Cigar Coop with the Legendary Carlos Torano Before IPCPR began, there was a lot of buzz around Torano Cigars. Prior to July 2010, distribution for Torano products was handled by CAO Cigars. With the pending merger between Swedish Match and Scandinavian Tobacco having a direct input on CAO’s future, a decision was made for Torano […]
My Viaje Satori In the “indie” cigar market (or commonly called boutique cigar market), Viaje has been building a reputation that is helping distinguish themselves from their competition. Viaje has been employing a “micro batch” process for its cigar releases. Namely, it is producing the majority of its boxes in small batches (i.e. under 500 […]
Entrance to the Perdomo Lounge My visit to Perdomo Cigar Lounge at IPCPR was one of the more interesting ones. During the week at IPCPR, I noticed there was a flurry of activity in this booth/lounge. And it wasn’t just me as I have seen a lot written that this was one of the busier […]
Since I’ve gotten a lot of new sticks at IPCPR that still might require aging or are still in prototypes, I’ve opted to introduce a concept called the “Pre-Review”. I know that isn’t exactly good grammar, but this will allow me to post some initial impressions of cigars that fall into those categories I mention. […]
The new Alec Bradley Tempus Maduro There were companies such as General, Miami, and Torano C that had major release years of new sticks at IPCPR. There were other cigar companies like Oliva, Camacho, and CAO that did not have major release years and instead chose to tweak their product lines. The visit to Alec […]
The Cigar Coop in front of the simulated front of La Aurora Very simply, I really liked the Miami Cigars Lounge at IPCPR. Like General Cigars, I am also very excited about the pipeline. While there isn’t a crafty tale to weave in this visit, I felt that this visit was still worth of […]
In the previous installments of Tales from the IPCPR, we have discussed a lot of family cigar companies and several indie cigar companies. Like in any industry sector, there are the big boys – a.k.a. the big corporations. A lot of times, the big corporations take a hit for being – say “too corporate”. But […]
As with many conferences, often various customer dinners are scheduled. With IPCPR this was no different as many of the Cigar Manufacturers scheduled dinners with the retailers. Obviously there are limited lists of how many retailers could receive invites, so for Stace and myself, we were more than thrilled when it was our names put […]
Don Pepin Garcia graciously poses for a picture for me In 2009, Outland Cigars in Charlotte hosted cigar legend Don Pepin Garcia at the store for what was Outland’s biggest event ever. Unfortunately, my “other job” had me out of town and I was unable to meet the great Don Pepin. However, the Outlanders in […]
Signage of 7-20-4 Cigars at IPCPR Thus far in the “Tales” series, much of the focus has been on the big cigar lounges. Whether corporate or family owned, most of these visits have been to some of the big names in the cigar industry. IPCPR also has a lot of smaller cigar makers – these […]
