More IPCPR Cigars by Frank Seltzer
Many of the cigars shown at last month’s IPCPR trade show are starting to show up. One that should be arriving any day is the new Vega Fina Fortaleza 2. You probably have already read about this cigar in the new JR catalogue in my article on Altadis. (What? You don’t have the catalogue? Well that can be remedied by going here.) I personally like the Vega Fina line. The traditional Vega Fina was a cigar developed for the Spanish market. The Vega Fina had been around before that, but it was reblended and now is one of the top sellers in Spain, beating out many Cubans. The regular Vega Fina is a medium bodied cigar with flavor and is one terrific smoke. However, as part of its campaign to kick things up a notch, Altadis USA is coming out with the Vega Fina Fortaleza 2. The Dominican binder and fillers are complimented with a great San Andres Criollo wrapper. The list price for these is around 6 bucks each.
More Sol
Last year, General launched the CAO OSA Sol. Cigar Journal named it the best Honduran cigar. The cigar is named for its wrapper which comes from the Olancho San Agustin farm in Honduras (hence OSA the sol comes from the fact it is sun grown). It uses a Connecticut broadleaf binder and three fillers –two from Honduras and one from Nicaragua. This year CAO added two new sizes to the line – Lot T which will be a 4.5” x 50 and the Lot 46 a 5.25” x 46. They should be shipping shortly.
Cohiba Diamond
The regular Cohiba Dominican (commonly called the Red Dot) line is a tasty smoke. It uses a Cameroon wrapper over Indonesian binder and Dominican fillers. They are certainly an ultra premium cigar with list prices running between 12 to 17 bucks. Last year, General released the Diamante collection in a special humidor containing 100 of these special cigars priced at $4125. What makes the cigar special is the wrapper…it is Cameroon, but talk about aged…it comes from 1980! Needless to say I did not get the chance to try one of those. This year, the two sizes of the Cohiba Diamante are being released without the humidor a 5”x 50 Robusto and a 6”x54 Toro. Instead they will be individually boxed in coffins. The price is still out of my budget at $22 and $25 each. Fortunately, I was given a sample and I can say you really taste the age on the Cameroon wrapper. The cigar is fantastic and contains a lot of initial sweetness from the aged wrapper. The Diamante has a bit more ligero than the Red Dot and you can tell the difference. This is a medium to full cigar because the intensity builds as you smoke it and the sweetness transitions to pepper and spice.
Another House
Another cigar that I did not mention in the IPCPR roundups, though I saw it at the show, was the new Casa Magna Colorado Box Press. The reason I did not mention it initially was that it is a line extension of the highly popular Casa Magna, which was rated #1 Cigar of the Year in 2008. The new box press gives a nice touch to the line. There are three sizes, Gordo Real (6.25” x 60), a Toro (6”x50) and a Short Robusto (4.5” x 54). Then for those who really like jaw breakers, there is the Gigantor a 6” x 64 not box pressed. These are all shipping now and should be in stores within days.
Lung Cancer in Non Smokers Goes Up Unexpectedly
This sounds like the monthly unemployment numbers when claims go up and economists almost always say it was unexpected.
A new study out today says more female non smokers are getting lung cancer which is causing a lot of head scratching. The report will be presented at the European Respiratory Society’s Annual Congress today. The report studied lung cancer patients and found a nearly 12% increase in the number of female non-smokers with the disease. According to the lead author Dr. Chrystele Locher,
“We recently saw that the WHO have classified diesel fumes as carcinogenic, but more research is needed to understand other factors that could contribute to lung cancer in non-smokers. Anti-smoking campaigns must also target women more specifically, as we can see little change in lung cancer rates caused by smoking in women.”
Of course, the WHO’s classification of diesel fumes is about as scientific as its campaign on Second Hand Smoke. Dr. James Enstrom did an analysis of the particulate matter studies. He used nearly 50,000 California residents and found the hype was just that.
These epidemiologic results do not support a current relationship between fine particulate pollution and total mortality in elderly Californians, but they do not rule out a small effect, particularly before 1983.
Eventually when all tobacco is banned and the nannies then clean up diesel exhaust and lung cancer keeps happening, THEN maybe they can start looking for the real causes of the disease.
