If you've heard the podcast at any point over the last year, you know my fascination with Chen Zhi's downfall is endless. Chen is/was the largest individual shareholder in Habanos S.A. and other adjact tobacco businesses. Long story short: he was running a massive pig-butchering scheme that was earning him billions - which he then used to purchase HSA and the other assets in 2020. It's caused a lot of damage industry wide - Cuban and non-Cuban tobacco alike. Google/ChatGPT his name and you'll have three-days' worth of reading to do.

The article that's linked in the title here, from FiNews.com, is the most shocking development this year. Most notably, the revelation of Chen's ownership in storied HSA distributors Hunters & Frankau and Pacific Cigar Company.

Eighteen months ago when it was known that HSA was forcing their way into ownership positions at their distributors worldwide - with the threat of less cigar allocation - it was widely believed that H&F and PCC escaped unharmed. How could a 100 year old business acquiesce like this?

Now we know they did and to the tune of 50%. The article is long (and worth reading) but even better is the flowchart teased in the middle of the page. Click into that and do some exploring and perhaps you'll find the numbers as interesting as I did. It very quickly reduces the confusion around Chen and his entangled enterprises.

Important to note (as this all happened while I was absent from the site here) - several European distributors are facing heavy banking scrutiny for their involvement with Chen. It's 2026 and banks very much do not like risk - and they really don't care who you are or how much money you have. It also doesn't help that this is all happening in the tobacco business...

Let's not forget the issues in Cuba resulting in significantly less stock being available. Will these distributors survive?

Big news from Bond Roberts today. They're a big supporter of the Lizards and we are a big supporter of them. Like it or not, these transactions are already taking place on social media and internet forums - most often unregulated and certainly not authenticated.

In 2020, BR changed the game for Cuban cigar transactions and now will provide the first professional and secure platform for the sale of non-Cuban cigars under the eye of Developing Palates' John McTavish (Cigar Surgeon).

OpusX is sure to be a headlining act.

New LL out today featuring the Cuba Aliados by EPC Toro paired with Glenmorangie The Nectar 16 Years. We welcome Drew Estate as a new sponsor, discuss resting, aging and acclimating cigars, Cuba’s declining tourism, developing your palate and DJ Khaled visiting Davidoff of London in jean shorts.

New LL out today featuring the Tatuaje Miami Havana Cazadores paired with ArteNOM Selection de 1414 Tequila Reposado. We discuss ProCigar 2027 and Davidoff’s exit, tequila with food, OpusX ReXilent Redux, vacation and cruising Lizards, listeners pulling back from Cubans and Chef trying to change a rating.

New LL out today featuring the Cuesta-Rey Centro Fino Sungrown Pyramid No. 9 paired with Blanton’s The Original Single Barrel Bourbon Whiskey. We discuss the controversial Opus X ReXilient 9/11 charity release and recap Senator’s big birthday soirée.

New LL out today for Episode 250 featuring the Partagás 8-9-8 paired with The Macallan Sherry Cask 18 Years, plus a Fabrica5 Lonsdale. We debate whether we’d smoke more Cubans if price and scarcity disappeared, announce the big Episode 250 giveaway and accidentally reveal Bam’s beauty secrets.

New LL out today featuring the Arturo Fuente Añejo Reserva Xtra Viejo Limited #77 Shark paired with El Dorado 12. We cover Bond Roberts auction news, U.K. plain packaging and Spain’s smoking rules, discuss moving from tupperdors to humidors to dryboxing and share what the Lizards are watching and listening to.

According to the report, the government purchased a Falcon 900 model, manufactured in 2003, at a cost of approximately $10 million.

Is there any greater comedy than the Cuban government and its decision making? Spending $10M on a private jet for Diaz-Canel is so ludicrous I thought I was reading an Onion article.

Here's a YouTube link from the same source.

A new price list published this week in Spain shows that around 365 SKUs have increased from their 2024 prices—nearly the entire Cuban cigar portfolio—with an average increase of 5 percent.

The most notable increase affects the Cohiba Behike BHK line, a flagship series from Habanos S.A. Its three cigars have increased by 21-22 percent and are now priced per cigar at:
Behike BHK 52 — €230 ($238.20)
Behike BHK 54 — €290 ($300.35)
Behike BHK 56 — €320 ($331.40)

With these new increases, the price of a single BHK is roughly the same as the cost of a box of 10 of the same cigar when it debuted in 2010.

Halfwheel did a great job analyzing this. It's important to note that Spanish taxes are often lower than what we'd see elsewhere, so that has to factor in to the "hey wait a second, this isn't accurate, I'm paying $28 for a Partagás D4" moments you'll inevitably have while reading the linked article.

This is not surprising news, though it is shocking. A box of Montecristo No. 2 is hovering around $900US at online retailers, increasing to likely $950 in '25. Incomprehensible versus the $250-300 price they were only 5 years ago.

Habanos wants to do a billion dollars in revenue annually and probably will look to sell itself once it achieves this. I'd bet they get damn close in '25 and achieve it sufficiently in '26.

WSJ with one of its better recent opinion pieces on last week's Miami Herald leak of internal Cuban government banking information.

More likely, the Cuban status quo, in which dire privation dominates daily life, has become too foul even for some members of the ruling elite. There’s also this: The military may own GAESA on paper, but the Castro family and its allies are widely believed to be the company’s beneficiaries. Greedy rich Cubans treat GAESA as their property.

Internal pressure is what's needed to fuel change, but it all still seems impossible to me, given the many stories over the last 60 years of another potential uprising.

In a recent report to the United Nations, the Cuban Foreign Ministry blamed the U.S. embargo for depriving the government of the $250 million it needs each year to maintain the electrical grid and the $129 million it needs to provide medical supplies annually to its hospitals. Yet one of GAESA’s companies, Gaviota, which is in the hotel business, “is sitting on about $4.3 billion in its bank accounts,” according the documents.

Unimaginable greed and corruption.