Since coming back from the IPCPR show earlier in the week I’ve been working on getting some of the videos we shot during the show. I actually haven’t been smoking a lot of cigars lately, and really didn’t smoke many while at the show! I started getting a cold while there, and everything has tasted funny for the last week, so why bother! I had made a decision that while I was on the show floor, I was going to abstain from smoking cigars for two reasons: first that it’s one more thing to have in my already full hands, and second, I hate walking into one persons booth with another person’s cigar, it just seems rude.
On the opening night I smoked an Emilio AF1 athe “Gala” dinner, followed by an Alec Bradley Prensado Robusto at their after party. I had brought both of these cigars along with me, and they were both exceptional. The one cigar I did smoke on Friday was a pre-release ORTSAC San Andrés robusto, which was amazing. I’ll get more when I can because I really want to experience it without the 
distractions of the show. Friday night we went to the Joya de Nicaragua party which was in an enormous tent in the parking lot of one of the Corona Cigar stores. These Corona stores are amazing places, by the way. They are set up in a super market style, with everything out on display in rows. I purchased a pair of the new CLE Corojo Preferidos for future enjoyment while there, and went on to enjoy a wonderful Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta Lancero at the party. I know, I should have smoked the new Cuenca y Blanco which we were there to celebrate the release of, but when the lancero calls…
Saturday was our last day on the show floor. At this point I just propped myself up with various over the counter cold remedies and soldiered on. As you can see, and will see in the coming weeks, we shot a fair amount of videos over the course of the day. After the show closed, we visited the Toraño hospitality tent for a smoke where we ran into our friends Mitch and George. At the hospitality tent we had our choice of the new size they were debuting at the show, the LFC, which is a 4½x60. Charlie talks about these in the video I did with him which I posted last week. I selected an Exodus 50 years, but they also had the Vault, the Loyal and the Master.
Mitch and George with an old car that had the steering on the wrong side
From there we went to see the downtown Corona store with Mitch and George. We sat and ordered a pizza from across the street and from someplace a Gurkha Cellar Reserve Perfecto appeared which I smoked and enjoyed. I have Mitchell to thank for that, as well as the food and drinks, he really needs to take a couple bucks for this stuff one of these days! George gifted me a very special cigar which I will report on when I can taste again, thank you very much! I would love to have smoked it then, but it would have been criminal in the state I was in. The volume went up on the music at Corona, so we found where I parked the car and headed back to the other Corona location for the Miami Cigar/La Aurora party in the tent. They had a live band there, it was very loud and smokey and a lot of the party had spilled out into the driveway, which had been closed off. Everyone seemed to be there again, many of the manufacturers, retailers and bloggers. It was very kind of Corona Cigar Co. to host all of these fine events. I understand the Sunday night Drew Estate event was fantastic. We packed it in around midnight, it had been a long day and we had my 18 year old son and his friend to worry about.
We spent Sunday at the Magic Kingdom, riding the rides and having a nice day. Monday we made the long drive home, stopping for dinner at a Waffle House in NC, just because I didn’t think it would be right to drive down and back without eating there once! We had a great trip. Took too few pictures, smoked too few cigars, but had a great time seeing old friends. I have to thank my publicist/ videographer/wife for putting up with me dragging her around the show floor and helping me out along the way.
Here’s a few random pictures:
Uncle Sam getting the most of the second hand smoke!
Kiss My Ash Radio going live from the show floor
Fake Cubans in a little grocery in Kissimmee near our hotel. I told the girl they were fake, she didn’t care.
I had asked for input into what you wanted to know from the manufactures, and I’m afraid I avoided the questions about the FDA. I did this because I really want to remain positive about it, and I thought asking what plans they have should the FDA regulate cigars would result in being told that it would shut down all but the largest players. In retrospect, maybe having a library of videos of people saying they’d be put out of business would make a point to the government, but I didn’t really want to bring down the excitement of the show and new products.
Stay tuned for plenty more videos over the coming weeks. I’ll try to pair them with smoking the samples, if my taste buds ever return to normal! I’ve smoked a cigar or two since getting back, but have felt that it was a waste to have done so. I didn’t even have a cigar in the pool today!
Anyway, until the next time,
CigarCraig
