Dan Tobacco Re-Introduces Old CAO Blends

(Pipes Magazine) I have just found out that Dan Tobacco Manufacturing (DTM) has re-introduced the old CAO “U.S. Revolutionary Themed” pipe tobacco blends. ... These are not old stock tins; they are new stock tins that are being manufactured and are now available for purchase. From what I have been told, they are the original tobacco blend recipes with the original tin art. The only thing that has changed is that they are no longer produced by Dan Tobacco for CAO International. They are produced by Dan Tobacco for Dan Tobacco. Continued

Quick action thwarts blue mold in tobacco

(Southeast Farm Press) An outbreak of sometimes economically debilitating blue mold in eastern North Carolina tobacco appears to have been contained, thanks to quick-acting growers aided by North Carolina State University researchers and Extension staff. Continued

The Early History of Cigarettes in America

(National Cigar History Museum) ... Despite this rapid growth in sales of cigarettes in the 1870’s, it should be remembered that they were still considered a novelty and were for the most part an urban phenomenon. Americans were still very much attached to their pipes, cigars and chew. Historically, northerners had preferred cigars while “the chew” prevailed in the South. Pipe smoking was popular throughout the country although the choice of pipe was largely regional. As early as the 1820’s, John Quincy Adams had made “Havanas” respectable in New England society and “brown rolls” eventually became so popular that the Boston city fathers set aside a special area known as the “Smoking Circle” on Boston Common just for the cigar smokers. Meanwhile, throughout the South in the West, “the chew” prevailed. Of the 348 tobacco factories listed by the 1860 census of Virginia and North Carolina, only six were making smoking tobacco. The rest were making plug and twist tobacco exclusively. 1860 production figures for those two states alone amounted to 83,000,000 pounds. Continued

Lopez Tonight Cigars

(CigarCyclopedia) George Lopez is a world-famous comedian, actor and, now, host of "Lopez Tonight” talk show that appears on TBS. He is also a major-league cigar smoker and now has his own cigar, named after his show: “Lopez Tonight.”“The idea came from Lopez, who is an ardent cigar smoker,” wrote J-R Cigars’ Lew Rothman, who manufactures and sells the brand. Continued

The Unknown Cigar

There it is, down near the bottom of the humidor, the unknown cigar. Why isn't there a band? Is it from a no-name bundle? Did it slip off? And why haven't I smoked it? Was it from a batch that was so good, that I wanted to save one for a special occasion. Or maybe it was so bad, I never wanted to smoke another one. Maybe it just needed some humidor time? Why don't I write these things down? Oh well, only one way to find out.

Perez-Carrillo Releases Small Batch Cigar

(CigarAficionado.com) Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., former owner of the iconic La Gloria Cubana cigar brand, recently released a follow-up to his new cigar brand. It's not his core line, as expected, but a small-batch production brand known as EP Carrillo Short Run.
The cigars are stronger and less expensive than the EP Carrillo Edición Inaugural 2009 Encore, which went on sale in December. Continued

Image: The "Babe" in a reflective mode, snapped in the Wash [Washington, D.C.] dugout before the game--President Ban Johnson seems to enjoy the situation (Library of Congress)

Habana Cuba Oliveros Cigar Introduces a New Dominican Puro Cigar Line Called SWAG

Miami, FL, June 24, 2010 --(PR.com)-- A new kind of Dominican Cigar.

Habana Cuba Oliveros Cigar introduces a new Dominican Puro cigar line called SWAG. The new SWAG is made using only ligero tobacco leaf from the same Dominican farm.

For this project Rafael Nodal, President of HCOC has joined forces with Jose Blanco, a veteran tobacco master who also co-owns a 120 acre tobacco farm with Lito Gomez.

“The SWAG cigar is truly not your father’s Dominican cigar” said Rafael Nodal. “This cigar has a bolder flavor and a fuller body associated until now only with Nicaraguan cigars, but with aroma, flavor and balance, key elements of the Dominican tobacco.” “In developing this line,” Rafael added, “we wanted to make a Dominican Puro that if any cigar aficionado smoked one without the band, he or she would have never guessed it was a Dominican cigar due to the complex character and full body.”

The new Swag is available in six sizes: Quickie 42 x 5.5, Elite 38 x 7, Fierce (Belicoso) 5 x 6.5, Ego 60 x 6, Lavish 54 x 5 and Infamous 54 x 6. The last size bears the artistic name of Rafael’s stepson, who is a Grammy winning producer for Lil’ Wayne, and is currently finishing a US tour with Travis McCoy from the band Gym Class Heroes.

The Swag is not your typical Dominican Cigar and it is designed for the new cigar smoker who is tired of the traditional and sometimes boring brands. Smokers of the Swag may become members of the Swag Club and receive prizes and Swag merchandise, and may win a vacation on the world renowned Dominican Republic Beaches. For more information on Swag Cigars and how to obtain a Club SWAG member card, you may visit www.SWAGcigars.com or call: 877-902-8226

Image: For no reason, a picture of Irvin S. Cobb

Clove Tobacco Industry Faces Dual Challenges

(Jakarta Globe) Indonesian tobacco growers and their regional counterparts ended a two-day meeting, dubbed the first Asia Tobacco Forum, in Jakarta on Tuesday by revealing a plan that basically consisted of doing what they have already been doing — pleading with national governments not to adopt the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Countries that adopt the framework would, among other things, commit themselves to ban flavored cigarettes, which include clove-favored cigarettes, or kretek, the mainstay of the Indonesian tobacco industry.
Meanwhile, the domestic tobacco industry is fighting on another front. Continued

Scandinavian Tobacco Group launches CAO Champions Traveller's Edition

(DFNI) Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) is to launch its CAO Champions Traveller's Edition under the CAO International umbrella. The first CAO travel-retail exclusive in European travel-retail will consist of six cigars of Dominican, Honduran and Nicaraguan origin encased in a travel humidor. The Traveller's Edition will also feature CAO's Seed to Soul DVD, a film explaining the cigar-making process.STG international business managers Koen van Vaerenbergh and Jeppe Tanggaard Jacobsen are managing the introduction with selected operators until the end of the year. Launches are expected with northern European ferry operators and airports in France, Russia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Greece and Poland. Continued

Cuban cigar sales still down

HAVANA, June 21 (Reuters) - Global economic woes and the worldwide spread of smoking bans are taking their toll on Cuba's famous cigar industry, with the just-completed harvest of the country's finest tobacco down 14 percent over 2009, local media said on Monday.
In westernmost Pinar del Rio, home of Cuba's most famous tobacco, the harvest came in at 22.4 million leaves, down from 26 million in 2009, according to Guerrillero, the province's Communist party weekly.
The area's tobacco is used as wrapper leaf and part of the filling in Cuba's prized cigar brands, including Cohiba, Montecristo, Trinidad and Partagas. Continued

Star asks FDA approval for modified-risk tobacco product

(Tobacco Reporter) Star Scientific Inc. has filed an application with the Food & Drug Administration for approval to market Stonewall-BDL as a “modified risk tobacco product” under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009. ... Stonewall-BDL, like Ariva-BDL, is a dissolvable tobacco lozenge with wintergreen flavoring. The product is made with flue-cured tobacco that contains levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) that are below detectable limits by most current standards of measure. Continued

Image courtesy of smokersonly.org

Common Misconceptions About Pipe Tobacco

(Pipes Magazine) As with just about any subject, there are a lot of common fallacies about pipe tobaccos and how they’re made. It’s a shame, really, as, through the years there have been many good books and magazine articles that have addressed these inaccuracies, but most pipe smokers have never read them. So I will try to dispel some of the falsehoods about the noble weed. Continued

Photo by Sjschen, some rights reserved.

Cigar Paradise: Key West

(BloggersBase) As ocean breezes stir the sultry night air and the Key West night life begins to heat up, in many parts of town you can hear the sensual rhythms of Cuban bands. It is but the first taste of the significant influence that the descendants of immigrant Cuban cigar makers have had on this little island. Continued

Image: Library of Congress

Cigar tastings teach basics, good time

(Ashland Daily Tidings) Want a drink with that stogie? Stick to cognac, bourbon and scotch, but avoid milk and soda.
And if you want to delve even deeper into the finer points of pairing cigars with drinks, consider attending one of the growing number of smoking symposiums popping up around the country.
During a recent gathering at the Legends of Fire cigar bar here, for example, 100 people sampled a variety of cigars, and spent the evening pairing them with different varieties of alcohol while noshing hors d'oeuvres. Continued

Smoking Tobacco: Frog Morton - On the Town

(Durendal) Frog Morton on the Town is a blend of Latakia and Basma and comes in 50g or 100g tins. It was first recommended to me by Mr. E.J.G. Jones, as a way to "get into" English pipe tobaccos. Like most initiates to the art of pipe smoking, I had begun with, and stuck to, aromatic blends. Convinced by Mr. Jones that "real" smokers smoke English, I undertook to try Frog Morton on the Town and was pleasantly surprised by its very smooth, mellow, and mild flavour. Continued

Unwind among friends at C. Edwards Cigars

(GoUpstate.com) Chris Wienand is a lucky man. He has been able to combine his love of a good cigar and his love for the community into a successful business, which is not only good for him, but also good for Spartanburg and the Upstate.
Wienand has owned and operated C. Edwards Cigars at 113 N. Church St. in downtown Spartanburg for 3½ years. And while it's certainly a place to smoke a fine cigar and have a drink in a relaxing atmosphere, it's also a place where a high value is placed on conversation. Continued

Cigar Snatched From Churchill Photo

(Daily Mail) ... It seems the man who steered Britain through the most dangerous period of its recent history may have fallen victim to the modern curse of political correctness.
Last night the question of who removed the cigar and when was something of a mystery.
The Winston Churchill's Britain At War Experience, in South-East London, confessed to being astonished to discover that the image may have been doctored. Continued

Tobacco Beetles!

I feel so unclean. I was selecting a cigar to go with a movie (San Francisco, with Clark Gable, Jeanette McDonald, Spencer Tracy, 1936), when I spotted a tobacco beetle traipsing up the inside lid of my humidor. I immediately squished it and started pulling out the cigars. I found another beetle in the bottom. So I put all the cigars from the humidor into plastic bags and chucked them in the freezer. Then I vacuumed out the humidor with a dust-buster. It's a good thing I have two humidors or I'd be up the creek without a smoke.
I can't say where the beetles came from, there were around a dozen different brands of cigars in there, from several different retailers, bought over an extended period of time. They could have come from anywhere.
The only good thing to come out of this was that it gave me an excuse to throw out some cigars that I had purchased rashly and didn't want to admit that I wasn't ever going to smoke.

Cigar smoking with the G.A.R.

As a longstanding fan of American History, I was intrigued to see a cigar branded G.A.R.. To me, G.A.R. stands for Grand Army of the Republic, the organization of Union veterans of the Civil War. The G.A.R. acted as a fraternal organization and also as a political action group, advocating for Reconstruction, veterans' pensions, and the such. G.A.R. politics gave us phrases such as "waving the bloody shirt," and, most likely, "Grand Old Party." Sadly, it turned out that G.A.R. cigars are named for George A. Rico, the fellow who makes the things.
Happily, it turned out to be a pretty good cigar, so I wasn't too disappointed by the name. I sampled the White Label "Gran Consul," a 4 3/4 x 60 cigar stuffed with a "vintage mixture of Nicaraguan long-fillers" The Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper was one of the finest I've seen on any cigar, in fact, the entire cigar was well constructed, with an ash that refused to give up the ghost. It was a powerful smoke, one of the more diaphoretic ones I've had. But it was never overwhelming, and tasted fine all the way to a very small butt. The cigar had a nice tea taste before lighting, and retained a bit of that tea flavor throughout, which added a counter-note to the stronger, earthier flavors that predominate. It took me two mugs of coffee and half of Mutiny on the Bounty (the Marlin Brando version), to finish the thing off, sweating all the while. It was a good time. While I can't call this cigar Grand (with a capital G), I can pronounce it grand with the lowercase. Recommendation: Recommended.

Tobacco Review: Samuel Gawith - Full Virginia Flake

(Meandering Smoke) Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia Flake certainly qualifies as a touchstone tobacco as no discussion of straight Virginia blends will go on for too long before this one is mentioned. It may not be right at the top of everyone's list but FVF somehow always manages to crack the top ten. ... To my palate, FVF had many of the same qualities as a well-aged bourbon with its dark molasses element mingling with tongue-tingling tartness and backed up with grassy, oaken undertones. Continued

Image courtesy of 4noggins.com

Cigar Prices in 1883

(National Cigar History Museum) When Museum visitors and fans of my Q&A column in CIGAR MAGAZINE ask about cigar boxes they frequently say, “I know it must be old because the cigars cost only five cents.”
I usually respond something like this: “Sadly, there is very little correlation of price to age. There were penny cigars in 1840 and penny cigars in 1940. There were dollar cigars in 1860 and dollar cigars in 1960. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

Cigar Store Indian Brings $203,150 at Auction

(Dallas Art News) A superbly colorful and remarkably well-preserved American hand-carved Cigar Store Indian, which had sat in a Washington, D.C.-area basement for at least 20 years, brought a world record public auction price of $203,150 on May 22 as the top lot in Heritage Auction Galleries’ Grand Format Political & Americana Auction. Continued

Smokeless cigarette product a ‘smash hit’ in Japan

(Tobacco Reporter) Japan Tobacco Inc said yesterday it would double its capacity for producing the smokeless tobacco product it introduced last month because the product has become a ‘smash hit’, according to a Kyodo News story. The launch of Zerostyle Mint was announced in the middle of March and it went on sale exclusively in Tokyo two months later. Within two weeks of its launch, JT had sold 650,000 packs and recently Zerostyle Mint has been hard to find in shops. Continued

The Beauty of Swedish Snus

(I Like Progress) ... I was first introduced to snus (rhymes with “goose”) back in 2008 when Camel started selling their own recipe. Being the savvy Googler that I am, I began researching what exactly they were selling and marketing as a product to consume nicotine when you can’t have a cigarette. As with any class of product, the depth and variety of snus offerings is outstanding. After researching the health information, history, and seeing this I knew I had to give it a try. Continued

Beach Cigar Group, Distributors of Gurkha Cigars, Have Taken Over Cojimar Distribution

MIAMI, June 7 /PRNewswire/ - Beach Cigar Group owner and the CEO of Gurkha cigars, Kaizad Hansotia, has joined forces with Rosie Perez, owner of Cojimar. Beach Cigar Group will now be the main distributor for Cojimar's amazing flavored cigars. "This will be an excellent addition to our product line," says Mr. Hansotia. "We have always admired their cigars."
Cojimar Cigars come in an exciting variety of flavors and are handmade from Dominican filler, Honduras binder and are capped with a distinctive sugar-coated tip. Cojimar, which for the last 15 years has been one of the top selling flavored cigars in the industry, will automatically add 3000+ stores to their distribution network with this union. "We are very excited about this merger," says Rosie Perez, "and we are looking forward to working with a company with such a great reputation."

SOURCE Beach Cigar Group

Image: Tobacco label showing "old Nick" (Santa Claus) dropping cigar packages down the J.C. Partridge & Co. chimney while smoking a cigar, circa 1859 (Library of Congress).

Will 2010 tobacco crop find a home?

(Southeast Farm Press) “We are looking at cuts in contracts of about a fifth, but farmers here seem to be planting about the same amount as last year,” says Hassel Brown, East Bend, N.C., which is near Winston-Salem. “We are going to have to be resourceful in selling this crop.”
One leaf dealer, Rick Smith of Independent Leaf in Wilson, N.C., estimated in May that there will be about 50 million pounds of flue-cured tobacco grown off contract. Continued

Photo by Jack Delano (Library of Congress)

Official SMOKER LAW, 1st Ed.

(Ponderings from Piper's Paradise via Pipes Magazine) This is the first official edition of Smoker Law. It is a collection of rules to help guide smokers in their interactions with fellow smokers and those who do not partake in the leaf.

... 9. Pipes, cigars and cigarettes may be used as pointers to enhance a discussion or monologue, or in physical expression of general pontification. They may never be used as swords. Pretending they are lightsabers may result in expulsion from the social group or place of business.

10. Smokers should make a good faith effort to use tobacco away from non-smokers, but as soon as someone pretends to cough, the smoker is allowed to pretend to ignore the cougher. This is doubly true if the tobacco is unlit, in which case, the smoker may blow pretend smoke in the cougher's face. Continued

Cigar City

(Cigar Aficionado) My childhood buddy from Kansas, Jim Norris, had always wanted to see Tampa. OK, that's not true. A cigar vampire, he really wanted to check out Ybor City, Florida, which neighbors Tampa. That, after all, was the city where millions of cigars were rolled at the turn of the last century—and many by hand. Our mutual friend Linda Wood went along for the ride. Two days earlier, she had competed in Tampa's Escape from Fort Desoto sprint triathlon while Jim minded her gear and took photographs of her crossing the finish line. Going to Ybor City was the least she could do. Continued

Photo: "Ybor Cigar Factory, 1916 North Fourteenth Street, Tampa, Hillsborough, FL. ... National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 74000641
Significance: The original building was the first brick cigar factory constructed in Tampa in 1886. Vincent Martinez Ybor, its founder, constructed a model city surrounding the factory where the cigar workers resided. The factory was the focal point for the cigar workers who lived in the area called Ybor City. Ybor's building was the largest hand-rolled cigar complex which was typical of a distinct industry and era in the history of Florida. It was unique because it brought industrialization to a predominantly agrarian town. Large numbers of Latins who worked in the factory were introduced into a white Anglo-Saxon based society. The success of the factory stimulated other cigar industries to move to Tampa, making Ybor City the cigar capital of the United States by 1900. In less than twenty years Tampa changed from a small port town to a thriving city. From the steps of the main factory building, Jose Marti, a Cuban patriot and martyr, rallied support for Cuban independence. After the Spanish-American War, these steps were removed to Cuba to become a National Shrine. (Library of Congress).

Cigar factory on borrowed time

BARTOW, FL (News Chief) - Individuals or groups seeking to save the old cigar factory in Bartow have less than a month to come up with the money to do it.
Otherwise, Polk County Manager Mike Herr said, the 85-year-old concrete structure will be knocked to the ground.
"At this point, we are proceeding with the plans for demolition of the building," Herr told county commissioners at their meeting Wednesday. Continued

2010 Chicago Pipe Show New Products

(Pipes Magazine) Imagine there was a giant shopping mall devoted solely to pipes and tobaccos. That is almost what the Chicago Pipe Show was like. Manufacturers, large and small, and individual pipe makers and tobacco blenders were represented, showing their new products, and existing items. Here is a walk through some of the new and current products that were displayed in Chicago. Continued

Another Churchill cigar up for auction

(BBC) One of the largest collections of Sir Winston Churchill memorabilia, including an unsmoked cigar, is expected to fetch £1m at auction later.
The items are being sold by US publishing magnate, Steve Forbes, who amassed them over three decades.
The collection also features the wartime leader's official engagements diary and candid letters to colleagues. Continued

Update: The cigar went for $3,111.00

U.S. cigarettes high in chemicals

(Reuters) Americans inhale more cancer-causing agents with their cigarettes, probably because of the tobacco blend, while smokers in Canada, Britain and Australia get less, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. Continued

Poché Perique Tobacco makes a comeback

Once on the verge of extinction, a storied southern tobacco processor continues to gain strength and rolls out a new tobacco auction for vintage, decade-aged leaf.

(Smokeshop) ... Widely used in pipe tobacco blends in small quantities, a component in some specialty cigarettes, chewing tobacco and even some cigar blends, the strongly flavored anaerobically fermented tobacco is available from the last leaf merchant in St. James Parish, Louisiana. Continued

Image: "Barrels of perique tobacco during process of aging. Perique tobacco is raised in one parish in Louisiana, and this is the only place in the world where this tobacco is raised. Saint James Parish, Louisiana, 1938." (Russell Lee/Library of Congress)

Muniemaker Dark Maduro Cigars

I'm a sucker for old timey American cigars and Muniemaker is one of those brands that makes me glad I am. According to the company website, Muniemaker has been around since "the days of the horse drawn trolley, bowler hats, and 5 cent beer." We sampled a Muniemaker Dark Petite Corona and liked it quite a lot. The 4 1/2 x 47 cigar had loads of flavor and a great draw. We particularly noticed some nice coffee/cocoa notes hiding in the smoke, along with an overall pleasant smoking experience. This cigar left us fat and happy. Recommendation: Recommended, I'd say highly recommended, but we've only smoked one of them, so far.

Image courtesy of Finck Cigar Company

Tobacco farms pinched

CYNTHIANA, Ky. (AP) - After years of faithfully supplying leaf to tobacco giant Philip Morris International, farmer Jess Burrier received a postcard, thanking him for his contributions and telling him his service wasn’t needed this year.
“They were very courteous, but a Dear John letter’s still a Dear John letter,” said Burrier, who has seen the amount of tobacco he grows under contract shrivel from about 600,000 pounds two years ago to 20,000 pounds this year with another leaf buyer.
Kentucky, the nation’s top producer of burley tobacco, a common ingredient in cigarettes, could lose a fourth of its contracts this year, said Will Snell, a University of Kentucky agricultural economist specializing in tobacco. Continued

Image: Field of Burley tobacco on farm of Russell Spears, drying and curing barn in the background, vicinity of Lexington, Ky., 1940 (Marion Post Wolcott/Farm Security Administration).