Last Weeks Cigar Social Media News and Questions – September 21, 2018

Posted on by bostonjimmie

Happy autumn to everyone and welcome to the 14th installment of the Stogie Press “Last Weeks Cigar Social Media News and Questions”, where Boston Jimmie scours the world-wide web of cigars and summarizes relevant news and questions of the past week. On the following Monday, my friend Kap Kaplowitz then shreds my writing and puts his unique commentary on select news bites from today’s article, during his Kaplowitz Radio Monday cast.

Here are this weeks Social Media Cigar News stories and Questions for the week ending September 21, 2018.

  • It’s all About Europe this week!
  • No! It’s all about Texas!!!
  • Crazy Cigar News
  • Question of the Week

It’s all About Europe this week!

if you have been wondering where many of your favorite cigar men and women are this week, look across the pond, and you will find them in Dortmund, DE at InterTabac, the International Trade Fair for Tobacco Products and Smoking Accessories. Billed as the worlds largest tobacco and tobacco products trade show – InterTabac has been running for 40 years now and is hosted at the Messe Westfalenhallen Dortmund,.A quick look at numbers, last year, the show hosted 12,500 trade visitors from 64 countries and 40% of the visitors came from abroad. This year is expected to be even larger.

Unlike the IPCPR which focusses on the Retailer – Brand owner relationship, InterTabac goes deeper with exhibitions of raw tobacco, flavors and additives, packaging and machinery for the production of tobacco goods.

InterTabac/PROCIGAR

This year, marking the 40th Anniversary of the trade show, included some additional news. In a press release from InterTabac, the association noted a co-operation agreement with PROCIGAR the annual cigar event held in the Dominican Republic.

“The trade fair is becoming increasingly international. An example of that is the long-term co-operation agreement concluded between the Dortmund Exhibition Centre and PROCIGAR – the Association of Dominican Cigar Manufacturers.”

Sabine Loos, CEO of Westfalenhallen Dortmund GmbH noted:

“The co-operation between the trade fair organiser and PROCIGAR allows the worldwide largest trade fair for tobacco goods and smoking accessories the direct contact in one of the most important cigar manufacturing countries in the world: the Dominican Republic,”

Hendrik Kelner, President of PROCIGAR added his view:

“Our main objective is to promote and spread throughout the world the quality and consistency of the dominican cigar. We feel honoured to be an integral part of that great event. The alliance of PROCIGAR with InterTabac, which today is the largest and best trade show in the tobacco sector, is of exceptional importance to achieve our goal, which is a commitment by all our partners to the culture and tradition of our country as the world’s cigar export leader”.

As part of the InterTabac press announcements there is an interview Mario Espejo, the President of the European Tobacconists which you can watch below.

 

Some of our favorite brand owners made the trip across the pond this year to maintain or try to break into the European market.

InterTabac runs from 21st to the 23rd of September, you can follow the event on a live stream here:

No! It’s all about Texas!!!

While the rest of the world is partying in Dortmund, DE at this years InterTabac trade show, there is big cigar party about to happen in The Colony, TX where Cigars International will open the doors to its latest Cigar Super-Shop and Lounge. The latest in the company’s string of super-shops and lounges will have opened as I am writing this post, September 22. 2018. In case you don’t know where The Colony, TX is located, it is a city in Denton County,TX,  just north of Dallas, on Lake Lewisville.

Photo courtesy of Cigars International

According to the company’s website:

“this new 6,000+ square foot retail location will feature over 1,300 cigar brands to select from, a full service bar to wet thy whistle, spacious indoor and outdoor lounges to hide from the family, flat screen TVs to stare blankly at, a state of the art ventilation system to keep ya fresh as can be, and so much more. Throw in stampede-worthy deals aplenty and non-stop events with the biggest brands, names, and stars in the cigar industry, and you have the ultimate cigar destination…”

As part of the grand opening celebration, there will be a special Macanudo cigar made just for the shop known as “The Colony by Macanudo”. The doors open at 9AM Texas time, and the first 500 through the door will receive a “Texas-sized” goodie bag filled with swag and savings.

The shop is located at:

Grandscape
3800 Plano Parkway
The Colony, TX 75056

Store Hours
Mon-Thu 9am-11pm
Fri-Sat 9am-12am
Sun 9am-8pm

Bar Hours
Mon-Thu 11am-11pm
Fri-Sat 11am-2am
Sun 12pm-10pm

Crazy Cigar News

There was a flurry of crazy news this week related to cigars.

Maduro Smokes Cigars

The first article starts with Bloomberg News reporting about Venezuela’s President, Nicolas Maduro. The internet went bonkers of him eating steak and smoking cigars. You can read the article here, President Nicolas Maduro eats steak and smokes cigars. Of course with a name like Maduro you are obliged to smoke cigars. What I find funnier though is the guy slicing the steak in this short video on Twitter.

Robert Lighthizer Smokes Cigars

Who is Robert Lighthizer you ask? Well he just happens to be the US Trade Representative, who leads President Donald Trump’s trade fight against China.

ThisIsInsider.com reported that Lighthizer, “once rattled Soviet negotiators by smoking an entire box of Cuban cigars in one sitting”. Wow, that’s a lot of cigars to complete a negotiation, maybe that is what the Art of the Deal is all about. As I read the article, it mentioned that the soviets gave him a “tin” of Cuban cigars. The article goes on to state:

“To catch the Soviets trade negotiators off guard, Lighthizer smoked the entire tin of cigars in the windowless room where the talks were being held”

Well a tin is not a box, so maybe that was not really a lot of cigar smoking. More important here, is that this guy serves the current administration and he obviously smoked cigars. Perhaps he can help get premium cigars exempt? Every little voice helps.

Ybor City Cigar Thieves

This is the worst kind of people, thieves, especially cigar thieves. This is just the latest in a string of posts about people walking into humidors and taking what they want .

Fox13 news in Tampa posted this video of the thieves:

They ended up stealing about $1,000 worth of cigars…

Hot Towel Shave and a Cigar

This is old school, getting a hot towel shave and smoking a stogie. It seems like it is right out the movie the God Father or the Sopranos. But this is real and will be happening this coming Tuesday, September 25, that is if you live in Roselle Park, NJ and wish to support Mayor Carl Hokanson’s re-election campaign.  According to the Roselle Park News, the event will be held from 6 p.m. till 8 p.m. for those 19 years old and older. The $15 donation will include a hand-rolled cigar from Cacique Cigars cigar and a hot-towel shave at Crystalz Barber Shop. Maybe we need more campaigns like this…

Question of the Week

What is you favorite spice in a cigar?

The Bakersfield Gentlemen, a couple of Bakersfield, CA guys that talk all things cigar, liquor and craft beer plus some other gentlemanly niches have a group on Facebook where they post some very cool cigar review videos. Buried in their latest video below, is a question about spice in a cigar. They ask, what spice do you like the best; black pepper, cinnamon, cayenne, etc….

I would have to say my answer to this is Cinnamon spice especially if the blend is sweet and buttery also.

See Video Here: https://www.facebook.com/thebakersfieldgentlemen/videos/774117546275988/