If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, there's a good chance you've read the first Sherlock story - A Study in Scarlet. You couldn't have missed the author's repeated reference to cigars from the Rock Fort city in southern India aka Trichinopoly cigars or Tritchies. Though it was the murderer who smoked these in the story, Sir Winston Churchill's patronage soon turned the cigar into an overnight hero!
The town of Trichinapally or Trichy as it is commonly referred to has a long-standing history of cigar making. The big, hand-rolled Trichinopoly cheeroots or suruttus as the locals call them were being replaced by factory-produced cigars around the end of the 19th century. Spencers started making cigars in 1887. Cigars, that went on to gain a life-long customer in Sir Winston Churchill during the Second World War. The owner of the company, Eugene Oakshott sensed the growing demand for his cigars and bought 60 acres of land in Dindigul, a small town close to Trichy and tobacco-growing heartland in India. Spencers enjoyed great success and even won awards around the world for cigar brands such as 'Gold Mohur', 'Flor de Spencer', 'Little Randolph' and 'Torpedo.' But with cigars swiftly gaining popularity, Spencers' cigar business declined and they were sadly forced to shut down their factories in 1970.
Fenn Thompson and Co. is among the few surviving cigar companies in Trichy today with a total head-count of just 4 employees. The very unassuming Mr. Vasudev is a reluctant heir to the company started by his grand father in pre-independent India. Fenn Thompson is best known for their Black Tiger and Churchill Special cigars that got its name from the fact that they were actually shipped to Winston Churchill in the wake of the Second World War. While Churchill's affinity for the Cuban cigar is no secret at all, his regular supply took a hit during the war and that was when he developed a taste for Trichinopoly cheroots. Though lacking the finesse of a Cuban, they come with their own bold personality.
This may well be the swan song of Indian cigars. Let's hope not.
These delightful cigars are available for your smoking pleasure and can be delivered at your doorstep just as Churchill had his on cigarclubindia.com
The town of Trichinapally or Trichy as it is commonly referred to has a long-standing history of cigar making. The big, hand-rolled Trichinopoly cheeroots or suruttus as the locals call them were being replaced by factory-produced cigars around the end of the 19th century. Spencers started making cigars in 1887. Cigars, that went on to gain a life-long customer in Sir Winston Churchill during the Second World War. The owner of the company, Eugene Oakshott sensed the growing demand for his cigars and bought 60 acres of land in Dindigul, a small town close to Trichy and tobacco-growing heartland in India. Spencers enjoyed great success and even won awards around the world for cigar brands such as 'Gold Mohur', 'Flor de Spencer', 'Little Randolph' and 'Torpedo.' But with cigars swiftly gaining popularity, Spencers' cigar business declined and they were sadly forced to shut down their factories in 1970.
Fenn Thompson and Co. is among the few surviving cigar companies in Trichy today with a total head-count of just 4 employees. The very unassuming Mr. Vasudev is a reluctant heir to the company started by his grand father in pre-independent India. Fenn Thompson is best known for their Black Tiger and Churchill Special cigars that got its name from the fact that they were actually shipped to Winston Churchill in the wake of the Second World War. While Churchill's affinity for the Cuban cigar is no secret at all, his regular supply took a hit during the war and that was when he developed a taste for Trichinopoly cheroots. Though lacking the finesse of a Cuban, they come with their own bold personality.
This may well be the swan song of Indian cigars. Let's hope not.
These delightful cigars are available for your smoking pleasure and can be delivered at your doorstep just as Churchill had his on cigarclubindia.com
