Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez is the new President of Cuba. Yesterday Cuba’s National Assembly announced that Díaz-Canel had been approved as the sole candidate for President. Díaz-Canel succeeds Raúl Castro, who was not seeking a second term. It marks the first time since 1976 that a Castro has not held the title of President. While Raúl […]
Editor’s Note: This is the first year we are providing coverage from the annual Festival Del Habano that takes place in Havana, Cuba, This year, we worked with Nick Syris, who was my longtime co-host on the Smooth Draws Radio Show. Nick was on the ground in Havana at the festival and worked with me […]
At the XX Habanos Festival in Havana Cuba, Habanos S.A. launched the San Cristóbal de La Habana Prado. It is an exclusive vitola of the San Cristóbal de La Habana line that will be given to La Casa del Habano and Habanos Specialist retailers. The San Cristóbal de La Habana Prado is a Petit Pirámides […]
At the XX Habanos Festival in Havana Cuba, Habanos SA launched a pair of cigars to be exclusive to its La Casa del Habano retail establishments. One of those cigars is a new offering under the H. Upmann brand known as the Hoyo de Monterrey Escogidos. The Hoyo de Monterrey Escogidos is a 180mm x 49 […]
At the XX Habanos Festival in Havana Cuba, Habanos S.A. unveiled the Romeo y Julieta Grand Churchill. This is a massive 191 mm x 56 (7 1/2 x 56) limited edition line extension that comes packaged in a luxury humidor produced exclusively for the Habanos Festival. The humidor comes from Elie Bleu of Paris and Jean-Philippe […]
Back in June, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was rolling back some of former President Barack Obama’s directives designed at opening up trade and relations with Cuba. Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced the specifics to […]
The restoring of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States has hit another roadblock. The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning that urges Americans not to travel to Cuba. The U.S. Embassy in Cuba will reduce its staff significantly and will stop processing visas. The action is a response to a series of mysterious […]
United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has stated on CBS Face the Nation that the closing of the U.S. embassy in Cuba is under evaluation. This is in response to a letter from five U.S. Senators urging Tillerson to close the embassy following a serious of mysterious “acoustic” attacks on several Americans located in […]
Dateline: July 3rd, 2012 A crazy decision was made to take Cigar Coop to a TRUE 365-day-a-year publication. The idea would be to publish original content every day with “no days off”. I would have considered it a success to pull it off for one year straight. But I am happy to report that yesterday […]
With U.S. President Donald Trump’s new directives toward Cuba announced June 16, 2017, we have some Q&A on what this means. 1. Did President Trump Really “Cancel the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba”? The answer is simply, no. However, the new Trump directives crack down on travel and conducting business in Cuba. The changes are aimed to […]
