Yesterday I found myself wandering much further north in PA than I usually find myself. There was a seminar on Bees and Chickens that my wife and I attended, and I snuck off during the second half to do some of my own research. Twenty minutes away from the venue where the seminar was held happened to be the brand new Best Cigar Pub, and Best Cigar Prices headquarters. I figured this would be a good place to visit. Fortunately, the purchasing manager, Chris O’Neill, managed to arrange a tour for me. Katie (Katy? I forgot to clarify), the Finance/HR director, gave me a tour of the entire facility.… Continue reading
TPECategory Archives
TPE 2020 Day 3: The Vape/Alternative Side Walk-Around and Contest Time!
I wanted to share with you the video walk through of the Vape/ alternative portion of the Tobacco Plus Expo. I’ll be honest, the first few times I ventured onto the blue carpet, I freaked out a little and made a hasty retreat to the safety of the red area. I supposed it validated my old-fuddyduddyness a little.
I’ve been threatening this for a while. As you well know, I’ve become a huge fan of Danli Honduras Tobacco’s cigars. It’s come to my attention that one of my local shops, Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA, has started carrying the line. I have a feeling that Trae might have gotten the idea to bring them in from me, but I haven’t confirmed that. I need
everyone to call or e-mail Trae (610-564-2471 or@CIGAR-MOJO TRAE.COM) and order some Done Juan Calavera or Flor Maya cigars from him! You don’t even have to tell him I sent ya. Anyway, to celebrate another place to buy these great cigars in the US, I’m going to give some of mine away.
… Continue reading
TPE 2020 Day 3: The Tobacco Side Walk-Around
On the last day of the Tobacco Plus Expo I took a few walks around the show floor. I don’t have any fancy stabilizing gimble gizmos or anything, so I was just holding my iPhone and walking though the show floor. This video was in the hour before the show opened, so some booths were unmanned. It gives an idea of the layout and size of the booths. If you’ve seen pictures from the IPCPR shows, you’ll understand how scaled down this show was. I loved the intimacy and easeof getting around. Oddly, it wasn’t until I was shooting this on the third day that I actually found the General Cigar booth. I was a little surprised that they has such a small presence there, even smaller than Altadis, which had a small space as well. I doubled the speed, but I’ll put the raw video on my YouTube Channel for anyone interested in seeing the realtime video.… Continue reading
Tobacco Plus Expo 2020 Experience and Some Cigar Highlights
I’m back from Las Vegas and the Tobacco Plus Expo, and I had a very positive experience. This was a large expo, probably the size of the IPCPR ( now PCA) show, with tobacco only taking up 30%ish of the floor space. The nice thing about the way they had it set up was that they had it segregated, with red carpet surrounding the Tobacco part, and blue carpet around the Vape/Alternative part, which was larger. I’m working on a video walk through of both, but on the first couple exploratory forays into “the blue”, I found myself running back to the safety of the red
carpet both times. I kept hearing Sean Connery’s voice from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade saying “we’re pilgrims in an unholy land”. It wasn’t that unholy, but it was weird seeing all the hemp, CBD and “glassware”. From a cigar purist standpoint, it was strange. Disposable e-cigs seemed to be a trend I didn’t know about, I’m not sure I like the environmental impact of them though, I’ll have to see how to dispose of them. Tossing in the trash doesn’t seem right. The Vape/Alt side was where all the flashy booths, models handing out literature and hype and excitement was. I felt like a fish out of water.… Continue reading
TPE 2020 Day 2: An Interview with David Garofalo
Day two of the Tobacco Plus Expo started out with me reaching out to Dave Garofalo of Two Guys Smoke Shop in New Hampshire, and The Cigar Authority Podcast, requesting a few minutes for an interview. Thanks to Mr. Jonathan for facilitating the connection in a hurry for me. Dave and I met in the Media Lounge during the hour before the show opens when they allow the media in early. This worked out well, we had a nice, quiet place to chat without too much noise or interruption. Dave is a wealth of information on all things cigar, retail, trade shows, among other things, and I thought it would be really unique to get his views on this show and share them with my readers. As I like to do, I though it might be a little different from what other media outlets present from the show. Check it out.… Continue reading
Use Coupon Code: cigarcaig10
For 10% off your purchase.
