Posted by: RICHARD CARLETON HACKER On November 11, 2019 It’s an unfortunate paradox that nearly all of the most coveted and costly hand-rolled cigars are made in the some of the poorest developing countries. The Dominican Republic produces more premium cigars than any other nation, including Cuba, and Dominican cigars, both hand- and machine-made, account for more than $600 million a year in spending. Their manufacture has also created more than 120,000 jobs for farmers, cigar rollers, box makers and countless other tobacco industry workers. And yet, much of the vast leafy countryside of the DR remains a random assortment of…
Author: MylesK
Posted on November 5, 2019 By: PATRICK LAGREID The Lotus Group has released six new color options for its Deception cigar cutter, a pair in carbon fiber and a quartet known as the Techni-Color collection. The Techni-Color collection is available in four colors: blue, gray, white and red, each of which feature colored blades and an all-over starburst design on the body. The carbon fiber versions are available in either chrome or gold as accents on the body, while the blades do not add any design. Read more…
Posted by Andrew Keh Photographs by Pete Kiehart Posted on: Oct. 29, 2019 SPLIT, Croatia — The smoke machine seemed redundant. This was the Cigar Smoking World Championship. There was already a lot of smoke. But there it was, next to the laser lights and the rattling sound system, pluming white fog around a subterranean hotel ballroom in which people in tuxedos and evening gowns representing more than 40 countries had gathered to find out who among them could smoke a cigar the slowest. The noise, the pageantry, the glittery prizes valued at tens of thousands of dollars — for Marko Bilic,…
Posted on: October 25, 2019 By Gregory Mottola If you’ve spent the last decade and a half trying to collect every Regional Edition Cuban cigar ever released by Habanos S.A., the quest just got easier. Pacific Cigar Company Ltd. has amassed every Regional Edition cigar from every country spanning the first six years of the program and put them all in a limited-edition humidor appropriately called Humidor del Mundo: Humidor of the World. Shaped like a large pillar, the cabinet humidor contains 158 cigars—two each of every Regional Edition from 2005 to 2010. This world tour collection includes everything from the Punch Super Finos created for Italy to…
Posted on: OCTOBER 22, 2019 By:PATRICK LAGREID The famed Cohiba Behike line could soon be getting a new, thicker size, as Habanos S.A. has been testing a 58 ring gauge version known as the BHK 58. Details remain scarce at this point, including the length of the cigar, but a report by L’Amateur de cigare indicates that samples were distributed at the company’s meeting of global distributors in June. Two distributors, both speaking under condition of anonymity, confirmed to halfwheel that samples were indeed handed out, but did not have information on what the specific plans for the new size were. Read more…
I realize that this is old news, but I found the story behind the name of the cigar interesting. It’s not a complex story by any means, but I was curious about the name ever since I heard it. Posted on September 19, 2019 ByPatrick Lagreid There’s a new short, stout Alec Bradley coming to retailers in the coming weeks, the Magic Toast Chunk. The cigar measures 4 1/2 x 60, a size that has been used before under the same name in the Black Market line as a Canadian exclusive. This version is slated to arrive in the U.S. in October…
Posted on: October 8, 2019 By: BBC News With a growing middle class in Africa, with increasing levels of disposable income, there’s a rising demand for luxury goods like cigars. Established brands mainly come from Latin America, but now one firm in Mozambique is seeking to challenge that. Watch Video…
Posted on: October 7, 2019 Posted by: BBC News (no author noted in article) A cigar, partly smoked by Winston Churchill and “picked up and treasured” by an usherette, is to be sold. Violet King saw then prime minister drop the cigar at the London Coliseum in January 1953, her great nephew Julian Lewis said. Ms King wrote to Churchill asking if she could “tell her friends she had his cigar” and kept a letter from Downing Street giving his consent. Auctioneers Hansons said the item could fetch £6,000 in the December sale. Hansons said the cigar’s “rock solid…
Posted On: SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 By:CHARLIE MINATO The 2019 version pays tribute to the terroirs of some of the company’s tobacco origins.Once again, French artist Rose Saneuil has been tasked with creating the piece, which is limited to 20 units. Each humidor is made of 34 different materials including: leather, minerals, parchment, straw, tobacco leaves wood and mother of pearl. The humidor measures 21.65 inches x 14 x 7. Read more…
By Gregory Mottola From Kurt Russell, July/August 2019 Think of the definition of a cult movie: It’s a film that goes outside of the mainstream; incorporates unusual themes ranging from the subversive to the taboo; is shown in very few theaters and, most importantly, is known only to a relatively small, but passionate fan base that can appreciate something different. Eventually, cult films become cult classics, such as Night of the Living Dead or The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Now, apply that same idea to cigars. It may sound strange to the uninitiated, but the cigar world does indeed have a subculture of smokers…