Cigar Weekly

We decided to give Drew Estates a try, and were rewarded with a warm welcome from Marvin Samel--Founder and Executive Vice President. We were also greeted by Joey Oliva who visits CW (to read mostly) as "Cheo Malanga." Marvin was really forthcoming in telling us about the Liga Privada #9, which is quickly achieving mythical status since its introduction a year ago. There are only 40,000 of these cigars, and it will stay this way for a while yet. They use a broadleaf wrapper, and since they don't sweat it, the leaf takes two years to mature. The other problem he said is that "we've been the leading seller of infused cigars for years. The problem is that the flavored or infused cigars hide any changes in the tobacco blend. So when we went to make a traditional cigar, we didn't have a large stock of reserves. You need years of reserves, because if you change the blend, or run out of one leaf and substitute another, you'll be called out immediately on the forums by you guys, and by customers. We're now up to a point where we have almost three years of reserves, which is just above what a young company really needs." They've only been able to add 50 new store-accounts this year for this cigar due to the small amounts.

By this time Steve Saka, President of Drew Estates, came rolling up to us, we introduced ourselves and greeted him in the name of ElkTwin (Roger Farnsworth.) He was eager to discuss the Liga Privada #9 as well.

Saka told us, "tell them (your readers) to buy the new Chateau Real instead, we've got millions of those." Chateau Real is Drew Estates' newest release. It's a blend of Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos wrapped in a golden Connecticut Shade wrapper. It's a mild cigar, according to their literature, that's meant to remind older smokers and introduce younger smokers to what the Clear Havanas (cigars made from Cuban tobacco, rolled in the U.S. before the embargo) used to taste like.

Now, before you go thinking this guy's a jerk, he wasn't; he was serious, but joking. The Liga Privada #9 would be simply too difficult to produce annually at a price people would be willing to pay.

I owed a visit to a cigar we've posted about here called Avalon Cigars. Founded in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the heart of Blues country by Tom Ramsey and Gary Hilton, these are the new kids on the block. "We're not as familiar with all the names and traditions of Cuba and the other manufacturers, so we went with what we knew, the Blues to name our cigars," I had one of the reps. tell me. Tom Ramsey told me he's having "an excellent show. Flattering. That's the word I've been using since Sunday. The guys I looked up to, the ‘rock stars' in the industry, know who I was!! I was blown away! Our influences in the industry, Pete Johnson (founder of Tatuaje,) and Tim Ozgener (President of CAO) stopped by. We've been picking up orders and stores all week. It's really been building from visits on Sunday and early Monday, to return visits to schedule appointments." They've also got a small write-up in the Summer 2007 issue of Smoke

Avalon has two presentations. One with gold foil to catch the eye in the tobacconist's humidor, presented in unfinished slide-lid boxes which are appealing to retailers since they take up less shelf-space. But the other cigar, the Juke Blue is the real conversation piece. Like all their Miami-rolled cigars, they're then returned to Clarksdale for aging in pecan-wood. The Juke-Blue, however has a wrapper that's infused with pecan essence. Ramsey says "60% of people hate it while the other 40% like it. I smoked one and heads turned wherever I went. You can really smell it ON the wrapper leaf while you're smoking it although the flavor isn't really noticeable on the palate. However the smell of the smoke is distinctive. My Texian friends, Jefslat and Mad Dawg both said it smelled like they were standing next to their smokers.

Says Ramsey, on his first ever RTDA show, "It's enjoyable mingling in the industry."

Mercado Libre, Jess Fields, was able to fill in some holes in our reporting, some spots and manufacturers we didn't get the opportunity to visit.

"Here are a few (significant) new developments from the RTDA this year:

General Cigar is coming out with an individually boxed super-super- premium called "Stradivarius," which is also the name of an old line of violins (apparently). These will retail at $30 a stick or higher. Did General learn ANYTHING from the Partagas 160?

Camacho has completely revamped their packaging and has added several new sizes to existing lines, in addition to an entirely new line .In packaging, the Corojo line has received an amazing box update, now sporting trapezoidal black and silver boxes with sleek, muted metallic bands on the cigars. The new line, an anniversary cigar with gold bands and gold lines to complement the silver Corojo boxes, will be out sometime this spring (March, I was told). The Havana line now has cabinets of 50 and the foil-wrapped Diademas size. Only 4 rollers in the factory are authorized as skilled enough to make this size, which has long been a staple in the Corojo line. There are many other changes; in essence, Camacho has revamped itself.

Oliva's Serie V, which will fit in the price range of the O, looks rather interesting. It is a rather fresh venture for the Oliva family because of the power of the cigar. The Serie V uses Jalapa Valley ligero tobaccos from Nicaragua extensively in the filler, and a spicy/tangy sun grown wrapper. It is, like the Serie O, a Nicaraguan puro.

Cusano is taking the Cuvee brand which it made famous with the Cuvee Grand Lancero (which has now run out of its extremely limited production), transforming it into their new "premium" line with regular production robustos, torpedoes, churchills, and salomones in a Connecticut Shade line and a spicier line, the wrapper escapes me. The Conn. Shade is the "Blanc," the other the "Rouge."

La Flor Dominicana has some very limited sizes coming out as show specials, and is also revamping the Double Ligero line with a DL-700 in Maduro. The Coronado line, additionally, will feature a Corona and a Toro size as wel. It's about time!

Lastly, Fields reports on Rocky Patel's offerings. Rocky Patel is doing a 10th Anniversary Indian Tabac. In the spirit of his recent success, it is the "10th Anniverary Indian Tabac" - in smaller letters below that - "by Rocky Patel." Also, Nicarao is being re-introduced through Rocky Patel, commissioned by Didier... the Belgian guy who wrote a book in French called Le Cigare."

One last note, CW member easyt (Tim Wong) is the Pacific Coast representative for Carlos Toraño. He tells me, this year, they've not only come out with the Casa Toraño in maduro, but they're bucking a trend from the last three years or so. Tim says "I was FINALLY able to convince Charlie to roll a Lancero size anything, and it's in the new Maduro Casa. They're just ready now." Look for these soon in your stores. When he means just ready, he means that he only smoked one all week with a band on it, one that was regular production and not a unbanded test cigar.

There were and are so many more we would have liked to meet and talk with. Although the total numbers of attendees was down, many of the big names were simply busy every time we walked by. And while I would like to have brought you more information, I'm not going to get these guys to quit doing business to talk to me.

There are more photos in my gallery at Cigar Weekly. We capped our run at the show with a big Cigar Weekly Herf at the 10 Downing Street Pub at the corner of Westheimer and Kirby Drive in the Upper Kirby neighborhood. In attendance from these forums were : 1RedDawg, and his son Hotshot, Husker, hockeymaniac, Stinky, Tinderbox215 and his son Charles, Cubano67, Coastalwader and MrsCoastalwader, Jefslat and Frau Evil, Fatshotbud, Castanza, MrsYogi, (Yogi is on duty in Iraq these days), cigman, myself, Frank Santos and Jose Ortega (of Puros Indios), easyt (of Toraño), as well as Arthur Kemper and Nick Perdomo (of Tabacalera Perdomo).

Thomas Bender (TommyBB) is a moderator and contributing editor of Cigar Weekly. He hails from Greater New Orleans where he resides with his family and contributes his share of the air pollution of the area with cigar smoke as well as running his mouth online more than any human being should. He enjoys gathering with friends and family to partake of good cigars, good food and camaraderie when not coaching youth sports, or playing Church music. He's also been known to wear a good hat from time to time.