As soon as the English weather gets better and days longer, garden parties flourish throughout the country. London, with many private gardens, falls for this informal and relaxed way of enjoying a beautiful English summer evening…
I have recently been invited to the Belgrave Square Garden Party. Located in the south-west side of Hyde Park Corner, it is Belgravia’s green ‘ lung ‘. This 4.5 acre private garden, designed by George Basevi* and first planted by Thomas Cubitt** in 1826, features large plane trees, pergolas, a tennis court and a playground for children… a wonderful setting for a summertime English garden party!
Upon arrival, all guests were welcomed by a member of the Garden committee and offered a drink which made the threatening sky a little less scary… Fortunately, we all managed to stay dry until we sat down for dinner. Grilled meats and fish, mediterranean vegetables and French wines were a perfect match for a light barbecue.
Those who stayed late had an unsual experience : we were introduced to famous Lazaro Collazo, an authentic ‘torcedor’. For those who do not know what a ‘torcedor’ is – and I must confess that, being a non-smoker, I was part of them – he/she is a master in cigar rolling. Lazaro Collazo began his career as a torcedor in Cuba in 1998 and in very few years, achieved the highest possible ranking within the categories defined by the Cuban Cigar Industry.
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| Tobacco plant |
Like a fine wine, a hand-rolled cigar -formulated, produced, grown, and created by a master- is considered as one of the finest things in life. Being totally ignorant in the art of cigar-smoking, I was introduced to all steps; first select the cigar by nothing else but the “feel” of it in your fingertips: Is it dry? Does it have a uniform firmness alongside? Can you notice any vein and moistness? Then clip it in order to get the ideal draw. Light it and this happens to be a true art in itself as you should only light it by using a strip of Spanish cedar to ‘toast’ the end of the cigar. Once the tip is glowing red, wait a little until the cigar reaches “smokability”! You can then lightly puff your cigar, letting the smoke through the stick escape from your mouth. This is when you start tasting flavours and aromas such as oak, strawberry, mango, toast, coffee… almost as in wine tasting. The Cigar Rolling Master was so passionate about his art that I decided to try and therefore followed each path very carefully… This led me straight to coughing and… laughter ! I am not sure I will turn into a cigar smoker… It was however worth trying and made of this pleasant English garden party something special!
*Georges Basevi: English architect (1794 –1845), designer of Belgrave Square.
** Thomas Cubitt(1788–1855: leading master builder in London in the second quarter of the 19th century.
CGars:
http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk
Written by Florence Tilkens. Florence is Social Media and Marketing Manager at FOCUS.
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