Cigar Coop

Tonight we are honored to welcome Patrick Legreid of Halfwheel to the Prime Time Show. Without a doubt Patrick is one of the best and most recognizable journalists in the cigar industry. The work he has done for over a decade with Halfwheel has changed cigar media. Tonight we will look at Patrick’s journey in cigar media, and get his perspectives on things going on in the industry. Plus, we will sneak in some baseball talk. Plus, we will have our Cattle Baron Steak Question of the Night, Tabacalera USA Ties That Bind, Alec Bradley Live True, Espinosa Today in Sports History, and the Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Deliberation segments.

As is now a tradition on Cigar Coop, we close out our 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Coverage at the Tatuaje Cigars booth. This year, it was “33 Minutes with Pete Johnson,” as we discussed a wide range of cigar and industry topics. Johnson is one of the most ardent supporters of the PCA, so it’s no surprise he has brought his A-game to the show regarding releases. And to make things more exciting, Tatuaje is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023. We would all present Pete Johnson with two special awards. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qmW

We spin the wheel to see who takes home the 2000 count cabinet humidor (cigars not included) from Quality Importers Trading Co

When we started to compile our "Cigar Big Board" for the 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) of what new products are being showcased and launched, one of the first companies to make their announcements was Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust. At that time, the company announced seven different products it would be introducing to market. What's interesting is there is quite a wide range of products - from the $7.95 mixed filler Polpettas to the new $100.00 ultra-premium Unicorns. It was no surprise that the Dunbarton booth was bustling with activity. Despite being a very busy booth, owner Steve Saka has been quite generous with his time, as he gave us a 36-minute interview at PCA. We also used this interview to present Saka with the 2022 #2 Cigar Coop Cigar of the Year for Sin Compromiso Paladin de Saka and a special award by Bear Duplisea for the "most watched Take" on El Oso Fumar in 2022. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qm0

Foundation Cigar Company often themes its cigars around different cultures. Over the years, the branding of Foundation has paid homage to the cultures of Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Egypt, Jamaica, and England as well as Melillo's home state of Connecticut. That continued in 2023 as the owner Nicholas Melillo's company's new releases honored Nicaragua, Ethiopia, and Connecticut. A couple of the releases showcased this year were quite personal for Melillo, as there is a release honoring Melillo's grandfathers and one for a special honor that Melillo received from the country of Ethiopia. Foundation has worked with the Aganorsa and AJ Fernandez's factories to handle his production. This year, the focus was on the AJ Fernandez-produced brands. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qlf

Bear Duplisea presents Rafael Nodal with the award for #3 Cigar of the Year from El Oso Fumar. This was given for the Saint Luis Rey Carenas Toro..

On Prime Time Jukebox Episode 106, Dave and Coop look at some of musicians who decided to try their hand at acting and those actors who tried their hand at music. We also discuss music and cigar news including the death of Robbie Robertson, and the recent win by the cigar industry in U.S. Court. Dave will talk the Australian concert scene – and yes, Barbie! In this episode, Dave smokes the Espinosa 601 La Bomba Warhead IX while Coop smokes the West Tampa Tobacco Red You can watch the episode in real-time on our YouTube page and it will also premiere on our Facebook page on Monday, August 21, at 8pm ET. As always you can follow along with our Spotify Playlists: Episode 106 Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5RxrDEHjbXeH3adyLtuQjv?si=8bc9afdb77024ece References The Band’s Robbie Robertson Dies at 80: https://pitchfork.com/news/the-bands-robbie-robertson-dies-at-80/ Bob Dylan Pays Tribute to Former Bandmate Robbie Robertson: https://pitchfork.com/news/bob-dylan-pays-tribute-to-former-bandmate-robbie-robertson/ Paul announces Australian dates for the 'Got Back' tour: https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/paul-announces-australian-dates-for-the-got-back-tour Petbarn has released hilarious Dolly Parton pet apparel and toys: https://www.bhg.com.au/dolly-parton-pet-apparel Judge Mehta Orders FDA’s Deeming Rule to be Vacated: https://cigar-coop.com/2023/08/cigar-news-judge-metha-orders-fdas-deeming-rule-to-be-vacated.html Developing Palates - Team Cigar Review: Davidoff Millennium Lancero Limited Edition 2023: https://developingpalates.com/reviews/cigar-reviews/team-cigar-review-davidoff-millennium-lancero-limited-edition-2023/ Ryan Gosling’s I’m Just Ken: Exploring Masculinity in a Bleach Blonde Ballad: https://cigarjukebox.com/2023/08/03/ryan-goslings-im-just-ken-exploring-masculinity-in-a-bleach-blonde-ballad/

For the third consecutive year, Matilde Cigars was a part of the Sutliff Tobacco pavilion. During this time, Sutliff has provided distribution services for many companies, including Matilde. It had been almost 6 1/2 years since Matilde Cigars has released a new regular production line, but earlier this year, Matilde released the Matilde Serena Maduro. The Matilde Serena Maduro is the fifth regular production line for Matilde, and it's meant to complement the Matilde Serena, which is a Connecticut Shade offering. Meanwhile, Matilde is continuing its Limited Exposure project - a series of limited-production cigars from Tabacalera La Isla that feature small production runs in different sizes. This year the Matilde Limited Exposure No. 1 was released in a Robusto size. In what has become a Cigar Coop Coalition tradition, the Matilde booth was visited as the Trade Show was getting ready to shut down for 2023. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qky

Pospiech Cigars is an operation run by Mike and Greg Szczepankiewicz out of Deltona, Florida, where they also have their Cigar Hustler retailer operation and Hustler Universe Podcasts. Pospiech is best known for the Powstanie Cigars made at RoMa Craft Tobac’s Nica Sueño factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. This year, they were a part of the RoMa Craft Tobac booth for the first time since 2019. This year Powstanie was front and center as the featured brand from Pospiech Cigars. For the first time since the brand launched, Powstanie is launching a regular production cigar. The Powstanie Connecticut is the brand's first Connecticut Shade release. Meanwhile, ongoing popular limited edition lines, the Wojtek and SBC, are also seeing new releases. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qjH

Luciano Cigars is a company that has undergone some significant changes. Last year, the company was known as ACE Prime, but since then has taken on the name of its CEO and blender, Luciano Meirelles. As a part of that rebranding, the company has also made significant changes, setting up a new factory in Estelí, Nicaragua, its own distribution and fulfillment center in Florida, and establishing its own sales force. Along the way, the company has still focused on product innovation. At the 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show, plenty of new products were showcased. One of the most exciting things about Luciano Cigars is it has established a network of partners and collaborators that are a part of its business model. This has allowed these partners and collaborators to leverage the production capabilities at the Luciano Cigars factory and the sales and distribution the company has established. This model reminded me quite a bit of what C.L.E. Cigar Company had done with the Fabricas Unidas model - serving as an "incubator" for its partners and collaborators. Now it's fascinating to see it happening again in the cigar industry. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qjy

This was the seventh Premium Cigar Association (PCA)/IPCPR Trade Show For Jochy Blanco's La Galera line. Blanco first came to the IPCPR Trade Show back in 2016 when he would launch his own premium cigar brand, La Galera Cigars. Since then, La Galera has been at every Trade Show the PCA/IPCPR has covered. At the 2023 PCA Show, there wasn't anything from La Galera in terms of new product lines or line extensions. Most of the changes involved samplers and a revamping of the packaging for the La Galera Connecticut. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qje

Quality Importers Trading Company has certainly built up an impressive portfolio of brands. One of the brands that got considerable attention at the 2023 was Humidor Supreme. This year Humidor Supreme had several new desktop, cabinet, and commercial humidor offerings. Several of the releases incorporate technology - from electronic temperature and humidity control to an innovative fingerprint locked humidor. At the same time, Quality Importer is strengthening the branding of its Humidor Supreme offerings as all of the new humidors now feature a leaf engraved panel inside the units - whether desktop or cabinet. In part two of Humidor Supreme coverage, we look at cabinet humidors. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qjl

Quality Importers Trading Company has certainly built up an impressive portfolio of brands. One of the brands that got considerable attention at the 2023 was Humidor Supreme. This year Humidor Supreme had several new desktop, cabinet, and commercial humidor offerings. Several of the releases incorporate technology - from electronic temperature and humidity control to an innovative fingerprint locked humidor. At the same time, Quality Importer is strengthening the branding of its Humidor Supreme offerings as all of the new humidors now feature a leaf engraved panel inside the units - whether desktop or cabinet. In part one of Humidor Supreme coverage, we look at desktop humidors. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qjl

Last week, came news of Micallef Cigars and All Saints Cigars uniting their sales teams into a single unit. Tonight we will bring in the two principals involved with making this deal happen: Dan Thompson, President of Micallef Cigars and Micky Pegg, co-owner of All Saints Cigars. We will discuss how this arrangement came to be, what this arrangement actually entails, and what the future holds here. Plus, we will have our Cattle Baron Steak Question of the Night, Tabacalera USA Ties That Bind, Alec Bradley Live True, Espinosa Today in Sports History, and the Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Deliberation segments.

I've noticed that you can count on Estaban Carreras to introduce a new product at the year's Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show. You can also count on them not announcing what that cigar is until the doors of the show open. Typically for its PCA show releases, Esteban Carreras has introduced a regular production cigar. In the case of the 2023 PCA Trade Show, Esteban Carreras opted to release a limited-production cigar called Taken from the Devil’s Hand Maduro. This is a Maduro counterpart to a regular production cigar that was introduced last year called Taken From the Devil's Hand, which was the company's first Corojo cigar. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qiD

The 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show marked the seventh trade show for JRE Tobacco Company. This year, the company came into the trade show with four new releases. In the past, many of JRE's trade show releases focused on their core line. This year this focus shifted to limited edition offerings. There is the company's first true one-and-done limited edition, an ongoing limited production release, and a lounge exclusive offering. In terms of a company, JRE is very much tied to the family farm, the JRE Tobacco Farm, and this year JRE had two releases highlighted by a Sumatra leaf being grown on the farm. We recommend you turn you audio up to hear this interview. We apologize for the audio issues, but still hope you enjoy the interview. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qio

The 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show was the third one for Howard G Cigars. For the Cigar Coop Coalition team, this has become one of the most fun booths to visit. Owner Howard Gumbs Jr. and his team are always fun to talk to - and they have great products. In addition to his own core line of cigars, Gumbs has teamed up with former NFL standout players Ike Taylor and Leon Searcy to develop their own cigar brands. The one thing that really impresses me is how the whole team comes together to support the brand. This was evident with this year's release from Howard G - The Perfect Round. Rather than being a football-themed cigar, The Perfect Round has a golf theme - something the trio enjoys playing together. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qhI

It took us a few tries to get time with the folks at the Aganorsa Leaf booth at the 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show, but that was because the booth was very active. That's understandable because Aganorsa Leaf came into PCA 2023 with a strong lineup of brand and line extensions. Heading up the lineup is one big line extension. When we say big, we mean big in cigar size - a 10 x 100 cigar. On the other hand, a small ring gauge comes to the Rare Leaf Reserve line in the form of 6 x 44 Lonsdale. There are also new lines coming to the Aniversario and New Cuba brands. Finally, we presented Aganorsa Leaf's Terence Reilly with a special award. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qhB

Quality Importers Trading Company declared 2023 "Year of the Palió" as there was a big focus on the Palió brand. For many years Palió was known for its innovative cutter. Over the past few years, Palió has become a value-priced brand for cutters and lighters in the Quality Importers portfolio. When Xikar was acquired, that would become the more premium line of cutters and lighters. This year Quality Importers decided to introduce a series in-between the Palió and Xikar series in terms of price point known as Palió Pro which will feature three lighters priced between $44.99 and $49.99. Meanwhile Palió as keeps true to its roots as a value-priced brand as Quality Importers introduced a new value-priced lighter known as the Palió Pistola. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qh4

Lampert Cigars was a first-time booth visit for the Cigar Coop Coalition team. However, the brand has been on the team's radar for some time. The brand is the namesake of Dr. Stefan Lampert, a lawyer out of Austria. He created a brand called My Cigar Lab which gave people the opportunity to create their very own handmade premium cigars as if in a laboratory. This became a springboard for Lampert to then start to share some of his favorite blends, and thus Lampert Cigars was born. Over the past few years, Lampert began working with many factories in different countries to make his cigars. This year, the focus was on a new San Andres blend for his core Lampert 1675 line and a PCA Exclusive offering. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qha

Cigar Coop has been covering the Trade Show since 2010, and every year we manage to visit Topper Cigars' booth. There is a rich history for this family, and owner Chris Topper is quite proud of it. There aren't any new offerings from Topper Cigars this year, but there were a couple of things of interest. First up, there is a second production run of the Topper 125th Anniversary Cigar - which, as the name indicates, commemorates 125 years of Topper Cigars. In addition, Chris Topper gave us a little glimpse of what the next project will be. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qgp

On August 15 2010, Will Cooper went to his first IPCPR Trade Show as a buyer. After an adventure getting an Iced Coffee in the heat of New Orleans, he decided to chronicle his tales of his visit to the Trade Show and Cigar Coop was born. Along the way, he met some interesting characters and one of them was a newcomer to the cigar industry named Matt Booth. Over the years, Matt and Coop have developed a friendship akin to the Odd Couple -at the same time that friendship expanded to the rest of the team. Tonight, we welcome Matt Booth to this anniversary show. All I can say is put on your seat belts for this one. Bear and Coop will reflect on the last 13 years as well. Plus we have our U.S. History segment, Tabacalera USA Great Things are Happening Here, and Espinosa This Day in Sports History segments. References Police Officer Jumps Fence to Save Chained Dog from Fire, Not Giving Up Even When Heat Turned Severe: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/police-officer-jumps-fence-to-save-chained-dog-from-fire-not-giving-up-even-when-heat-turned-severe/ Dozens of Messages in Bottles Tossed by a Nantucket Fisherman are Found Around the World: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/dozens-of-messages-in-bottles-tossed-by-a-nantucket-fisherman-are-found-around-the-world/

At an FDA Seminar at the 2013 IPCPR Trade Show, a relatively unknown new brand had its debut cigar launched. That brand was Fratello Cigars, owned by Omar de Frias who worked for NASA. Following the Trade Show, Omar would take a grassroots approach to introduce his cigars to the market that he called "Fratello Road." Fast forward to 2023, and this year Omar and Fratello are celebrating ten years in the cigar business. Our visit to the Fratello booth included a lot of reminiscing over Fratello's decade in the cigar business. In addition, there were a couple of new releases. The first was Fratello - The Lunar, which is being released in conjunction with the upcoming Nova-C Lunar Landing project. In addition, the Fratello Sorella, a line that hasn't had a full U.S. launch, will now see one. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qgf

It has been over five years since Quality Importers Trading Company acquired Xikar. Since then, the company has worked hard to make it one of its flagship brands in the portfolio. In the past few years, the innovation pipeline for Xikar has not slowed down - and that trend continued at the 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show. This year, the company showcased a new in-line dual-flame lighter known as the Xikar Ion. There are some more collaborations coming with New York jeweler Jacob & Co. Also the company has done a soft launch of its next generation of the Xikar Xi Cutter -the Xikar Perfect Xi1 Cutter. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qfX

n 2022, the company known as El Artista underwent a rebrand. El Artista brands are owned by Ram Rodriguez, who also owns the Tabacalera El Artista in the Dominican Republic. The rebrand included a portfolio restructuring as well as changing the company name for the brands to Artista Cigars. Last year as a part of the portfolio restructure, the company previewed an eponymous line of cigars titled Artista. This line consists of two offerings - Artista Harvest and Artista Midnight. It took almost a year, but a couple of weeks before the 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show, Artista made it to the market. We talked to Ram Rodriguez about the line, and Bear Duplisea had an opportunity to present Ram with an award for #2 Cigar of the Year for the Buffalo Ten Connecticut. Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qfx