Heard in the Humidor: April 28 - May 4

LOS ANGELES – The annual Tobacco Plus Expo in Las Vegas is focused primarily on the convenience store market, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of new brands to see and new ideas to consider. Some of the highlights ...

>> Jonathan Drew told anyone who would listen at last year’s Retail Tobacco Dealers of America (RTDA) trade show that the next market niche to be conquered would be cigars with some type of coffee flavor.

Drew made sure that he and his Drew Estates team would be well positioned and are in the process of introducing the Tabak Especial line, infused with Nicaraguan estate-grown coffee.

Drew Estates partner Marvin Samel noted that this blend is designed as a "bridge" between smokers who are used to infused cigars – such as Drew Estates’ Acid – and traditional cigars which are not infused, such as their Chateau Real line. The Tabak Especial has an extra-dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper that’s cured for two years, plus a Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan Criollo filler leaves for a medium-to-full-bodied taste. There will be six sizes available, in boxes of 24, 40, or 50.

>> Special editions continue to be popular, and Rocky Patel has taken the concept to its logical end with the Rocky Patel Lancero Sampler. Capitalizing on the revival in interest in the elegant Lancero shape – in this case 7 1/2 inches by 40 ring – Patel created a box of 10 Lanceros with two each of five of his most popular blends: The Edge Corojo, The Edge Maduro, Rocky Patel Decade, Olde World Reserve and Sun Grown. The shape isn’t normally made in any of these lines, but a total of 2,500 samplers (25,000 cigars) were made and retail for $70 each, if you can find them.

>> Mike Chiusano’s Domrey Cigars is on a roll and introduced two new blends to the Cusano line, the Cusano 59 and the Cusano Habano LXI.

Both are made by hand in the Dominican Republic, with the Cusano 59 featuring an aged Cameroon wrapper and Dominican-grown binder and fillers for a spicy taste that’s calculated for medium-to-full body. According to Chiusano, the blend doesn’t overpower, but comes equal to the Cameroon wrapper in flavor and creates a unique balance. The Cusano Habano LXI features a Habano Sun Grown wrapper grown in the Dominican, and blended with Dominican-grown binder and fillers. Also medium-to-full in body, this is a cigar with rich flavors and an elegant band. Both lines are offered in four sizes, including a marvelous Preferido shape, a perfecto of 5 3/4 inches long by 57 ring gauge.

>> Increasingly-popular Arganese Cigars introduced its own 60-ring gauge stick, elegantly packaged in slide-top wood coffins holding one cigar. The new "Arganese Uno" is a 6-inch by 60-ring toro that’s medium-to-full in body and made with all-Dominican tobaccos. It comes in boxes of five and has a suggested retail price of $16 each.

>> Speciality sizes and packaging are becoming more and more popular. Two companies which work closely with Altadis U.S.A. offered new options for lovers of Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta 1875 and Trinidad cigars.

Great Discovery’s of Houston sells special editions of more than a dozen brands and now offers to retailers – for the first time anywhere – a Romeo y Julieta 1875 perfecto! It’s called the Castle Lane and echoes the much-loved packaging of the now-extinct Royal Jamaica Park Lane shape. Each cigar is wrapped in tissue paper; the cigar itself is a regal perfecto of 6 3/4 inches by 48 ring gauge, using the molds from the Jose Seijas Signature Series Perfecto of the same dimensions.

Harold Levinson Associates of Farmingdale, N.Y., now offers smokeshops a two-shape line called the Montecristo Crystal Seleccion and four shapes in the Trinidad Cabinet Seleccion. These are the standard blends made by Altadis U.S.A. in its famed Tabacalera de Garcia factory in the Dominican Republic, but packed in hinged cabinets of 12 for the Montecristos and 16 for the Trinidads, perfect for gifts. One shape in each line – the Montecristo Churchills (7 x 50) and the Trinidad Coronas (5 x 44) are offered in glass tubes.

>> Texas Cigar Brothers, which makes the wild Flor de Jardin and Smokin’ Toad brands, debuted a stunning packaging concept in which individual cigars are offered in a single sleeves with a shelf life of up to two years! The vacuum-pack concept is perfect to allow non-specialty retailers to sell cigars without having to have an on-site humidor. Four blends are offered in a total of 11 different sizes from a short panatela up to a 6 1/2-inch by 60-ring torpedo.

>> Short fillers: The stars of this show over the past three years have been little cigar brands, which were introduced by the bagful and have been hot sellers. With states legislating that these cigars – which are generally the same format as cigarettes – be taxed as cigarettes, the emphasis on this sector was significantly reduced. One new introduction of note was Bodyshot little cigars, made in North Carolina and offered, in a twist, in cocktail flavors including Mojito, Rum & Cola, Trance and Sangria. These are offered in packs of 20.

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Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2008; All rights reserved.

Rich Perelman

4/28/08

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