Earlier this year, one of the most exciting pieces of news to break in the cigar industry was the launch of Crowned Heads by former CAO Director of Lifestyle Marketing Jon Huber. It’s been a little quiet in terms of what would be the first release of product from this company. This morning (August 4th), […]
Cigar Preview: Pinar Del Rio Liga Especial Reserva Superior (Part 32 of the 2011 IPCPR Series)
Pinar Del Rio Liga Especial Reserva Superior 2011 has been a very good year for Abe Flores and his team at Pinar del Rio Cigars. Over the past year, he has grown his PDR 1878 line to four blends. At the 2011 IPCPR show, Flores showed off a cigar that already had been getting some […]
Cigar Review: Illusione cg4 Maduro
Illusione cg4 Maduro Over the past year, Dion Giolito has expanded his core line of his popular Illusione Cigar line. This included the addition of candela wrappers to the several cigars in his core line and now includes the addition of maduro wrappers. Earlier this year, there was some debate on other manufacturers using candela […]
Cigar Preview: Alec Bradley Black Market (Part 31 of the 2011 IPCPR Series)
Shame on me for not having a picture on this one, but Alec Bradley was also active at the 2011 IPCPR Trade Show. Earlier this year, Alec Bradley unveiled a their American Classic Blend. This was released prior to IPCPR and was Alec Bradley’s foray into the Connecticut Shade craze that has hit the cigar […]
Assessment Updates: Viaje Satori, San Lotano Habano, Room 101 Connecticut
Over the past few months, I’ve done some Pre-Reviews which allow me to document my experiences with a cigar and provide my thoughts. Some of these were pre-releases are now available generally – and others are simply cigars I’ve had more of a chance to think of. I’ve decided to include a few of these […]
Cigar Preview: Tatuaje La Casita Criolla (Part 30 of the 2011 IPCPR Series)
While the Tatuaje Fausto series has been on the radar of a lot of cigar and specificaly Tatuaje enthusiasts, there is one other blend that has caught the attention of many – the all-Connecticut Broadleaf Tatauje La Casita Criolla. La Casita Criolla translates from Spanish to English “The Little Native House”. A lot of information […]
Interview: Charlie Toraño from Toraño Family Cigars (Part 29 of the 2011 IPCPR Series)
Charlie Torano During my visit to the 2011 IPCPR, my focus was primarily on evaluating and reviewing technical information around cigars. I did not plan on conducting any formal interviews, but when the folks at Torano Family Cigars asked me if I wanted to interview Charlie Torano, this was something I could not turn down. […]
Cigar Pre-Review: Drew Estate Undercrown (Part 28 of the 2011 IPCPR Series)
Drew Estate Undercrown The Undercrown marks the first new line under Drew Estate Cigars since the Liga Privada line was launched three years ago. There are a couple of reasons why Undercrown has generated an excitement and buzz around the 2011 cigar releases. For starters, Drew Estate is a company that has built itself on […]
Cigar Preview: Camacho Liberty 2011 (Part 27 of the 2011 IPCPR Series)
Camacho Liberty 2011 At the 2011 IPCPR, outside of Matt Booth’s Room 101 line, it was a pretty quiet year for the core Camacho Cigars line. However, Camacho did unveil their annual release in the Liberty series – the Camacho Liberty 2011. The Camacho Liberty series follows a micro-batch concept. Each year Camacho releases a […]
Month in Review: July 2011 – IPCPR 2011
For the month of July, much of the news was launched either at the 2011 IPCPR show or near the start of the trade show. This year, I’ve attempted to capture more of a technical overview of the products (and a little tobacco legislation). I’ve captured a summary of the IPCPR posts for July (and […]