Hello all, sorry I was not around last week other than a few scheduled cigar reviews and occasional Facebook and Instagram posts. I was on my annual “non cigar” vacation with my lovely wife. I am back in the saddle this week and as you may have already read, we put out an awesome review of one of the oldest cigar shops in Europe – James J. Fox & Co. in Dublin, Ireland. If you have not read that article yet, I suggest you do, as you will see some amazing photos of aged Cuban cigars, some as old as 114 years.
Anyway, let’s get back to social media news and questions of the week. Not a tremendous amount of news this week but there may be a few things that you might have missed and could be of interest to you:
- UPS Strike Looming
- Graduation Cigars – A big No No
- Hecho a Mano Texas
- Get the FDA out of the Cigar Lifestyle
As usual, Kap Kaplowitz will be taking selected parts of this article and expanding on them during his weekly Podcast where he features “Cigar News Powered by Stogie Press”.
UPS Strike Looming
Social media was abuzz this week with news that UPS workers may go one strike starting July 31. That is a big deal for the cigar industry as UPS is the main transportation source for cigars in the USA. Fed Ex stopped years ago, DHL no longer delivers only from or to international locations, and the US mail frowns on it but has been delivering packages from and to individuals. The news of this broke earlier in the week by William Cooper (Cigar Coop) and it spread quickly.
We can only hope this is a union attempt, as in the past, to reach agreement with their over 250,000 members. If the strike does happen, it could be detrimental the cigar industry as product will not get to shops, especially after the IPCPR when every one is looking for the latest blends and line extensions.
Graduation Cigars – A big No No
It seems smoking a celebratory cigar after High School graduation (if you’re over 18) can be hazardous to your sports dreams. Anthony Cogliano was one of many that posted about this and it has been quite the topic of conversation , at least in the Boston area. According to the associated article:
“Saugus social media exploded with angry tweets this week from School Committee members, parents and student athletes – people irked by the Saugus Public Schools’ decision to keep seven seniors from playing in their final games for partaking in what is considered a silly tradition. Six members of the lacrosse team and another on the baseball team got suspended because they smoked cigars to celebrate getting their diplomas last Friday at the Saugus High School graduation ceremonies.”
Hecho a Mano Texas
We spoke about Noel Rojas the other week where he was showing off some new leaf from the Somoto area of Nicaragua. Now we have learned that Noel will be building a new cigar factory in the Dallas/Richardson, Texas area this year. We can thank Halfwheel for the report on this.
Get the FDA out of the Cigar Lifestyle
We can’t seem to say this enough, but as time goes on more members of congress are stepping up to join the fight to save the premium cigar business and related small mom and pop shops across the country. This time Glynn Loope, Executive director at Cigar Rights of America, posted that U.S. Congresswoman Stephainie Murphy, D-FL has signed on the fight. If you have not written your representatives take a moment and do so.
In a related post, Mr. Loope also posted a link to Cigar Aficionado that notes the FDA has extended the latest commenting period on the regulations to July 25. So get out there and offer your comments!
Power through a crappy cigar?
We do have one interesting comment coming in from Derek Strohl on Cigar Cartel that asks about whether you power though a crappy cigar. There were plenty of responses to this question.
That’s about it for major news and interesting questions from cigar media this week. Remember to tune in to Kaplowtiz Media this coming Monday as Kap rips into the Cigar News Powered by Stogie Press.