Category Archives: PCA

by Craig Vanderslice | July 17, 2022 · 8:00 am

PCA 2022: J.C. Newman Cigar Co. with Eric Newman

Can’t say we’ve had the best week here at Casa Vanderslice. I, naturally, quickly passed the Covid on to my wife, so we are both feeling crappy. I tried a couple cigars, but I think my sense of smell is all but gone, which effects cigar flavor significantly. I expect I’m going to take a break for a while longer. I need to get back to work and get caught up there, as stuff stacked up (literally) last week while i was “on vacation”. Not the way I wanted to use that Paid Time Off. Let’s continue with the video interviews I did at the PCA show. I want to thank Ed O’Neil for helping out with the camera work. He had been at the show with Kevin (CigarProp), and needed something to do on Sunday and generously offered to help me out. My set-up isn’t as fancy as Kevin’s, but we got the job done. I had a nice talk with Eric Newman of J.C. Newman, makers of some of my favorite cigars. In the video he talks about the new El Baton cigars, the Diamond Crown Black Diamond, and the Cuesta Rey made in the Tampa Factory. Of course, their booth featured a cardboard replica of the El Reloj factory in Tampa, which was quite impressive.

Thanks to Eric for taking the time and to Sydney for her hospitality! I was able to finally meet Adria, who has been my contact there for several years, in her last official event with the company. Maybe we’ll see her around Philly sometime! That’s all for today. until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under PCA, Video

Tagged as Black Diamond, cigar, cigars, Cuesta Rey, Diamond Crown, EL Baton, El Reloj, Eric Newman, J.C.Newman, PCA, Perla del Mar

by Craig Vanderslice | July 15, 2022 · 8:00 am

PCA 2022: Patina Cigars

There are a few people in the cigar industry who crossover into different areas. Mo Maali is one of those. In addition to being the owner of Patina Cigars, he’s also on a podcast called Sultans of Smoke. Mo is one of the people who are in my ear on a fairly regular basis, so I may know him better than he knows me. There are a few people like this in the industry, I’m doing my best to interview them all. Mo displays his Patina brand in the Sutliff Tobacco booth, along with several other brands. As Mo explains in the video, the distribution arrangement with Sutliff relieves a lot of pain points for a small brand. Enjoy the video!

Patina cigars are really quite good. I’m looking forward to trying the new one, and I’ve enjoyed the core line quite a bit. I’d have smokied it by now if it wasn’t for this Covid nonsense. I seem to like a lot of cigars made in the NACSA factory.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Patina, PCA, Sultans of Smoke, Sutliff

by Craig Vanderslice | July 13, 2022 · 12:10 pm

PCA 2022: Pete Johnson of Tatuaje Cigars

I returned from the PCA show in Las Vegas with something unexpected, a positive Covid test. This is disruptive in so many ways, I’ll be missing this weekend’s PA Barnsmoker just up the road from me. Symptoms are pretty much cold-like for now, so I’m not overly concerned, I have a lot going in my favor as far as immunity goes. I have to take the rest of the week off work, which isn’t the way I wanted to use that PTO, but stuff happenes. Anyway, it’ll give me some time to share with you some PCA (Premium Cigar Association) content! In all the years I’ve been doing this, I haven’t gotten the chance to do a video interview with Pete Johnson of Tatuaje Cigars. I wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass again, so I made it happen. Here’s my longest video of the series, and I say this in homage to Jerry Cruz, a pioneer in video coverage, check out 14 minutes with Pete Johnson.

I’m super excited to try the new cigars Pete mentions, especially the Tuxtlas and Verocu Blue. He gave me a cigar that has the wrong band on it because of supply chain problems, I wonder if I should save it because it’ll be a collectors item someday? I’ll probably smoke it, but I’ll be waiting for a while before I smoke anything I really want to think about until this funk clears. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, PCA, Pete Johnson, tatuaje

by Craig Vanderslice | July 10, 2022 · 11:06 am

PCA 2022: Day One Thoughts and West Tampa Tobacco Co

I’m traveling light on this trip so I’ve only brought my iPad and phone so the post might look a little weird. I’ll clean them up when I get home and get the computer out. In the meantime I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the first day of the PCA show. I guess I should mention the night before the first day which included a cocktail party hosted by Ace Prime in Crowned Heads. This was very well attended, although the setting was a little weird to me. And the past these cocktail parties have been a little more elegant let’s say. This was more minimalist in the unadorned event space at the convention center. This made the acoustics rather bad as otherwise not much fabric present to soak up any sound. But there are a lot of people there people seem to have a good time and I was able to sample Tim Ozgener’s new Ozgener Family Cigars Bosporus in a short robusto size. I thought it was very good, but I’ve enjoyed a lot of Luciano Marielle’s cigars. As it’s rather impossible to properly evaluate cigars at the trade show, I’ll revisit it later and report back.

The breakfast meeting seemed rather poorly attended, I’m not sure if it was the omission of the word “breakfast” in the description on the schedule, or what, but the available seating was maybe % used. I was thankful for the breakfast available, and found elements of the business meeting interesting. Considering my PCA affiliation, there wasn’t a lot that interested me. Thanks to Nick Melillo for putting out a spread.

It’s been five years since I’ve been to this show, and the show floor is much smaller than it was. The absence of the large companies like General and Drew Estate account for a small part of that, but smaller, less ostentatious booths are the big difference. In previous years I’d often get lot, and it was difficult to get from one side of the show to the other quickly. The compressed space is much easier to navigate and the show feels more crowded. My observation was that booths were busy and doing business. Today will prove interesting, I’ll have the benefit of a cameraman, as CigarProp Kevin has left and his friend Ed offered his assistance. My wife would warn him against this, as she’s done it in the past. I will do my best to collect some interesting content.

I had a chance to talk to Ricky Rodriguez about his new cigars and company, West Tampa Tobacco Co., I think you’ll find this pretty interesting:

I will add some more photos in when I get home. Watch for more videos over the coming days! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, PCA, Ricky Rodriguez, West Tampa Tobacco Co.

by Craig Vanderslice | July 9, 2022 · 2:20 pm

PCA 2022: CigarMedics

I’m in Las Vegas at the PCA show and my first order of business was to catch up with the folks at Cigarmedics! We’ve had a great partnership over the years, and I’m happy to finally meet these guys. I sat down with Luigi for a few minutes and we talked about their new cutter, The Baller, that I’ve been so enamored with.