Product Placement Friday #13: Henri Winterman Cigars

When I was a young boy, my dad smoked cigars. He was doing pretty well financially at the time and those cigars were one of the perks of his job. Then, when I was about 8 or 9, he was made redundant and chose to set up his own business. Money was tight for a few years and the cigars had to go. He moved onto a pipe, which he smoked through most of my teenage years.

When he was about 60, the doctor told him, "you keep smoking that pipe and you'll be dead in ten years". So he quit. That day. Cold turkey. And he never smoked again. Ironically, his death certificate read "Chronic Obstructive Airways Disease", but that was more than 30 years later. The damage had been done, but he did what he had to do to mitigate his condition, and I'll always be thankful for that.

I'm not sure whether my dad ever smoked Henri Wintermans. I remember his cigars came in strong cardboard boxes with a hinged lid, and occasionally he'd get a special one that came in a metal tube. I looked through the list of famous cigar brands and none of them rang a bell. You don't come across cigar smokers very often these days, but if ever I catch that smell, it takes me right back to my childhood. There's a comfort to that.  I never liked the smell of cigarettes, and I hate the sweet stink of e-cigs, but cigars or pipe tobacco, I still have a great affection for. I ought to buy a box, not to smoke, just to remember. 

There's only one song I know that mentions Henri Winterman cigars, but it's a great one. Girl From Mars was Ash's first Top 40 hit in 1995, and the band played it live on Top of the Pops just two weeks after completing their A Levels. Like cigar smoke, this one takes me right back...

Do you remember the time I knew a girl from Mars?

I don't know if you knew that

Oh, we'd stay up late playing cards

Henri Winterman cigars

And she never told me her name

I still love you, the girl from Mars