Nick Melillo was back this year with a colorful new booth, new Foundation cigar lines and of course, new insights into the world of tobacco. We got started with The Upsetters. Nick has been a long time fan of reggae music and Jamaican tobacco, and he also has a history of working with Nicaraguan tobacco. […]
IPCPR 2016: White Hat (HR)
As the show was winding down on the last day we dropped by the White Hat booth for a quick chat with Spencer Drake about what’s new with HR. Of course the first thing that is new since the last trade show is White Hat handling distribution of HR, which means that the original line […]
IPCPR 2016: 26 Minutes With Pete Johnson
No IPCPR is complete without another episode in the growing Minutes With Pete Johnson series. This year we met up with a slender Pete behind the bar in his 2016 Best In Show booth. It seemed more like he was tending bar in his shiny new booth than selling cigars. (He was behind the bar […]
IPCPR 2016: Perdomo
We caught up with Chris Harper in the spacious Perdomo booth the last day of IPCPR and we learned that everything old is new again. By that I mean, Perdomo is bringing back all of their pre-2007 brands, though some of them may have some packaging updates. That means the reintroduction of a lot of […]
IPCPR 2016: Romeo y Julieta
Our IPCPR tour continues with Yasemin Ozoncul in the Romeo y Julieta section of the Altadis booth. Before we get into the new product she gives us a little background, telling us about her first project at Altadis, 2011’s ROMEO. That leads us into the Plasencia-made ROMEO 505 Nicaragua, a box-pressed puro that was created […]
IPCPR 2016: Montecristo
In this first part of the Altadis IPCPR booth tour, we focus on the new Montecristos for 2016. Our tour guide is Yasemin Ozoncul, Marketing Director for Altadis USA. We get started with the Montecristo Pilotico Pepe Mendez and the story of Dominican Pilotico tobacco, which made its debut with last year’s limited edition Montecristo […]
IPCPR 2016: Daniel Marshall
We met up again with Daniel Marshall at IPCPR 2016, and he was only too happy to give us the tour of his cigars and high end humidors. He’s in a good position in the context of the new FDA regulations, as all of his Heritage Brand cigar lines have been in production since well […]
IPCPR 2016: Macanudo
In this video Ben talks to Victoria McKee Jaworski about the latest Macanudo, the Macanudo Mao. General Cigars has been keeping their tobacco scientists busy, because like the new Partagás Ramón y Ramón, the Mao uses Dominican tobacco from “regenerated” vintage 1960’s seeds. In addition to that the blend also includes Nicaraguan and Colombian leaf. […]
IPCPR 2016: Hoyo de Monterrey
In this video Elizabeth Maksim, the Brand Manager for Hoyo de Monterrey gives us a quick introduction to the newest Hoyo offering for IPCPR 2016. It’s another collaboration with A.J. Fernandez, appropriately named the Hoyo La Amistad which translates to “the friendship”. The blend is made at Tabacalera Fernandez and features an Ecuadoran Habano wrapper […]
IPCPR 2016: Partagás
In this video we talk to Andres Maturen Maal, Brand Manager for Partagás about the new Ramón y Ramón. The cigar is an homage to Ramón Cifuentes, the owner of the Partagás in Cuba until his departure in 1961. The project has been in the work for four years, using tobacco seeds from the 1960’s. […]