LH (Lavida Habana) Cigars is a brand founded by Nick Syris and Omar Nasr. The brand originally started selling cigars at lounges in the Middle East and grew in popularity. In 2014, LH Cigars set its sights on the U.S. market working with the Tabacos de Costa Rica to produce a line of cigars for the American market. […]
Last year, industry veteran Anthony Serino launched Serino Cigar Company and his Serino Royale line. It was a project done with another industry veteran, Omar González Aleman of La Corona Cigars S.A. Serino was one of the revelations of the 2016 IPCPR Trade Show and since then the line gained significant traction. This year, it was time for […]
Crux Cigar Company had a banner year in 2016; so coming into the 2017 IPCPR Trade Show, the company decided to build on those strengths in terms of what its product roadmap would be. Crux captured three high honors from online media in 2016. We awarded the company the 2016 Cigar of the Year award for the Crux du […]
Alpha Cigar Company just completed its second IPCPR Trade Show – and it’s a company that many folks are taking notice of. The heart and soul of the company is Alpha’s Absinthe Infused line – consisting of three blends: Connecticut Shade, San Andres Maduro, and San Andres Claro. As the name indicates, this line is infused with a spirit […]
It was the third IPCPR Trade Show for Juan Cancel and Bill Ives‘ Cubariqueño Cigar Company. This year the company used a strategy that worked last year, introduce a new line and a lancero line extension. Cancel and Ives have “lived the dream” that many cigar enthusiasts desire – namely going from cigar enthusiast to brand owner. When we […]
2016 was a year of change at E.P. Carrillo, as the company overhauled its entire portfolio. Company owner Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr. missed this year’s trade show due to family reasons, but the booth was in good hands with Perez-Carrillo’s daughter Lissette and Senior Vice President José Blanco. For 2017 E.P. Carrillo would bring back a product from […]
Fratello Cigars owner Omar de Frias might have left his job at NASA last year, but that doesn’t mean a little bit of NASA has remained close to his heart. At the 2017 IPCPR Trade Show, de Frias showcased his newest line, the Fratello Navetta, a line with a space shuttle theme that pays homage to de Frias’ […]
On July 28, 2017, newly appointed U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb unveiled a tobacco program known as Protecting American Families: Comprehensive Approach to Nicotine and Tobacco. One component of this program was a plan to push the deadline for cigar and pipe tobacco companies to submit products for FDA approval out nearly […]
For this year’s IPCPR Trade Show, Mel Shah’s Bombay Tobak upgraded to a more spacious booth – and it accommodated the healthy flow of traffic throughout the week. This seemed to be a natural progression of things as the company now has two strong brands (MBombay and Gaaja) and eight lines between those brands. With […]
For the second year in a row, Phil Zanghi’s Debonaire House was a part of the Drew Estate booth at the IPCPR Trade Show. While I still miss the stagecoach and motorcycles that were once a part of the Debonaire booth, there is one constant that was still very much present- the passion and energy of Phil Zanghi. At the […]
