Cigar Industry Report: Volume 4, Number 28 (6/6/15)

The Cigar Industry Report is a one stop place to catch up on the activity here at Cigar Coop and Stogie Geeks. It is a combination of our news reports, cigar reviews, and assessment updates we do throughout the week. We will also recap what happened on our Stogie Geeks show. 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 4, Number 28 (Edition 125 6/6/15)

Feature of the Week: Frejya by Las Cumbres Tabaco

The company founded by Jose Blanco and his wife Emma Viktorsson announced its newest line called Freyja. As we learned this week, this is a cigar that was blended by Viktorsson. We have details on the cigar and some background on the project itself.

Southern Cigar Festival

Cigar Coop and Stogie Geeks are proud to partner with the Southern Cigar Festival. The event is being held on TODAY at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park in Alpharetta, Georgia. This past week, we wrapped up our preview series.

News and Previews

A.J. Fernandez Cigars: This week, the company had a Northeast launch of the A.J. Fernandez New World Connecticut at Cigar Emporium in New Jersey.
D’Crossier Cigars: The Flor de D’Crossier Selection 512 has shipped.
Avo Cigars: The brand announced details around the new Avo Syncro Nicaragua.
Black Label Trading Company: The company announced details around the Morphine 2015 project.
CAO: The company announced a new addition to its CAO Flavours line, the CAO SolFyre.
Emilio Cigars: Announced that Spencer McGuire is its new brand manager
Foundation Cigar Company: The new company of former Drew Estate Vice President Nicholas Melillo has been announced.
Miami Cigar and Company: The company announced the details around the limited Nestor Miranda Collection Danno 2015 .
MoyaRuiz Cigars: The Chinese Finger Trap is officially targeted for an end of June release.
Ortega / Williams: The owners of Ortega Cigars and El Primer Mundo are teaming up again – this time on a project called Miami Stash.
Sosa Cigars: The company is relaunching the Imperio Cubano and bringing production back to Miami
Viaje: The company announced availability of the Viaje Summerfest 2015, Viaje TNT 2015, and Viaje C-4 Editions. We also took at look at the Viaje Exclusivo Chiquito 2015.
Warped Cigars: The company has plans for a shop exclusive for Hawaii retailer R. Field’s 30th Anniversary

Legislative News

California: The State Senate voted 26-8 on SB 151 to raise the State’s smoking age from 18 to 21. This now heads to the State Assembly for a vote.
Senate Bill S. 441: The Senate Bill to gain an exemption from the FDA on premium cigars. No new co-sponsors signed on Senate Bill (S. 441) – the total sponsor count is at 17.
Hosue Bill HR 662: The House Bill to gain an exemption from the FDA on premium cigars. Six new co-sponsors were added – Ryan Zinke [R-MT], Stephen Lee Fincher [R-TN], Mike Coffman [R-CO], Stephen Knight [R-CA], Dina Titus [D-NV], Frank Guinta [R-NH]. This brings the total number of sponsors to 116.
House Bill 2058: No new co-sponsors were added for H.R. 2058 (to change the effective date for cigars subject to FDA regulation from 2007 to 21 months following any proposed regulations are put into effect) the total remains at 13 sponsors.
Pennsylvania: A bill of Governor Tom Wolf’s proposed tax increases was unanimously defeated in the State House. These increases also included a proposed tax o premium cigars.

Assessments

Agile Cigar Assessments

Viaje Zombie Super Shot 2015

Editor’s Corner (June 2015)

Editor’s Corner Volume 4, Number 7: The Chase is Over: This month covered chasing down shop exclusives as well as some notes on our web-site migration and changes to our IPCPR Preview series.

Stogie Geeks Episode 142