In 2022, Rick Rodriguez, known for his long tenure at General Cigar Company and over a decade as the blender/ambassador for the CAO brand, would launch West Tampa Tobacco Company. This is a venture that Rodriguez is working on with another former General Cigar alumni, Gus Martinez. The name West Tampa Tobacco Co. pays homage […]
In 2022, Alec Bradley celebrated the 11th installment of its Fine & Rare series. Over the years, the Fine & Rare has been a near-annual limited edition cigar that also has served as its most premium cigar offering. The idea behind Fine & Rare is that it involves releasing a blend with ten different tobaccos […]
One of the big stories of 2022 was the announcement that celebrity restauranteur Guy Fieri would be teaming up with Espinosa Cigars to launch the Knuckle Sandwich brand of cigars. Knuckle Sandwich Cigars is a brand produced by Espinosa Cigars and distributed by Espinosa Cigars. Over the years, company president Erik Espinosa had developed a […]
In 2021, La Flor Dominicana would release a pair of cigars as a part of the 2021 Tobacconists Association of America (TAA) series, the La Flor Dominicana TAA 50 Oro Tercera Edicion Maduro. When I look at companies that have put a lot of effort into making a TAA Exclusive cigar, La Flor Dominicana has […]
The 25th anniversary of South Florida retail chain Smoke Inn was in 2021. As he had done with the 15th and 20th anniversaries, Smoke Inn proprietor Abe Dababneh would commission a commemorative cigar as a part of the Smoke Inn MicroBlend series. With this particular cigar, Dababneh decided the cigar would pay tribute to his […]
Agile Cigar Reviews are cigar assessments where we use a lightweight, shorter format. These will never take the place of our comprehensive reviews. They are only used on blends we have previously assessed. This might be a blend we are re-scoring or giving a score for the first time. It might be a blend we […]
The SuperEgo is the debut cigar by Freud Cigar Company. Freud Cigar Company is a partnership between Luis Torres and David Stadnyk. Torres is best known for his time as CEO of Casa de Montecristo and his time with Davidoff of Geneva retail stores. Stadnyk comes into the company with 30 years of experience as a […]
In 2022, online and catalog retailer JR Cigars would launch a new limited edition line of cigars known as JR Pure Origin. For many years, JR Cigars has produced its own cigars under the JR name with most of these being valued-priced and bundled offerings. When JR Cigars celebrated its 50th anniversary a couple of […]
In 2022, Protocol Cigars would do a single-store exclusive release for Breaker Cigars known as the Protocol Hard Coal Detective. Breaker Cigars is located in Shamokin, Pennsylvania and the Hard Coal Detective ties in with the shop itself and the history of the region. Breaker Cigars is named after a coal breaker, which is a […]
In 2021, Illusione Cigars would release its first cigar to the Tobacconists Association of America (TAA)’s Exclusive Series. There were 13 different manufacturers that produced 15 different cigars for the 2021 TAA Exclusive Series, but the only manufacturer that participated for the first time in the series would be Illusione Cigars. Today we take […]
