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Richmond Avenue Cigar - 2005 RTDA Report
RTDA 2005 - New Orleans
Your humble tobacconists, Dan and Lynn, attended the 2005 Retail Tobacco Dealers of America convention which was held in the "The Big Easy", New Orleans, a city full of history, great food, great sights and great charm. As always, there was so much to see and many new cigars to sample. This year, the trend toward more full-bodied cigars continued along with offerings from several companies of limited or special edition cigars that are worthy of note. Of course, flashy marketing plays a part in this show and we have learned, since this was our third show to attend, to try to look beyond the hype and find cigars that we believe will give our customers the best flavor and value for their money. Some companies such as CAO have introduced cigars in unusual boxes such as the new CAO Soprano cigar, an homage to the HBO series, and Gurkha has packaged a cigar called the Titan in a very unusual split-top box. The companies that continue to produce quality cigars without high-amp marketing are among the most respected: Davidoff, Padron, Oliva, Fuente, and La Aurora. These companies have been producing great cigars since 1903 in the case of La Aurora and 1912 in the case of Fuente. Not all great cigars are coming from older companies, however. A good example of a relative newcomer is Litto Gomez of La Flor Dominicana, who continues to amaze us with his skill in producing flavorful, beautifully made cigars, yet he is only entering his 11th year in the business. Litto introduced his "Prensado" cigars at the show in their original factory press molds, in boxes of 120. There will only be 400 boxes produced of this cigar. The Olivas, makers of many great cigars such as the Grand Maduro, Grand Cameroon, O Classic, O Bold, and the Oliva Master Blend 1 in 2003, a magnificent full and complex flavored cigar, have now introduced the Master Blend 2 in a limited run of 120,000 cigars. They continue to offer some of the best cigars on the planet for the money. Caribe Imported Cigars, makers of Camacho, Camacho SLR, Camacho Havana, Baccarat, La Fontana, and the great Liberty series along with their new "El Legendario" cigar, continues to produce some of the most flavorful cigars around, a result of the blending genius of Christian and Julio Eiroa. They have become masters in using the spicy Corojo tobacco grown on their farm in Honduras, and make many cigars with other leaves as well such as Criollo and Connecticut, and now some from a small growing farm called Coyolar. Padron continues in a their time-honored family tradition, to provide some of the most complex and flavorful cigars with their regular line, and their 1964 and 1926 Anniversary series. Miami Cigar, makers of La Aurora, the oldest cigar manufacturer in the Dominican Republic, founded in 1903, introduced their new La Aurora 1495 cigar, which is a blending masterpiece.
So fortified with beignets and coffee from Café du Monde, and capped off with a Hurricane from Pat O'Brien's, and plenty of rest on a very hard hotel bed, we have returned from The Big Easy and we can now highlight a few of the new cigars that we feel are consummate examples of the art of tobacco blending.
Ashton Cigars
This year the Ashton booth was extremely busy, a testament to their great cigars and many product offerings. A new offering in the La Aroma de Cuba cigar line is a new size called Inmensa which is a hefty 5.5 x 60 package of flavor. For those who enjoy the spicy, smooth flavor of these cigars this is a welcome addition to the line. It was full of flavor and, of course, being a larger ring gauge smokes cool and mellow. A second offering is a new size of Ashton VSG (Virgin Sun Grown) called the Wizard. This cigar is unusual for the VSG series since it is not box-pressed as the regular VSG, and it is made in a round shape as were all of the original release of the VSGs several years ago. The size of this cigar will be 6 x 56 (picture above) and while no samples were available, we know it will be a very tasty cigar. The Wizard will come packed in boxes of 37 cigars. The cigar that we were most anxious to try was the the Ashton ESG (Estate Sun Grown) but alas, no samples were available. The cigars, which will not be ready until November or December, will feature a special sun-grown wrapper from Chateau de la Fuente in the Dominican Republic, with Dominican filler in one size, 6.75 x 49. This special wrapper has not been used on any cigar previously. A picture of the beautiful band is shown above. Ashton will introduce one new size of the Estate Sun Grown for each of the next five years leading up to the company's 25th anniversary. These cigars will be extremely limited. Ashton has also introduced a new series of pipe tobaccos in tins with seven different blends, from aromatics to full English. We will have these blends in our shop soon.
Peterson Pipes of Dublin is celebrating their 140th Anniversary and to mark the occasion, they decided to produce an exact copy of Charles Peterson's (the company's founder) favorite pipe (above). The original pipe is kept in the Peterson museum in Dublin, the silver band is engraved with the message; "When stolen, please return to 55 Grafton Street," and it is signed by Charles Peterson. Mr. Peterson obviously had great faith in the honesty of his fellow Dubliners! The large bent bowl is finished in a ruby red color. The silver band is engraved with the Thinking Man/Peterson icon. As with the original pipe, it is fitted with a space-fitting mouthpiece. Upon seeing this pipe, it is indeed worthy of its commemorative status for such an occasion. We already have this pipe in our shop.
La Flor Dominicana
Litto Gomez greeted us warmly at his booth and we saw his latest cigar creation, a limited edition (48000 cigars) called "Prensado." It is a new cigar in the Double Ligero series that comes in the original factory press trays in a box of 120. It features a dark Connecticut broadleaf wrapper that has been aged for 10 years, a Sumatran binder from 1997, and Corojo filler from Litto's 1997 crop. Many thanks to Justin Sandlin, our sales rep, we had a chance to smoke this magnificent cigar. Prelight aroma: light chocolate and coffee. The cigar was very well made with a dark oily smooth wrapper with medium veins, pressed in a rectangular shape measuring just shy of 6.5 inches long, by 60 ring wide by 44 ring thick. After a great meal of grilled shrimp and twice-baked potatoes (we were glad we ate before this one!), my wife and I guillotined and fired one up apiece. The cigar at first had a kick of pepper, which after about a half inch became a full flavor of coffee and bittersweet chocolate with spice. There was a slight burn problem for both of us at first, which was corrected easily. The cigar was very refined and smooth but powerful and the aged tobacco character was evident. Throughout the first two-thirds of the cigar, it had a very slight sweetness with some tang, spice, and pepper. There were no draw problems and there was a great volume of smoke. We both agreed it was extremely tasty. Toward the last third it was still smooth but the ligero kicked in again and made us light headed...yum! Our verdict: if you like full-bodied flavorful cigars, this one will be for you. We expect these cigars will be in our shop in October.
Caribe Imported Cigars
We sampled the two new cigars from Christian Eiroa from Caribe, the yet unnamed Camacho "Black", and the El Legendario. We had smoked an early sample of the "Black" when we were in Honduras in February and were impressed with its power and flavor. The El Legendario is a complex full-bodied tasty cigar that comes in trays of 100 and is blended with tobacco from a small tobacco farm that is a favorite of the Eiroas called Coyolar. Our latest sample of the Camaco "Black" from the RTDA was still a powerful cigar with the benefit of more age, and had a smooth, deep, slightly sweet dark coffee flavor with pepper and spice. We have now smoked the new Camacho Liberty that has just arrived in our shop, and it has a beautiful dark Honduran wrapper with deep rich flavor of spice and earth with full body. This cigar contains a small amount of pre-embargo Cuban tobacco that has been kept by the Eiroas since 1961. Another cigar that has been introduced by Caribe in conjunction with the Poehler family, sales representatives for Caribe in Texas, is the Monte Carlo. We have sampled this cigar and it has a very smooth almon-like flavor and light spice along with coffee and espresso flavor. The flavor of this cigar reminds us of a Padron. These cigars are in our shop now. Miami Cigar
The Miami Cigar booth as always was bustling with activity. Miami Cigar, the maker of La Aurora and La Aurora Preferidos, Tatiana flavored cigars, Don Lino, and Leon Jiminez, has the oldest factory in the Dominican Republic. We were welcomed by Tom Poehler our sales representative, and also by Jose Blanco the ever-energetic marketing director of La Aurora who always makes sure everyone is happy and doing well. Miami Cigar had a great, cozy hospitality suite in the Windsor Court Hotel featuring, along with ample quantities of Presidente Beer from the Dominican Republic, Don Lino Africa cigars and their fantastic new offering the La Aurora 1495 cigar. This cigar's name commemorates the founding of the city of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic. We knew when we saw the blend of this cigar that it would be tasty. Featuring an Ecuadorian sun-grown wrapper, a Dominican Corojo wrapper, and a filler composed of Nicaraguan, Peruvian, and Dominican Corojo and ligero. This blend has it all, from spice to earthiness to nuttiness. The sample we smoked was a robusto that was a VERY complex cigar with notes of spice, earth, and a full-bodied flavor. The burn was perfect and we smoked it to the nub. Its flavor reminded us at time of an Ashton VSG. These are not to be missed, and we expect to get these cigars in September. A new size of Don Lino Africa was introduced, a monster size of 6.5 x 60. The wrapper is a beautiful medium dark brown, slightly toothy, medium-veined Habano wrapper from 1999, with filler and binder tobaccos from Honduras, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Mexico enhanced with African tobacco in perfect balance. Our sample had a meaty, slightly spicy (with notes of nutmeg), earthy flavor and filled our mouths with a taste that lingered long after the smoke was gone. We will have this size in September.
Oliva Cigars
Oliva Master Blend 2 Robusto
At the Oliva booth, Jose Oliva and Jeff Nolen greeted us. Jeff, who many of you may have met in our shop, was formerly with Altadis USA as salesman extraordinaire for their cigars: Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann, Onyx, Maria Guerrero, Don Diego and many others. We will miss his regular visits to our shop, but we will still see him every few months selling for Oliva. Oliva recently reblended their O series, now called O Classic. For a period they had the O Bold that will still be available and it is a great tasting full-bodied all Nicaraguan blend as is the reblended O Classic. Their new cigar this year is the Master Blend 2 (see the band above) that contains the very best tobacco from Oliva in a special limited edition cigar. Master Blends is a limited production, limited release premium cigar. What makes Master Blends so special is the rare and limited tobaccos used in creating it. The fine Nicaraguan fillers and wrappers used are not for mass production. They are limited amounts of tobacco that would usually be reserved for private family use. Unfortunately, their scarcity only allows them to make a limited amount of cigars. The result is a super premium, ultra rare selection offered only once. The Master Blend 2 will be a release of 120,000 cigars. Our sample of the Master Blend 2 was a robusto measuring 5 inches long in a box press, and was 54 ring wide by 40 thick. The wrapper was a medium brown with light veins, and the cigar was very firmly and beautifully rolled, bearing a laser etched logo just below the beautiful multicolored band in the picture above. A pre-light aroma of earth and tea was noted. We clipped the cigar and upon lighting a spicy cinnamony flavor with some earthiness set in. The burn was razor sharp with a light gray ash that was very firm. There was also a very light amount of sweetness in the mix of flavors also. The flavors filled the mouth with spice and a little pepperiness. The ash fell at about one inch in length. As the cigar moved to the second third it continued to be spicy, earthy and became somewhat woody and became more full in flavor with a slight hint of vanilla (?). These flavors continued in the last third of the cigar and it finished slightly less full in body and was earthier. There were no burn problems at all in any part of the cigar. This very tasty and elegant cigar should be in our shop in a month or so.
General Cigar General Cigar introduced at this year's RTDA their most full-bodied cigar, the reblended, reborn, Bolivar. The old Bolivar had a Connecticut shade wrapper and was a mild to medium-bodied cigar. The new Bolivar is a very full-bodied powerhouse of flavor. The Bolivar Fuerte, which was made by General Cigar for JR Cigars and marketed by them, will be renamed Bolivar Cofradia after the factory where it is made, and will continued to be offered by JR. This year General Cigar has introduced a reblended Don Tomas cigar, Clasico, and a Don Tomas maduro, a new limited humidor full of a one-time only size of La Gloria Cubana Serie R cigars in both natural and maduro wrappers, and a new limited Partagas cigar called Decadas which has a ten year-old Cameroon wrapper. Our sample of the Partagas cigar had a dark wrapper, and was very richly flavored with earthiness and a slight nutty sweetness due to the aged Cameroon wrapper and was a very tasty and smooth cigar. The Don Tomas Clasico has the tangy spicy slight pepperiness of Honduran tobacco and is a very richly flavored cigar, smooth to the end. It has a beautiful dark wrapper. The Don Tomas maduro has a very dark medium-veined wrapper, tightly rolled, and has a deep rich maduro flavor of espresso and dark chocolate with a great draw. Puros Indios This year Rolando Reyes, the 81 years young patriarch of the Puros Indios brand, has taken back his Cuba Aliados brand after a long legal battle with JR Cigars who sold the brand, and reblended it using a Honduran Corojo wrapper, an Ecuadorian binder, and Dominican and Nicaraguan filler. We tried a sample of the 61/2 x 60 size. The cigar has a medium brown, moderately veined wrapper and was well constructed. Prelight aroma was earthy, with leather and a good tobacco "twang." We clipped and lit the cigar and the initial taste was unmistakably that of Corojo, not as spicy as a Camacho Corojo, but tinged with earthiness and slight sweetness. There was also a woody, slightly papery flavor too in the cigar. It had a very easy draw and produced a great quantity of smoke.
POSTSCRIPT
We are writing this with a great amount of sadness, yet tinged with hope. It is so difficult to believe that the city we visited barely one month ago has experienced such devastation and chaos. The convention center in New Orleans, where we attended the RTDA has for some days has been the scene of turmoil and death. The scenes on the news of Hurricane Katrina's effect on New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama have affected us all. Our sadness is for those who did not make it out of the city and our hope is that the ones who did make it will be able to return someday and help to rebuild their city stronger and better than before. We send our prayers to all of those that now have Texas as their temporary home, as well as those living elsewhere. Please find it in your heart to donate goods, money, or time to help them.
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