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 6, Number 5 (Edition 206 12/24/16)

Feature of the Week: A.J. Fernandez Cigars Acquires Brands of Sosa Cigars

This Monday came word that A.J. Fernandez Cigars has acquired the brands of Sosa Cigars. This acquisition gives A.J. Fernandez Cigars a set of FDA predicate date (grandfathered) cigars. We got the details here.

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 #16 through #22.

The Countdown will resume on Monday December 26, 2016 with the #15 Cigar of the Year. There will be original content on Cigar Coop published on December 24th (this article) and December 25th.

News Recap

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 22.
  • 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 remains at 170.
  • 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.

Assessments

Agile Cigar Reviews

Feature Story

Stogie Geeks

For Episode 214, we welcomed Miguel Schoedel of Duran Cigars. For our Debonaire Ideal, we covered Nightcap Cigars. Paul Asadoorian has named his Top Ten Cigars of the Year. Finally we had our Stogies of the Week which included: