The Cigar Industry Report is a one stop place to catch up on the activity here at Cigar Coop. It is a combination of our news reports, cigar reviews, and assessment updates we do throughout the week. Finally, each week we will look back at Cigar Coop history. Look for this report every Saturday morning at 8am Eastern time.

Cigar Industry Report: Volume 6, Number 8 (Edition 209 1/14/17)

Feature of the Week: Matt Booth Ends Relationship with Davidoff

Matt Booth is ending his relationship with Davidoff. Davidoff had been both producing and distributing his brands. With this move, Booth is exiting the cigar business in 2017 – at least for the time being. We also exclusively published a Farewell Statement from Booth.

Cigar of the Year Countdown

For the seventh consecutive year, Cigar Coop is releasing its daily Cigar of the Year Countdown. This is our (near) daily countdown of the Top 30 Cigars of the year for 2016.  This year there was a delayed start, but the Countdown officially began on December 9th. This week we unveiled selections #3 through #5. Next week we will unveil #1 and #2

Year in Review

This year we unveiled some of our performance ratings for cigars reviewed on Cigar Coop.

News Recap

Legislative News

  • House of Representatives: A new bill has been introduced that will replace H.R. 662. It has been sponsored once again by Rep. Bill Posey of Florida and Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida. The bill # is not known at press time, but its been reported 40 co-sponsors from the House of Representatives.
  • Guam: Speaker Benjamin Cruz has introduced legislation that would raise the minimum smoking age to 21.
  • Maine:  Legislative Directive 34 has been introduced. This bill would provide a pathway for tobacco specialty stores, not licensed before January 1, 2007 to serve nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages, to apply to be licensed as a cigar lounge and be exempted from the prohibition provided certain requirements are met.
  • Minnesota: House File 123 has been introduced that would alter the definition of premium cigars by dropping the phrase “hand-rolled,” and lower the distribution and use tax from $3.50 to 50 cents (effectively creates a tax cap of 50 cents).
  • New Hampshire: A bill has been proposed that will allow private businesses to decide whether to allow indoor smoking. In addition, another bill has been proposed that would remove the premium cigar exemption from the tobacco tax.
  • Virginia: SB 938 authorizes a locality, by ordinance, to designate nonsmoking areas within outdoor public places.

Assessments

On this date January 14th…