Cigar Industry Report: Volume 5, Number 46 (10/8/16)

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 5, Number 46 (Edition 195 10/8/16)

Feature of the Week: Fuente Fuente OpusX 20 Years Celebration Coming Soon

Better late than never, but it appears the Fuente Fuente OpusX 20 Years Celebration – a cigar that first surfaced at the 2015 IPCPR Trade Show is finally heading to retail shelves. Cigar Aficionado got some of the first details on this release. We also have some photos on the cigar to commemorate 20 years of OpusX.

News Recap

JM Tobacco: The company is bringing back the Espanola for its 20th Anniversary
Meier & Dutch: The distribution arm of Cigars International will distribute the Lucious Lyon Limited Edition Line. This is a line of cigars and accessories based on the character bearing the same name from the television series EMPIRE.
Tatuaje: The Unlucky 13 retailers were announced for the 2016 Monsters Series installment Tatuaje-The Krueger.
Viaje: The company announced the new Viaje Exclusivo Nicaragua. In addition, the Viaje Full Moon 2016 will be released as a Collector’s Edition release.

Legislative News

Senate Bill S. 441: S. 441 is the Senate Bill to gain an exemption from the FDA on premium cigars. This week, no new co-sponsors were added. The total sponsor count remains at 21.
House Bill HR 662: H.R. 662 is House Bill to gain an exemption from the FDA on premium cigars. This week, no new co-sponsors were added. The total sponsor count remainsat 169
House Bill 2058: H.R. 2058 is the House Bill to change the effective date for cigars subject to FDA regulation from 2007 to 21 months following any proposed regulations are put into effect. This week no new co-sponsors were added. The total number of sponsors remains at 78.
FDA: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is being sued by various anti-tobacco groups for a delay in implementing graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging. While targeted at cigarettes since FDA is now using a “one size fits all” approach to tobacco, this could have implications on premium cigars.

Feature Story

This week we had two feature stories:

Assessments

Stogie Geeks

This week was Episode 201 for Stogie Geeks. Our special guest was Eddy Guerra from Gurkha Cigar Group. For our Debonaire Ideal, we talked about Cuba and Baseball. Finally we had our Stogies of the Week which included:

Hoyo La Amistad Robusto
Torano Vault TM-027 Robusto
Charter Oak Connecticut Shade Toro
Crux Classic Robusto
Good Karma Donkey Dropping
Guayacan Rojas Reserve Gordo
Leaf by Oscar Sumatra Robusto
Quesada Reserva Privada Oscuro Toro
Serino Royale Maduro XX Robusto
Tatuaje Skinny Jason
Yaxel Ortiz Y.O. Toro

Stogie Geeks News

This week on Stogie Geeks News, we look the Tatuaje – The Krueger, new releases from Viaje, the new Lucious Lyon line of cigars and accessories, and the long awaited Fuente Fuente OpusX 20 Years Celebration.