On Thursday, February 20, 2025, a seminar was held at Procigar 2025 called Beyond Blending – A Deep Dive into Maintaining Consistency in a Blend. Michael Herklots, co-owner of Ferio Tego, Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, owner/blender of E.P. Carrillo, and Siegfried Maruschke, owner/grower from Jose Mendez, moderated the session. The topic was Beyond Blending – A Deep Dive into Maintaining Consistency in a Blend. In the past, we have seen many fine educational sessions at Procigar. However, this session had a very different vibe and was one of the best presentations I have experienced at Procigar.
The Exercise
The concept revolves around a straightforward scenario involving three cigars. It aims to illustrate a realistic situation where a specific tobacco becomes unavailable for various reasons. In this case, a particular vintage of tobacco. This situation highlights the challenges faced when attempting to substitute tobacco from different regions or utilizing tobacco from the same area but from a different vintage. The experiment serves to emphasize the complexities and nuances of tobacco sourcing and the impact of these changes on the overall smoking experience. There were three cigars used for the seminar:
- A blend that included filler tobacco from the Mao region of the Dominican Republic (2019/2020 vintage)
- It was the same blend, but the Mao filler was replaced by the same type of tobacco from the Navarette region of the Dominican Republic.
- The original blend was used again, but this time, the tobacco from the Mao region was from a different vintage (2022/2023 vintage).
The three cigars smoked very differently. Cigar #1 was used as the barometer and was the audience favorite. Cigar #2 (the Navarette substitution) was the furthest off and was the least favorite. Meanwhile, Cigar #3 (the different Mao vintage) was close to Cigar #1 but not quite the same.
It was noted that the blend had different amounts of age. Perez-Carrillo said he felt Cigar #2, even with age, would never reach what Cigar #1 was. At the same time, he confirmed that even with age, Cigar #3 would come close but not reach Cigar #1.
The CA Factor
While I didn’t see Cigar Aficionado in the audience at this seminar, this exercise immediately reminded me of the Cigar Aficionado Top 25 list in a positive way. Cigar Aficionado does an excellent job with its Top 25 lists. They don’t focus on the best new cigars but on the best-performing cigars of the year. The Beyond Blending exercise was a great example to show why, on paper, it is the same blend but how consistency can impact that performance. For me, it validated that their process is quite effective.
Final Thoughts
Another thing this seminar made me think of is the education the Premium Cigar Association (PCA) is implementing at its trade show. This seminar would be a great opening candidate for retailers to participate in. PCA has done a good job leveraging industry personalities to deliver e and this. This certainly would fit the bill.
I recently spoke with someone who questioned the importance of cigar masters engaging with consumers. This seminar clearly demonstrates how mistaken that viewpoint is. There were 125 people registered for the seminar, and I have no reason to believe it wasn’t at full capacity.
One theme I’ve had this week is how Procigar’s 2025 Festival has gone to the next level. This seminar was one of the best I ever attended and was an example of going to the next level.
Photo Credits: Cigar Coop
