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As it has for the past seven trade shows, Camacho was a part of the Davidoff IPCPR booth. Camacho has been one of the big success stories under the Davidoff over the past four years. It’s a brand that has not only prided itself on the monikers “the bold standard” and “live loud”, but has also been one of innovation. 2017 was no exception.

Typically Camacho Cigars makes its major release of the year before the 2017 IPCPR Trade Show. This year was no exception, as the Camacho Nicaraguan Barrel Aged was this year’s signature release and had already been announced.  The Camacho Nicaraguan Barrel-Aged is the third installment of Camacho’s Master Built Series – and it builds on the concepts introduced in the first two installments.

In 2015, Camacho released the first Master Built line, the Camacho American Barrel-Aged. This cigar utilized Original Corojo tobacco in Kentucky Bourbon barrels. The Camacho Nicaraguan Barrel-Aged builds on this concept – this time utilizing Estelí-grown Corojo aged for five months in what the brand says are some of the world’s oldest Nicaraguan rum barrels. Camacho worked with the team at Flor de Caña in Nicaragua to select these barrels.

The Camacho Nicaraguan Barrel-Aged also borrows a concept from the second Master Built Series release, the Camacho Powerband. It utilizes the same proprietary bunching prices used on the Powerband. The end result is a more intense flavor experience.

The blend of the Camacho Nicaraguan Barrel-Aged uses a Habano Ecuador 2000 wrapper, San Andres Negrito binder, and a filler consisting of Dominican Piloto Cubano, Honduran Corojo Ligero, and the Estelí Corojo aged in the rum barrels. It is available in four frontmarks: Robusto (5 x 50),  Robusto Tubo (5 x 50), Toro (6 x 50), and Gordo (6 x 60) – each available in 20-count boxes. The cigar is produced at Camacho’s new Diadema Cigars de Honduras S.A. factory located in Danlí, Honduras.

Since 2002, the Camacho Liberty series is a special limited edition line that usually is released to coincide with the Independence Day holiday. That was also the case this year, but the 2017  installment was still showcased at the 2017 IPCPR Trade Show. A big change for the Camacho Liberty 2017 is going to be the vitola. Since 2005, the Camacho Liberty has used the brand’s signature 11/18 figurado. This year’s edition will use a 6 x 54 Super Toro format – and each is packaged in an individual coffin. The blend features an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, a Honduran Corojo binder as well as Dominican Piloto Cubano and Nicaraguan Corojo ’99. The Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 is grown in Estelí and marks the first Camacho Cigar to use this tobacco. According to Camacho, this blend features the most Nicaraguan filler ever used in a Camacho (more than half of the filler). The Liberty 207 was produced at Camacho’s Diadema Cigars de Honduras, S.A factory.

Earlier this year, Camacho unveiled its Camacho BXP line – these are box pressed versions of the Camacho Corojo, Camacho Connecticut, and Camacho Ecuador line. These use the same blend as their rounded counterparts and filler one difference – the incorporation of Pennsylvania Broadleaf in the filler. These cigars were also showcased at the booth.

There were a couple of things not present this year.  Since Camacho rebranded in 2013, there had been a second limited edition along side the Liberty introduced at the IPCPR Trade Show. This included the Camacho Blackout Limited Edition 2013, Camacho DoubleShock Limited Edition 2014, Camacho Shellback Limited Edition 2015, and Camacho Check Six Limited Edition 2016. This year there was no additional limited edition 2017 cigar.

Camacho has moved on from the “Board of the Bold”. This referred to a trio of star-power personalities who each had a sub-brand under the Camacho umbrella. This included Matt Booth of Room 101 Cigars, screenwriter Rob Weiss of BG Meyer Cigar Company, and NFL Hall of Famer Mike Ditka of the Ditka brand. Earlier this year, Booth ended his relationship with Davidoff. Meanwhile, BG Meyer was pretty much sight unseen, and the only Ditka cigar showcased was the Ditka Signature.

While these changes might be a disappointment to some, I still found Camacho to be a healthy brand which continues to move in the right direction. My gut tells me it’s a brand with more chapters of its story to look forward to.