York - based cigar manufacturing operations. Their stock in trade has been premium quality value priced cigars, including such well-known brands as A/R Robaina, Deseo Sombrio aged Maduro and Javier Vizcaino, many of which date back to the early 1960's when Armando Ramos left a 30 year career as a senior roller in Cuba to set up shop in New York.