For the week of December 31, 2007-January 4, 2008

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Los Angeles – While the production of these quality lines continues, the identity of the company has changed to Reyes Family Cigars. Reyes’s grandson, Carlos Diez, is the new company’s president and wants to bring a new, simpler approach to current and future brands. "We want our own family name to represent us. Whatever we make moving forward will be under this name." Diez noted that he wants to cut down on the current variety of brands and sizes and simplify the lines, as well as add a new one:

"We will launch the ‘Premier’ line in January 2008. This is our first blend under the new corporate name and it will sport a beautiful Costa Rican Maduro wrapper. The binder is from Condega and the filler is from Jalapa, Nicaragua. The blend is bold and will definitely make a statement. This new blend and the name change are a tribute to my grandfather, Rolando Reyes, Sr. I owe everything to him and now is the time to honor his legacy."

>> A recent report in the Central Maine Morning Sentinel noted that Maine retained its position as the state spending the most on anti-tobacco programs. The state, which has only about 1.4 million people, spent $16.9 million or 7.4% of the $229 million it received from its share of the 1998 tobacco settlement agreement (MSA). However, despite all of these efforts and the fact that cigarette company spending through the major public communications channels in the state – newspapers, magazines, radio and television – amount to essentially zero, 16.2% of high school students – about 1,900 – still took up smoking in 2007.

The anti-tobacco lobby will tell you that cigarette companies spent $66 million on marketing in the state, but almost all of that was simply discounts on price, much more likely to influence brand preference against non-name cigarettes than to extol the virtues of taking up smoking. What’s more telling is that smoking will never be wiped out short of Prohibition and the increasing problems of tobacco and cigarette smuggling in high-tax countries like Canada and Great Britain demonstrate that heading toward a total ban on tobacco is only a boon for organized crime.

Although under-age smoking is not to be applauded anywhere, the Maine figures are an interesting window into the reality of tobacco as a part of American life, no matter what the do-gooders – as with the Prohibition movement of the 1920s – will say.

>> For its members, the Grand Havana Room is one of the more elegant places to enjoy a cigar. First opened in 1995 in Beverly Hills, California – and still going strong – a second opened in New York in 1997. A third opened in Washington, D.C., but closed for lack of interest, but a new Grand Havana is open and building its own clientele. In Moscow, Russia!

The newest Grand Havana is the brainchild of American motion picture producer Bob van Ronkel and has at its center what might be the biggest retail-level humidor of all: a member’s locker room for storage of cigars and accessories of 400 square meters or 4,304 square feet!

The Moscow version is licensed by the California-based, privately-held Grand Havana Enterprises, which owns and operates the Beverly Hills and New York facilities. The 2006 transaction provided for an up-front license fee for the privilege, plus ongoing royalties for the use of the name.

>> Short fillers: Many of the towns in eastern Pennsylvania have unique ways to bring in the new year and a giant cigar will play a starring role in two of them. In Richland, the site of many former cigar factories in the 1800s and some that survived into the 20th century, a giant cigar is annually dropped to bring in the new year. A similar ceremony is also held – with an eight-foot-tall cigar – in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, where the town hall is a former cigar factory. These are only some of the many items which are dropped in Pennsylvania cities, which has the nation’s largest number of cities dropping something to mark the start of the year. The giant cigars in Richland and Red Lion are certainly an improvement over Lebanon. That town will host its 11th annual Bologna Drop with a 12-foot-long, 150-pound version of what is described as Lebanon’s "signature product." Happily, the bologna itself will be donated to the Lebanon Rescue Mission after the ceremony.

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Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2007-08; All rights reserved.

Cigar Cyclopedia

1/2/08

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