What is everyone talking about this week: The Government is coming for Britain's cigar merchants

As summer travellers return home from their final trip to Europe, the conversation has shifted once more in favour of the continent. What is it that we love about it? The pace of life? The food? Density of attractive people?

I would like to submit a more left-field answer: the signage. The street names, shopfronts and various insignia decked out in sexy font and sexier colours: streets full of mom-and-pop eateries emblazoned with Art Nouveau typeface.

Hey: that's just me. Or is it? Branding, whether corporate or personal, has become one of life’s key success indicators. In today’s hypervisual culture, a company’s choice of font (for its logo, copy or storefront, say) can easily make or break it.

Imagine, then, the fury incurred by Britain’s luxury cigar retailers when they found out about a provision in the Government’s Tobacco and Vapes Act (in consultation until October 2) that would mandate plain packaging for all tobacco products. This means, in essence, that the same font and pictures of mangled feet found on a pack of Benson & Hedges could soon appear in lieu of Cuban crests on a case of Montecristos.

Anti-branding of the sort would unwittingly dissolve the distinctions between handmade and mass-market cigars — which, per Jimmy McGhee, commercial manager of tobacco merchant James J. Fox, ‘is like putting a bottle of Château Yquem 2015 into the same bottle as a Blossom Hill’. In doing so, the Government is betting on the notion that Cohibas (‘the Macallan of cigars’) are often indulged purely for show — and that an inability to be seen ordering these will be, for many, enough of a deterrent.

It’s fair to think about the benefits — for one thing, it might keep the posers at bay — but Jimmy notes that modern packaging, which is likely to be cardboard, will be fatal to the cigars themselves. ‘Traditional boxes are about more than branding,’ he remarks. ‘They are lined with Spanish cedar, which allows the tobacco to breathe, whereas cardboard is more porous and absorbs more moisture.’

Benevolent observers might congratulate the Government for seeing through its commitment to fighting carcinogenics. Those more cynical, however, will note that cigars are not the same as cigarettes (only one of them is chain-smoked) and that we would do well to address more rampant problems, such as vapes. (The Act's provisions for the latter are as follows: vape adverts banned by June 2027, free samples abolished and no more sale of the item via vending machines by October 29, 2029.)

They will also observe that replacing traditional cigar packaging comes with additional risks. The labels appearing on boxes at the top end of the market, for instance, tend to incorporate hidden micro-printing and UV-fluorescent inks for authentication. ‘The provision is a counterfeiter’s dream,’ Jimmy quips.

It also betrays the state's attempt to muscle into a cultural vogue for homogenisation. So much of modern life is built on sameness: the same cars; the same interiors; the same cosmetic surgeries. I ask you, whether smoker or not: is that really what we want? Also, some of us like the smell. Just leave this one alone, please.

This feature originally appeared in the August 26, 2026, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.