So Many Cigars by Frank Seltzer
The first day of the IPCPR trade was certainly busy. It began with a breakfast ( free food always a good draw) and a couple of speakers. Rep. Bill Posey from Florida who is the author of HR 792 which aims to protect the cigar industry from the FDA. Posey said that the legislation is important to keep premium cigars available and said one of the biggest problems facing the industry is apathy. Too many consumers and retailers have not contacted their representatives to become co-sponsors of the bill both in the House and in the Senate (SB 772). If you have not done so, contact your people in Congress today.
The second speaker was Mike Ditka who noted that most politicians have their heads up their asss. No further comment needed there.
General’s Expanse
The show opened at 930am and there was a lot to see. At the General Cigar booth, there are about 100 new line extensions or new brands. 100. Wow. General’s top General Dan Carr says the company is working on expanding its position, obviously with that kind of expansion, and working to help protect the rights of smokers. It also is trying to reach new smokers by working with the Golf Channel’s Big Break in sponsorship for Macanudo with the program’s reach of 450 million households. Carr hopes it will bring in new smokers and expand our ranks.
Some of the new lines have already been introduced and are available like the new La Gloria Cubana Serie R Black, the first Nicaraguan La Gloria. There is a counterpart for brick and mortar stores called La Gloria Esteli, which is its brother with a slightly different blend.
Diamond
Cohiba Diamante A
Among the other new offerings are the Cohiba Diamante, the upscale cousin of the Cohiba Black.The Diamante will be coming in two sizes, a Gigante at 6” x 60 with a retail price of $27 per cigar, or the A size at 8.25” x 49 with a price tag of $33.33 each. The A’s come in the three pack with a retail of $100 and are packaged in beautiful wooden tubes. This will make a great gift presentation.
Macanudo is featuring a new limited edition Estate Reserve to mark the brand’s 45th anniversary. It uses aged tobaccos and comes in three sizes, III 5”x50 at $16, II a 6”x 52 for $17 and I at 7” x 50 for $18. Unlike the Macanudos from the past couple of years like the Cru Royale or the 2006 Vintage, this cigar is more in line with the traditional Macanudo with its milder flavors.
CAO
CAO has another line coming out. Last year it was the Concert and this year the Flathead. The Flathead comes from Rick Rodriguez who is a fan of cars, cigars and women…who isn’t? It brings back the glamour of the 50s with the hot rods and pinups. Rick said he wanted to use a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, with Connecticut Habano binder and ligero fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The result is a truly full bodied smoke, which mellows out, Rick says in the bigger ring gauges. Flathead comes in 4 sizes starting with a 6.5” x 40 Lancero called the V624 Piston for $6.75, the V554 Camshaft Robusto at 5.5” x 54 for $7.25, the V660 Carb at 6” x 60 for $8.25 and the V 770, measuring 7” x70 for $9.50. They will be out in September.
Foundry
Foundry Blends (a few)
The line started by General’s Creative Director Michael Giannini last year called Foundry has evolved into the Foundry Tobacco Company. Instead of only one brand, it is launching an array of items. It is virtually impossible to describe everything coming out of the new boutique section of General. The first section is the war of currents…or AC versus DC which was inspired by Tesla and Edison and it is joined with Compoounds, Elements and Musings. There are 12 small batches, 18 exotic blends and sometimes multiple blends in a single box. Truly it is mad scientist stuff. There most likely is a cigar for everyone in these batches…to list them all would take more space than I have allotted for now.
NO BULL
Ernie Carrillo is out with two new cigars, the Limited Edition 2013 which will ship in October and the E-Stunner which is
EPC No Bull
another full bodied smoke and designed to appeal to the crowd who loves Red Bull energy drinks. To that end, EPC brought in a mechanical bull today for retailers to try to ride. The deal was for every second you stayed on you got a discount on your order. Surprisingly, there were lots of people willing to ride the bull….they were even sober.
We’ll have much more tomorrow.
