Pancho Villa Cigar is Truly a Shot in the Dark
The annual IPCPR gathering gives very good exposure to new brands and product introductions. At the 2014 IPCPR in Las Vegas, USA Sales inc. had a booth and introduced several new cigars, one of which is a 6.5 X 52 torpedo called Pancho Villa. This cigar has Dominican filler and binder wrapped by Ecuadorian Connecticut tobacco. I was given the Pancho Villa to review. The Pancho was firm, average...
Valentia Fires a Torpedo!
Cigar making traditionally passed within families from generation to generation, often until the business is acquired by a large corporation. Less traditional entry comes from retailers or cigar lovers plunging into cigar making by having an established manufacturer produce a blend for the new operator to market. Valentia has an unusual pedigree – it was created by a weapons accessories...
The Ghost Envy – a Halloween Trick or Treat?
Gurkha’s Ghost series apparently first materialized in time for Halloween in 2012. For the 2014season, Gurkha is planning a big extension to the Ghost series – a 7 X 70 mysteriously called “Envy”. It has the same blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos, a Dominican Criollo 1998 binder, and finally the same dark Brazilian Arapiraka Maduro wrapper as the rest of the Ghosts. The...
Montecristo Shouts “on guard” With Its New Puro Espada Series
Montecristo continues to launch innovative high quality cigars year after year. One of this year’s launches is the Espada (sword) series that is a Nicaraguan puro made in cooperation with Plasencia. For this series, Montecristo takes a page from the wine industry playbook by identifying the “vintage” and the growing region of the tobaccos used. So the Espada series has an Habano Jalapa...
A Kingly Sized Broadleaf
Since its opening at the 2013 IPCPR Kings has been developing its offering of cigars. It now has 5 different series, each named for position of royalty to reflect their goal of providing a “taste of royalty” in each blend. I met with Pete Tyndale, King’s master blender, at the 2014 IPCPR where he discussed the how the different series offer tastes from mild to full bodied cigars. Quite a...
