Tag Archives: IPCPR

IPCPR Cigars – Arandoza 5th Anniversary Toro

My appreciation for the Arandoza line goes back to early in 2013 when I smoked my first Arandoza Blue. I have since smoked a number of Blues, a bunch of Whites, my favorite, the Red, and some of the Defcon they released last year. I love them all, but particularly the Red, which is a heavy, lush San Andrés maduro with some horsepower. This year Robert Arango celebrates his fifth year with his fifth release, the limited edition 5th Anniversary.  This is limited to 500 boxes of ten, is a Nicaraguan puro with a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper. It’s offered in a 6″ x 52 toro only, and, like the rest of the line, is made in Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory.  At the show I spent the better part of an hour just hanging out with Robert and his wife Pilar just talking about dogs and family and normal, regular stuff. It was one of my favorite moments of the show, just having real life conversations with friends.

 

Arandoza_5th Anniversary_ToroTonight I pulled out the Arandoza 5th Anniversary for my evening walk. As it was hot and humid, I left Macha at home in the air conditioning, sometimes it’s too hot for doggies. The cigar started out with a blast of strength and spice, a great sign as far as I’m concerned. After about an inch or so the cigar either settled down, or my palate adjusted and the cigar became a smooth and delicious smoke, with good savory flavors. I really enjoyed the cigar and look forward to finding some in stores. IPCPR samples are fine, but they’ve often been through a lot of environmental changes.  It seems like most cigars I’ve smoked from La Zona have been quite good. It was nice that several of the brands made at that factory were clustered together in one area. Good stuff.

 

The cigar industry lost a giant this past weekend, Carlos Fuente passed away. I never got the opportunity to meet him, but his legacy is left, not only in one of the great cigar companies and cigars, but in the humanitarian work he did in the Dominican Republic, building schools and giving the children of his factory workers a chance to improve their place in the world.  My sincere condolences to the family. I smoked a delicious Magnum R on Sunday (I had no Don Carlos on hand).

 

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

CigarCraig

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CigarCraig’s 2016 IPCPR Secret Question Video

For the last few years I’ve done a special video project at the IPCPR show.  The first year was the brand’s theme song. Last year I asked who plays the brand owner or manufacturer in the movie about their cigar brand.  This year I went a little different direction, and, once again,  relied on family to come up with the idea. My son, Corey, accompanied me to the show and was my cameraman for the week, and inspired the secret question for this year’s show.  Without further ado, here is the video.

 

 

I know it was a bit long, but I hope it was worth the time.  It gets harder and harder every year, I almost went with the famous Father Guido Sarducci question to Richard Nixon from 1980, but the more creative option presented itself, and I wasn’t going to wear the priest costume to the show!  Thanks again to my son and my wife for their inspiration.

 

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

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IPCPR 2016 Overview and Some Notable Cigars I Smoked

IMG_3491OK, I’m back from the 84th IPCPR Trade show and it was a good trip. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but while the FDA was a big topic at the show, the seminars were reportedly well attended. Attendance was reported to be 30% over last year, but I think last year was about 30% under the year before, so it was typical Vegas numbers to my mind.  I thought the booths were busy, but the aisles weren’t very crowded, which tells me retailers were there with a purpose and not browsing. Certain booths were constantly packed. Rocky, Saka, Caldwell, My Father and Tatuaje come to mind immediately, Others I’d walk up to empty and they would tell me it was the first time all day they had a break.  Despite rumors otherwise, I think it was a good show and a lot of exhibitors were successful. What will follow here are some of the interesting things I saw, cigars I smoked, and things I did. Check out some of my friends in the blogosphere for the interviews and in-depth coverage, and please feel free to leave comments with links to site where you saw some good IPCPR stuff!

 

Hammer & Sickel

Although it looks empty, the booths were pretty busy. This is a photo from someone who didn’t want to be credited for whatever reason. A friend actually picked me out in the shot…

Sunday evening we (and when I say “we” I’m referring to my son Corey who attended the show with me), went to the Gala Opening Reception.  This is always a fun time to hang out with certain folks who decide to attend, and it’s a select few manufacturers who make an appearance every year. I had the opportunity to hang out and chat with Dave Garofalo and his crew (daughter Gianna and Mr. Jonathan) from Two Guys Smoke Shop and The Cigar Authority for a while, and it’s a good thing because every time I went through their booth which featured United Cigars and Selected Tobacco’s Byron and Atabey cigars, he was either busy or not there. A couple of downsides of the evening was the very short window of opportunity to get the meager appetizers that were offered and the very high prices at the bar (water was $7, even for Fiji that’s exorbitant.) I suppose whoever the sponsor was gets the blame for that, and it wasn’t clear to me who Coreythat was, and I’m not going to name them anyway. Previous years were much better. I smoked cigars I brought with me as cigars are not usually distributed at the opening gala. We finished the evening at the Circle Bar in the Venitian talking to Michael of Whiff Industries and Ricky and Ed from General Cigars who shared the new CAO Consigliere with us. This was a very nice cigar and is supposed to be the same blend as the Sopranos and has the same band.

 

IMG_3490Monday was a whirlwind of activity at the show. The breakfast meeting was very well attended, Jon Taffer from the TV show Bar Rescue was the keynote speaker. In years past the speakers have been entertaining, this was a motivational speech which was short on entertainment value, although I was not the target audience not being a retailer. I took the opportunity to make a contribution to the IPCPR PAC so I could get in to the show an hour early like media used to be able to do a few years ago. This turned out to be advantageous as I got to talk to some people I recluse_Amadeusrarely have the opportunity to see. I figured the money was going to a good cause too. We had some appointments through the day and saw a lot of people. The one cigar I smoked on the show floor was a Recluse Amadeus Habano Lancero which was very, very good. Corey smoked the Connecticut which he enjoyed also. I did the one interview for the week with Z from Cordoba and Morales cigars which I posted Tuesday. I streamed that live on Periscope and I would have done more of that but I was limited by bandwidth and storage Davidoffcapacity. That evening we went to Davidoff’s Lounge at the Fashion Show Mall, a free-standing lounge with outdoor seating right on the strip. They debuted the new Davidoff Yamasa, which was an OK cigar, it’s hard to properly experience a cigar in a packed area, temps in the hundreds and music blaring. I guess I’m a curmudgeon, but I can never figure out why people have social events and have a DJ basting dance music. People were there to talk to one another, I didn’t see anyone dancing. At least Matt Booth was there. We finished the evening in a very crowded and loud Palazzo bar talking with Stace and Jon Saka from Dunbarton. I think I sampled the new La Gloria Cubana Serie R Esteli Maduro which shows a lot of promise.

 

FonsecaYou’ll notice that I didn’t really smoke a lot of cigars, I think I smoked 3 a day the time I was there. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, when I’m on the show floor I think it’s a bit rude to talk to one person about their cigars while smoking another vendor’s cigar. I also have other things I need to do that distracts me from the cigar. It’s also not a good environment to judge a cigar and many times the cigars aren’t at their best either for various reasons. Fortunately the few I did smoke on the show floor were excellent. In addition to the Recluse, the other cigars that I smoked were the Fonseca Nicaragua from Quesada and the Maya Selva Flor Mayade Selva Box Pressed Toro. The Fonseca was a really good smoke, I look forward to smoking it again under better circumstances. The Flor de Selva was the cigar of the week for me. I think I smoked it for the better part of four hours, I kept letting it go out and every time I re-lit it was still amazing. So I got lucky with the cigars I smoked on the show floor.

 

FableTuesday was another day on the floor. We spent some time hanging out with Pilar and Robert from Arandoza Cigars, and some other folks. After the show closed we weaseled our way into the RoMaCraft hospitality suite in the Palazzo. The had a really nice suite with a large outdoor area which was oddly not overbearingly hot. This was an oasis. Finally a comfortable place to smoke that was within walking distance and filled with friends. While it was unnecessary, we were provided with a Fable Fourth Prime Doc, a petite robusto with a PA Broadleaf wrapper that is made at Nica Sueño, Mike and Skip’s factory. We had the pleasure of RoMaSuite Viewmeeting Mitul Shah, who in addition to being behind the Fable brand, works at Mom’s Cigar Warehouse in New York.  The Fable Doc was a great little cigar, very strong to start out with but settling down. Excellent smoke, but of course it’s from the RoMaCraft guys so one would expect as much.  I’d like to thank Mike and Skip for hosting us, it was a great place to hang out. I also smoked Steve Saka’s new Mi Querida in a toro while there. This is going to be a great MiQueridacigar, it has all the markings, I hope I have another one floating around. While it’s not a Liga Privada, it’s along the same lines with the Broadleaf wrapper, but it seems to have a little something special. Again, not the place to properly evaluate a cigar, but I have a good feeling about this one.

 

Wednesday was more of the same on the show floor, we were able to meet with some people I hadn’t really gotten time with in the past, which is good. There were a couple Tatuajeof the interesting things we saw that were not cigars, and it’s notable the lack of vape and hookah booths this year. Last year they had them segregated, and stories from the year before got around about how aggressive the vendors were in the aisles, shoving their wares down passers by’s throats, so to speak. I explained to the one vape guy I saw and talked to that his product doesn’t really fit with a cigar blog and he understood and seemed to be running a very good operation. Xikar’s booth was huge and they had some interesting new things, including the very cool XO cutter which has gears to make sure the blades track together perfectly, and Xikar branded Boveda systems. There was a booth with high-end, flavored tooth picks. There were smoking jackets and the usual canes and lots of pipes, of Sakacourse. To me, there was less “crap” and more cigars this time. After the show closed at 5 we heard Nick Perdomo playing the custom drum set he had made by Pearl Drums and went to watch, some of you may have caught the live streaming video I  broadcast on Periscope. Wednesday evening we went back to the RoMa suite and hung out, if they were handing out cigar at the door we didn’t take any, I’m not one to push the weasel factor any further. I was grateful to have a cool place to chill out among friends. I smoked a couple of cigars I brought from home. I did get to meet the winner of the IPCPR’s contest, an enthusiastic young dude from Alabama (I think), who brought his dad along. He was excited to meet his heroes, I think the right guy won, although I would have liked to see one of my readers win.

 

recluseThat’s the basic wrap up, I’ll have a load of new cigars to smoke in the coming weeks, so stay tuned, and I’ll be posting my special “secret question” project mid-week, hopefully. The photos are interspersed throughout the article are fairly random. I didn’t really take a lot of photos this time. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I’ll answer. Another trend I noticed was bright-colored packaging. Yes, we all know that the new Toraño bands look like Camacho bands, but the bright colors is something we noticed several places. One wonders why it’s taken so long for that to happen? That’s it for now, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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Cordoba & Morales Cigars at IPCPR 2016

I have heard about Z and Emille from Cordoba & Morales Cigars for a while, but never seemed to connect with them until a guy who started a blog back around the same time I did was doing their PR and asked if I wanted to schedule an appointment. I’ve kept in touch with Dave Payne over the years as he got away from writing CigarSage.com, and it was a great pleasure to finally meet him face to face. But this isn’t about meeting someone I started corresponding with in 2009, it’s about a small cigar company and what I think is a powerful message. Here’s the video which originally aired live on Periscope yesterday (hint, follow me on Periscope, I’ll be doing some more today…)

 

Periscope saves the video in fairly low resolution, so if the quality isn’t up to standards, that’s why. I don’t recommend watching it on a 42″ TV (but how many of you are?).  Thanks to Z for talking with me, his lovely wife Emille, and Dave for setting this up. Best of luck to Cordoba & Morales cigars!

That’s all for now, Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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IPCPR, CAA & CRA File Lawsuit Against FDA Today

I don’t usually post press releases, but I thought this one was important enough to pass along. Posted from my phone, so pardon the formatting.

Three major cigar and tobacco industry associations file suit against FDA’s deeming rule

CAA, IPCPR, & CRA ask District Court of Washington D.C. for declaratory injunction

For Immediate Release: July 15, 2016

WASHINGTON D.C. – The three major cigar and tobacco industry associations filed suit Thursday against the United States Food and Drug Administration’s “Deeming Rule.” The Cigar Association of America, International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association, and the Cigar Rights of America are asking the District Court for the District of Columbia for a declaratory injunction “vacate, set aside and enjoin the enforcement of the final rule” because it is violates numerous federal statutes as well as the federal rulemaking process. A full copy of the filing, which details nine counts against the FDA and the United States Department of Health and Human Services, can be found here (note: the link was not included in either press release I received).

“Just over one month ago, our three associations pledged to work together to develop the appropriate response to the FDA’s new deeming rule. After a thorough and detailed legal review, we are challenging this unlawful regulatory action in federal court to protect the statutory and constitutional rights of our industry and its members. The fact that all three of our organizations are acting in one voice speaks to the urgency and seriousness of this action,” said Mark Pursell, CEO of the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association.

The complaint challenges:

  • FDA’s improper application of the February 15, 2007 grandfather date to cigars and pipe tobacco, which subjects those products to more intrusive regulations than cigarettes and smokeless tobacco
  • FDA’s impermissible assessment of a tax in the form of user fees, and its allocation of these user fees only to cigars and pipe tobacco and not to other newly deemed products
  • FDA’s failure to perform an adequate cost-benefit analysis to take into account the effects of the Final Rule on small businesses as is required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act
  • FDA’s unjustified decision to require cigar health warning labels to be 30% of the two principal display panels of packages
  • FDA’s unlawful designation of tobacconists who blend finished pipe tobacco or create cigar samplers of finished cigars as “manufacturers,” which subjects those businesses to greater regulation than if they were “retailers”
  • FDA’s incorrect decision to regulate pipes as “components” or “parts” rather than as “accessories”

“The FDA ignored the law to craft these expansive and sweeping regulations and cannot justify many of the arbitrary and capricious regulations it purports to enact,” said Glynn Loope, Executive Director of Cigar Rights of America. “This lawsuit is a specific and detailed challenge to the FDA’s unprecedented assertion of rulemaking authority. “We are acting in one voice to protect the legal rights of our industry at all levels, from the manufacturer, the community retail tobacconist, to the adult patrons of cigars.”

Speaking about the lawsuit, Cigar Association of America President Craig Williamson said, “We all worked in good faith to inform and educate the FDA on the unique nature of our industry, its members and our consumers. We hoped the FDA would craft a flexible regulatory structure that accounted for the uniqueness of our industry. Instead, we got a broad, one-size-fits-all rule that fails to account for how cigars and premium cigars are manufactured, distributed, sold and consumed in the United States. The FDA exceeded its statutory authority and violated the federal rulemaking process when crafting this set of broad and sweeping regulations. This challenge asserts nine violations of federal law and rulemaking authority. We are asking the court to enjoin the enforcement of this unlawful regulatory scheme. We are confident that when the court reviews our case on its merits, we will prevail.”

Thanks to the CAA, IPCPR and CRA for their efforts to save the premium cigar industry.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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