Hong Kong's Best Cigar Divans: A Review

Cigar smoking in Hong Kong is as popular as it has ever been and the options for cigar smokers to enjoy their favourite pastime are virtually limitless. The area around MTR’s station Central alone counts over fifteen points of sale, from luxurious cigar divans to Habanos’ specialists.

A combination of the ever growing flux of cigar-thirsty tourists from Mainland China as well the overall popularity of fine Havana cigars worldwide has unfortunately inflated prices to the levels seen in cities such as London and, in some cases, beyond. While we do not recommend Hong Kong as a convenient place to stock up on regular production cigars (the prices are simply too high), we found Hong Kong to be the ultimate cigar friendly city.

Hong Kong hosts Pacific Cigar Company’s headquarters. PCC is the official Habanos importer for the Asia Pacific region, which means that all of the Cuban Cigars allocated to the region first land in Hong Kong. In addition to this, PCC directly owns thirteen outlets in Hong Kong, eleven of which are in Hong Kong Island and two in Kowloon. Of the thirteen shops, twelve of them are elegant Cigar Divans and from what we could gather on our trip, all stocked to the teeth with the finest Regular Production and Regional Edition Cuban Cigars.

It would take months of research to provide an accurate and detailed review of all the best places to smoke Cigars in Hong Kong; below we have compiled a small list of the places we managed to visit during our short business trip.

1.     Red Chamber Cigar Divan

Beautiful colonial inspired décor, which was spacious and had comfortable lounge chairs. The Red Chamber Cigar Divan is the ideal place to wind down after a business meeting or indeed, to conduct a relaxed one. The bar has a great selection of Chinese teas and spirits, but could extend their Cuban Rum selection ( offering only two options). The walk in Humidor is incredibly well stocked and the entire Cohiba vitolario is available here. Only negative is that there are only a few Asia Pacific Regional Editions available to sample. The staff at the Red Chamber Cigar Divan are extremely competent and very courteous. The most elegant of all places we’ve been able to visit.

Address:

Shop 405-406 A

Pedder Building

12 Pedder Street

Central Hong Kong

Hong Kong SAR China

2. Cohiba Cigar Divan

Located on the ground floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The Cohiba Cigar Divan had a tiny Humidor and the smoking lounge was very crammed. The poor ventilation system made it very smoky inside and rather unpleasant to be in there. Overall very underwhelmed by the Cohiba Cigar Divan, we had hoped for something more.

Address:

Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong

Shop G6

East Lobby

5 Connaught Road

Central Hong Kong

Hong Kong SAR China

3. Humidor @ L’Etage

The Humidor @L’Etage is adjacent to L’Etage bar, which specialises in Japanese mixology. This cigar lounge has the longest opening hours out of all of the PCC run lounges, with a closing time of 2AM. The selection of drinks is superlative and you are able to order from the bar next door and sample some cigars, whilst comfortably sinking into one of the many chesterfield sofas and chairs. The Humidor was very well stocked and had an expansive selection. Highly recommend.

Address:

Unit B 22/F

Macau Yat Yuen Centre

525 Henessy Road

Causeway Bay

Hong Kong

Hong Kong SAR China

4. Hong Kong Cigar Exchange

The Hong Kong Cigar Exchange is almost entirely dedicated to vintage and rare cigars. The Humidor is incredibly well stocked with Regional Editions from all over the world, with cigars aplenty. The shop is split over two floors. Punters can view the Humidor and purchase cigars, however you are unable to sample them on the premises; as the bar and smoking lounge has a members only policy.

 Address:

20/F Henry House

42 Yun Ping Road

Causeway Bay

Hong Kong Island

5. Wine & Cigar Club

The Wine & Cigar Club is a small, friendly shop on the second floor of an anonymous building. We were greeted by charming and competent staff and shown to the mid sized walk-in Humidor. We were attended to with the highest of regard and felt very welcomed. The cigars here can be purchased and sampled onsite and the cigar lounge was busy with what seemed, a very convivial group of aficionados. The humidor had a very good selection of regular production cigars as well as some admirable aged ones.

Address:

2/F

No.541 Lockhart Road

Causeway Bay

Hong Kong

6. Kinlonz Cigar Club 

Founded by James Wu, it is perhaps the best stocked Humidor in Hong Kong for rare and vintage cigars. There was a great deal of humidors, jars and pre-Embargo cigars available on site. Our only complaint is that the prices were well above the market prices in Geneva or London. Nevertheless, the selection of Japanese Whiskey, Champagne and fine spirits made up for this.

Address:

2/F

521 Lockart Road

Causeway Bay

Causeway Bay

And there it is, as you can see the cigar divans, shops and lounges all differed greatly from each other and we liked some a lot more than others. Nevertheless the buzz surrounding cigar smoking is very much still alive in Hong Kong and it is still proving itself to be one of the best places to visit if you want to sample some fantastic cigars in some of the very best venues.