Avo Celebrates 85th with Dominican Puro Cigar

(Cigar Aficionado) Pianist and Avo brand ambassador Avo Uvezian turns 85 in March, and Davidoff is commemorating the milestone (and continuing its trend of birthday Avo cigars) with the new 2011 limited edition Avo 85th.
This year, the cigar will be a double-tapered diadema shape that measures 6 5/8 inches by 50 ring gauge, and for the first time the release will be all Dominican. Continued

Photo: Avo Uvezian (avo.com)

Zimbabwe early Tobacco sales gross US$12m

(zimtelegraph.com) Zimbabwe has earned US$12,01 million from the sale of 4,1 million kilogrammes of tobacco since the opening of the marketing season on February 16, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board said yesterday.
TIMB said the crop had been sold at an average price of US$2,90 per kilogramme.The price is down from last year’s average price of US$3,48 per kilogramme. Continued

Bacardi Lecture examines significance of Havana cigar

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (U of F) The significance, history and future of the Havana cigar will be explored by Jean Stubbs in a lecture Wednesday evening.
Stubbs, the UF Center for Latin American Studies Bacardi Family Eminent Scholar, will deliver the 2011 Bacardi Lecture titled “The Havana Cigar Goes Global” at 7:30 p.m. March 2 in Smathers Library, Room 1A.
What was it about the Havana cigar that made it famous and coveted the world over? Why does its history continue inextricably to link Cuba with Florida, New York and Connecticut; the trans-Atlantic world; and places as far afield as Indonesia? And does the future of the emblematic Havana cigar hang in the balance? Continued

Drawing courtesy of Adam Koford, some rights reserved.

My Corn-Cob Pipe

Men may sing of their Havanas, elevating to the stars
The real or fancied virtues of their foreign-made cigars;
But I worship Nicotina at a different sort of shrine,
And she sits enthroned in glory in this corn-cob pipe of mine.

It's as fragrant as the meadows when the clover is in bloom;
It's as dainty as the essence of the daintiest perfume;
It's as sweet as are the orchards when the fruit is hanging ripe,
With the sun's warm kiss upon them--is this corn-cob pipe.

Thro' the smoke about it clinging, I delight its form to trace,
Like an oriental beauty with a veil upon her face;
And my room is dim with vapour as a church when censers sway,
As I clasp it to my bosom--in a figurative way.

It consoles me in misfortune and it cheers me in distress,
And it proves a warm partaker of my pleasures in success;
So I hail it as a symbol, friendship's true and worthy type,
And I press my lips devoutly to my corn-cob pipe.

- Paul Laurence Dunbar

Photos: Cuba's Cigar Festival

(MSN) Cuban cigars are renowned the world over. Venerated in movies and popular culture in general, they've always been a symbol of class for the upper-class. Maybe that's why year after year, those with deep pockets fly to Cuba for its annual cigar festival. Continued

Tobacco Tongue: Maybe its not your fault

I'm willing to bet that most people who take up pipe smoking, and then quit, do so because it inflames their mouths. There are three basic ways to smoke tobacco: through a paper tube (cigarettes), through a tobacco leaf tube (cigar), or through a bent wooden or mineral tube (pipe), but only the pipe is infamous for giving the smoker "tongue bite." Why is that?
All kinds of self-appointed experts have offered up all kinds of explanations for tongue bite, mostly involving some error by the pipe smoker: you got cheap tobacco, you got a cheap pipe, you over-packed your pipe, you packed your pipe too loosely, you’re a Pisces, it goes on and on. My favorite is the poor technique accusation, as if pipe smoking was somehow a complicated task. There are so many reasons given for tongue bite that I am disinclined to believe any of them. I’m much more inclined to believe one of my own three theories:

1. Tongue bite is inherent to pipe smoking. Not much we can do about that.

2. Something in the manufacturing process of pipe tobacco makes it bitey. I have noticed that the least processed tobaccos (Five Brothers, or Samuel Gawith Brown No.4 Twist, for example), bite very little, but the more refined and/or flavored the tobacco, the more its likely to bite me. If that's the case, maybe we should stop blaming the smoker and ask the manufacturers one simple question: Could you make your tobacco less irritating? Which brings me to my next theory.

3. There's no money in making better tobaccos. Reading various online smoking forums has led me to believe that pipe smokers can be a tightfisted lot. Now it's very nice that pipe smokers aren't as ostentatious as cigar smokers, but there is such a thing as being too frugal. In the U.S., where pipe tobacco is still lightly taxed, people will howl if a tin of tobacco goes for much more than $10, heck, some scream if it costs more than $5. Maybe it is our fault after-all, but just maybe. Somehow, they manage to make cheap cigars and cigarettes that won't take the roof of your mouth off, so why not pipe tobacco?

Exploring New Tobacco Blends: Distinguished Gentleman

(Smokingpipes.com) We started selling E. Hoffman's Distinguished Gentleman a couple of weeks ago and since then I’ve been very intrigued. The tin reads:
An elegant & captivating pipe tobacco comprised of select choice leaf, gently fragrant with an intoxicating aroma. The taste and aroma preferred by men of distinction.
Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Today Eric and I decided to break open a tin and find out for ourselves just what this stuff is all about. All in the name of ‘scientific exploration’ mind you. Because we are diligent gentlemen, if not distinguished, we took notes. Here are the results: Continued

Cuba’s Humidor Auction Brings 1.1 Million USD

(HAVANA TIMES) The XIII Habano Cigar Festival, the annual event that brings to Cuba cigar enthusiasts from around the globe, came to a close late Friday with an auction of custom made humidors and top grade cigars that brought in US $1.1 million. ... Seven humidors packed with H. Upmann, Hoyo de Monterrey, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Vegas Robaina, Partagás and Cohiba cigars went to the highest bidder. Continued

Also: The Great Habano Cigar Book: New Investigation Work

Photo: Cultivating tobacco under canvas, Cuba, circa 1910 (Library of Congress).

Cuban Cigar Taste Test

(Cigar Aficionado) Thursday was a busy one for team Cigar Aficionado in Havana. After a smoky breakfast, Marvin Shanken, Gordon Mott and I headed out to Cuba´s premier cigar factory, El Laguito (You can read all about that part of the day in Gordon Mott's blog) I noticed they had some of the Cohiba 1966 Edicion Limitadas at the factory, but these were only made here for the festival. It's not likely that the cigars will be rolled here when they go into actual production much later in the year. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

Tobacco History: Dr. Grabow

(drgrabow-pipe-info.com) The Dr. Grabow as an identifiable brand of pipes began in 1931, as the brainchild of Louis B. Linkman and Dr. Paul Grabow. Linkman was owner of M. Linkman & Co., which had been making pipes since 1892 under the MLC brand. The Grabow family history is that Linkman and Dr. Grabow used to meet for a smoke and bull session in Brown’s Drug Store in Lincoln Park. During one of their discussions, Linkman told Grabow he had an idea for a new line of innovative pipes, and he wanted to use Dr. Grabow’s name and endorsement. Continued

Photo: Dr. Grabow

Partagas Introduces Two New Cigars on World Market

(acn) The Cuban prestigious cigar brand of Partagas broadened its portfolio on the international market with the presentation of two new cigars during the 13th International Habano Festival wrapping up today in Havana.
The new products are Partagas Serie E No. 2 and Serie D No. 5. Both of them feature an intense flavor that makes them unique cigars and are presented in elegant cases, Marketing Director Ana Lopez of Habano S.A. told ACN.
Lopez said the Serie D No.5 is part of the 2008 Limited Production; it is shorter than the rest of the cigars on the Partagas line and it takes less time to consume it as established by anti-cigar laws that affect smokers in several countries. Continued

Studio Tobac World Cigar Tour

(Studio Tobac) Beginning Feb2011, the Studio Tobac World Tour hits the road. Studio Ambassador B. Scholle will take to the street in a Special Edition 2011 Touring Corvette Convertible. This one of a kind Studio Tobac Corvette will be given away to one lucky winner at the end of the Tour. Scholle will visit fine tobacconist around the U.S. and Europe, bringing the Studio’s latest projects with him. Come meet Scholle as well as some of the Studio’s Executive Board and get a chance to sample some of the Studio’s Non-production offerings. Continued

Big Fuente Cigars for Charity

(Cigar Aficionado) The Fuente Fuente OpusX BBMF cigar is a big, rare and powerful smoke that's not part of the standard Fuente Fuente OpusX portfolio. The complex figurados have crazy heads known as Cuban ticklers, pointed feet wrapped with a strip of leaf different from the rest of the wrapper, and are only sold on special occasion, or in very limited form. Continued

In Cuba, Cigar Lovers Are a Lifeline

(NYTimes) Simon Chase, a British sage of the cigar world, stood in an elegant hotel salon here on Wednesday before a select group of aficionados, scrutinizing a box of 1970s cigars for evidence of their proclaimed vintage. One clue, he said, was the style and quality of the seal on the box. Another was the cigar’s old-fashioned, slightly domed end, or “cabeza tumbada.”
The group muttered with interest and lit up, using cedar strips, or spills, to avoid contaminating their cigars with lighter fumes. Gray wisps curled into the air, and a brief hush fell as they solemnly considered the $90 smokes. Continued

Adduci set to acquire Royal Jamaica cigars

(Jamaica Observer) Joseph Adduci, lead principal of Adduci Cigars, has signed a deal to acquire venerable cigar makers Royal Jamaica, whose cigars are currently made in the Dominican Republic. The deal has two components - firstly the acquisition of a factory and farm located in May Pen and secondly the rights to the brand. Continued

Photo: Buying tobacco by the yard in Jamaica, circa 1904 (Library of Congress).

Homegrown Tobacco: Local, Rebellious and Tax Free

(NYTimes) The cigarettes Audrey Silk used to smoke — Parliament Lights — are made at a factory in Richmond, Va. The cigarettes she smokes these days are made and grown in Brooklyn, at her house. ... In the state with the highest cigarette taxes in the country, in a city that has become one of the hardest places in America to find a place to smoke, Ms. Silk has gone off the grid, growing, processing and smoking her own tax-free cigarettes from packets of seeds she buys online for about $2. Continued

Tobacco Tricks Caterpillars With Treats

(usnews.com) Even caterpillars shouldn’t take candy from strangers. Tasty little hairs growing on wild tobacco plants amount to “evil lollipops” that make caterpillars who eat them more likely to be eaten themselves, a researcher says. Continued

Where It’s Still Legal to Exhale

(NYTimes) AN afición for cigars — “penchant” lacks the necessary passion, while “fondness” is at least three shades too tame — is a difficult itch to scratch in Bloombergian New York, which, aside from its high property taxes and low trans fats, is almost entirely smoke-free. There aren’t many Cubans to be found, even at the high-end joints in Midtown, which leaves the connoisseur with the alternative of second-fiddle Dominicans. If you are going to buy such things, you might as well go to the source. Continued

Evolution of Pipe Tobacco Smokers?

(Bob Tate) ... It seems that the popular opinion amongst pipe smokers is that Aromatic blends are horrible tobacco and that they are for beginning pipe smokers because they don’t know any better and they need time to be able to appreciate the finer tobaccos and blends that are available. It also seems that the general consensus is that Latakia is the top of the pipe tobacco smoking evolutionary ladder and is the ‘end all, be all’ in pipe smoking. Once you get to where you only smoke Latakia blends, then you are considered a “real” pipe smoker. Continued

Image by A. B. Frost, circa 1900 (Library of Congress).

RJ Reynolds - The State of Tobacco in 2011

(SnusCentral) Regardless of your (or my) opinion of the product Camel SNUS as compared to Swedish Snus, there is no denying that Reynolds American and their RJRT division have been largely responsible for introducing the word "snus" into the American vocabulary. Looking back, the evolution of Camel SNUS presents a good mirror of public and government attitudes in the US as well as a peek into the possible future for American tobacco lovers.
In January 2006, there was no Camel SNUS and I was still a cigarette smoker. Like almost all Americans, I had never heard of Swedish snus. Continued

More 2011 Cuban Cigars Announced

(Cigar Aficionado) ... Adding to its regular-production portfolio, Habanos will be introducing the Partagas Serie E No. 2, a 5 1/2 inch by 54 ring cigar (factory name: Duke) and the Serie D No. 5, a stout petit robusto measuring 4 3/8 by 50. Continued

Perdomo Conmemorativo Maduro Robusto Cigar Review

(PuffingCigars.com) Recently I had a chance to smoke and try out the newest from Perdomo called the Conmemorativo. The cigar also features a binder and filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and the Conmemorativo is set to be released in the 2nd quarter of 2011 sometime, more then likely a month or so before the IPCPR trade show. Perdomo is still working what sizes that will be available for the new line although I have been told that the blend is finalized and the cigars are resting but they will be changing the band a bit, minor details. Continued

Photo: Douglas Volk (Smithsonian)

Altria companies to test new smokeless tobacco stick

(Richmond Times-Dispatch) Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco operating companies are planning to test-market a new type of smokeless tobacco product in Kansas starting in March.
The product, called a smokeless tobacco stick, is designed for smokers or snuff tobacco users looking for a spit-free alternative to traditional oral tobacco such as snuff, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
Top U.S. cigarette maker Philip Morris USA will test-market the product under the brand name of its most popular cigarette, Marlboro. Altria's smokeless tobacco subsidiary, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., will test-market a smokeless tobacco stick using the Skoal name, its top-selling brand. Continued

Jameson Cigar Company Coming to Huntington’s Heritage Station

Huntington, WV (huntingtonnews.net) The Greater Huntington Parks and Recreation District announced the newest tenant at Heritage Station today. Jameson Cigar Company will open a cigar and coffee store at the historic artisan center later this spring.
A Huntington, WV based company, Jameson produces four lines of handcrafted inspired cigars, Declaration Cigars, Jameson Red Label, Jameson Black Label, and Southbound Series Latitude Cigars, as well as special edition, limited-run cigars. Continued

Savinelli's new cigars for 2011

(savinelliusa.blogspot.com) ... I am proud to announce that Savinelli will be launching 5 new lines of cigars in 2011.
Along with the already mentioned '20th Anniversary Edition' out of Tabacalera Oliva, we will be launching the Dos Campeones(Two Champions)' and 3 other great lines. These new lines will be produced in Tabacalera Oliva, Tabacalera Fuente, and Tabacalera Placencia. Continued

Don Miguel's Cigar Lounge Patio Bar in Stuart closes

STUART, FL (TCpalm.com) Don Miguel's Cigar Lounge Patio Bar, which opened in November on the former Triangle Bar and Grill property, has closed.
An indoor cigar bar was to follow the outdoor bar, at 100 S. Dixie Highway, after renovations were complete. The indoor cigar bar will not be opened. Continued

U.S. cigar sales spike boosts Swedish Match Q4

(Reuters) Tobacco firm Swedish Match (SWMA.ST) posted higher fourth-quarter profits helped by a spike in sales of cheap cigars in the United States, and saw rising profits for that business this year, sending shares up.
While group profit just lagged a Reuters poll consensus, a trader said the firm beat his estimates, and cited a 49 percent increase in sales of U.S. mass market cigars as a key positive. Continued

Photo: Capitol page of the Senate shown filling the snuff boxes that are in the Senate Chamber which have been there for years and from tradition are always filled at the opening of Congress, circa 1939 (Library of Congress).

Big Buddha Cigar Lounge to Open

(NewtownPatch) Bryan Roth has his sights set on being a financial trader by morning and Hawleyville cigar store proprietor by afternoon. The 38-year-old Newtown [CT] resident, and his business partner, Ray Ormsbee, 48, have been working furiously the past few weeks in preparation for the Friday opening of the Big Buddha Cigar Lounge at 27 Hawleyville Road, a two-story house built in 1850 and in the most recent past was home to a yoga center. The store will be set up with retail cigar displays in the front, and a side room where customers can smoke. Continued

Timber Wolf Moist Snuff Launches Cash-Back Program

(CSP) Swedish Match NA has launched a cash-back program for its Timber Wolf Moist Snuff brand. At the end of 2011, consumers' purchases can mount up to $125. "Every can of Timber Wolf Moist Snuff in 2011 will include laser codes--each worth 25 cents," said Chris Lemmon, senior brand manager for Timber Wolf. "The consumer activates an account on our website and enters the under-the-lid codes throughout the year. He can watch his savings grow with every purchase on his own portal of the website." Continued

Jon Huber, Formerly of C.A.O., Creates New Cigar Company

(Cigar Aficionado) Jon Huber, the former director of lifestyle marketing for C.A.O. International Inc., has formed a new cigar company with three other former employees of C.A.O. The new venture is called Crowned Heads LLC. ... The company has begun to meet with tobacco brokers to develop a brand and by year's end it hopes to have a cigar with five sizes on the market. Continued

Appreciating Cuba's Clichés: Cigars are Nothing to Be Sniffed At

(jaunted.com) The only people I saw tangoing in Argentina were tourists and, in the years I lived there, the only people I saw eating frogs’ legs in France were British schoolchildren. So I learned to distrust clichés and genuinely expected that the only people puffing cigars in Cuba would be foreigners.
It took three seconds in Havana’s arrivals terminal to learn that I was wrong; the tobacco smell hung heavy in the air like great thunderclouds. Continued

Photo: "Cubans dress up and pose for the tourist camera like this man smoking a cigar on the Plaza de la Cathedral Square in Havana, Cuba" Carol M. Highsmith, photographer, 2010 (Library of Congress).

China’s smokers keep Cuban cigar sales growing

(euronews.net) Cuba’s cigar makers say sales are increasing despite the effects of anti-smoking laws coming into effects in many countries. ... China has now become the third largest market for Cuban cigars behind Spain and France knocking Germany down into fourth place.
Habanos generated 268 million euros in sales last year, an important source of foreign currency for the communist led island, but it is blocked from the US, the world’s biggest single consumer of cigars, because of a trade embargo. Continued

Also: Chinese come to their Cuban comrades' rescue by lighting up cigars

Cornell & Diehl #107 Haunted Bookshop Tobacco Review

(Bob Tate) The pouch aroma is a nice straight forward tobacco smell with a light hint of tanginess. The moisture content is perfect for smoking right away with no drying time needed. The cut of this blend is rough, coarse, and chunky. I loaded the pipe using the Three Step Method and proceeded to the charring light. Continued

Federal Bill Proposes Increased Tobacco Taxes

(CSP) ... Senator Harkin proposes to raise the federal cigarette and tobacco product tax rates as follows:

• Cigarettes: $.55 per pack increase to a new federal tax rate of $1.56 per pack.
• Little Cigars: $.55 per pack increase to a new federal tax rate of $1.56 per pack, plus change the definition so that little cigars would be classified as weighing up to four and one half pounds per thousand, up from the current three pounds per thousand.
• Large Cigars: Would now be classified as weighing more than four and one half pounds per thousand.
• Chewing Tobacco: $7.80 per pound increase to a new rate of $8.30 per pound.
• Single-Use Pouch Units: Would have a new federal tax rate of $77.83 per 1,000 single use units.
• Pipe Tobacco: $36.29 per pound increase to a new federal tax rate of $38.32 per pound.
• RYO Tobacco: $13.54 per pound increase to a new federal tax rate of $38.32 per pound. Continued

Cohiba 1966 Leads Trio of New Cuban Edición Limitadas Cigars

(Cigar Aficionado) We have the names of this year's trio of Cuban Edición Limitadas, and the star of the group is a fat new Cohiba that is sure to grab worldwide attention.
The Cohiba 1966 Edicón Limitada measures 6 1/2 inches long by 52 ring gauge. The shape, dubbed a cañonazo especial by the Cuban cigar industry, has the same girth as the Cohiba Behike BHK 52, Cigar Aficionado's Cigar of the Year. Continued

A Cuban cigar for women: Julieta says goodbye to Romeo

(BBC) Hundreds of cigar distributors, businessmen and tobacco lovers are descending on Cuba this week for the annual Havana cigar festival.
The world of Habano smokers is predominantly male, but the island's largest cigar manufacturer has now set its sights on the other half of the world's population - women.
Marlene Dietrich played an enigmatic cigar-smoking gypsy in a Touch of Evil
Last year, the company Habanos - an arm of Cubatabaco, the country's national tobacco company - announced a mission to overcome perceptions among women that Cuban cigars are made up of "only strong tobacco for men".
The result is the Julieta, a milder version of the renowned, strong-flavoured Romeo Y Julieta brand, which was founded in 1873. Continued

Pictured: Juliet, fine cut, chewing tobacco - James Moran & Co., St. Louis / Averell & Peckett, lith., N. Y., circa 1873 (Library of Congress).

Urban Legends About Cigars

(Cigars Magazine) An urban legend is a kind of modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. The term is often used with a meaning similar to the expression "apocryphal story". Urban legends are not necessarily untrue, but they are often false, distorted, exaggerated, or sensationalized. Despite the name, urban legends do not necessarily take place in an urban setting. The name is designed to differentiate them from traditional folklore in preindustrial times. Any entity that is rich in culture and lore has the potential to fall victim to Urban Legends, these kinds of legends run rampant, passed down from generation to generation. We collected some good legends, and brought you those stories in order to show you new spots about the cigars culture. Continued

Photo: General Ulysses S. Grant (lower left-hand corner, smoking cigar) at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee.

Happy International Pipe Smoking Day!

I hope ya'll are having a happy International Pipe Smoking Day. Mine started off early, around 3 in the morning, with a bowl full of Samuel Gawith Chocolate flake, which I smoked in a Savinelli University briar pipe, while watching "Since You Went Away" (United Artists, 1944), both were a little soapy, but not bad.
Here's an article about a pipe club celebrating IPSD at the Kamloops Cigar and Pipe store, it's called Sticking it in their pipes.

Photo: Pipe rack at Montpelier, a "famous Manor House," in Laurel, Maryland ( Frances Benjamin Johnston/Library of Congress).

Habanos cigars announces growth amid crisis

(cubaheadlines) Habanos S.A. said that its revenues grew 2 percent in 2010, amid a global recession. The company didn’t provide specific figures. “We trust that this growth can be maintained in 2011,” said Co-President Jorge Luis Fernández Maique during the opening of this year’s Habanos Festival in Havana. Continued

Where's my tobacco?

International Pipe Smoking Day, Tomorrow

(PipesMagazine) ... The UPCA website explains that, "On this day we will … celebrate the noble art of pipe-smoking and the … spirit which pervades the brotherhood and sisterhood of the briar. We will put into practice the time-honored and ancestral traditions of raising our pipes in unison to toast each other and share a bowl together." Continued

Photo courtesy of I can't remember, but thanks just the same.

Altadis Restructures Cigar Division

(Cigar Aficionado) Altadis U.S.A. Inc., a unit of the world's largest cigar company, Imperial Tobacco PLC, announced today it was changing the management structure of the company. Altadis has created a new premium cigar division in the United States, separating it from the company's mass-market division that sells machine-made cigars. Continued

True Blend secures some funds for tobacco growers

(canoe.ca) True Blend growers who are owed the most will have a share in upwards of $600,000 secured today.
Shortly after 10 a.m., co-owner Victor Osztrovics received confirmation that some funding had been secured to pay growers. As soon as news broke, staff started notifying both growers and the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Marketing Board. However, this available sum of funding will hardly put a dent into the $6.6 million owed to growers. Continued

Tobacco farmers block True Blend shipments

(Tillsonburg News) Half a dozen disgruntled tobacco farmers blocked shipments from leaving a Tillsonburg processing plant Thursday, demanding they get paid $6.6 million before they allow it to leave.
Despite the word of True Blend tobacco company co-owner Grant Sanders, who claims the farmers are being paid, four farmers sitting in trucks outside the Highway 3 plant claim they haven't received a cent since Sept. 23, 2010.
"We haven't been paid by True Blend," said one of the farmers, who refused to give his name. Continued

Also: Stability of new tobacco contract system questioned

BU’s Cigar Aficionado Society offers social alternative

(BU Today) A sleeve of pearl-white smoke rolls from Theresa Strachila’s mouth as the bartender brings over a jug of ice water. In the dim light, a group of students sinks into leather couches and wingback chairs, lit cigars between their fingers. Tiny stacks of tapped ash fill the oversized ashtrays like ruins. Outside, car lights cut across the plate-glass windows fronting Boston’s North Street. Continued

Photo: La mar de tabaco

Extra Long Casa Magna Lancero Cigar Released

(Cigar Aficionado) The Casa Magna Colorado Lancero, an ultra-long, slim smoke that was originally only available as part of a limited-edition sampler pack containing other sizes, has been added as a standard size to the Casa Magna Colorado brand. The smokes will be in U.S. cigar shops in late March or early April. Continued

Pictured: Long John Cigars (Library of Congress).

Grower plans to take tobacco appeal to court

(Better Farming) A Middlesex County tobacco grower who claims the right to grow his allotted quota even though the system that administered it is dismantled, says he’s prepared to take his claim to Ontario’s courts.
“They cannot take our licenses back without following legal procedure,” says Hugh Gubbels who farms tobacco, corn, soybeans, wheat and cattle with his brother Joe near Delaware. ... The Gubbels asserted that they were entitled to grow their quota of 418,000 pounds or about 160 acres of tobacco, because they rejected a federal buyout in 2009. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

Cuban Cigars Hit the World News Again

(Prensa Latina) Cuban cigars' fame returns with greater vigor with the celebration of the 13th Havana Festival, a business meeting that also involves culture and tradition. According to official reports, the attendance of at least a thousand people from 70 countries is expected, attracted by businesses, but also for learning about the country of those considered the best pure premium, hand-made, cigars on the planet. As a curious note, Cubans, whether they are smokers or not, have a tight bond with the cigar, coffee and sugar, elements of its economy, so rooted in their culture that they are part of dances, sayings and thought. Continued

Smoke gets in art’s eyes

(thespec.com) Sigmund Freud said that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
And Rene Magritte wrote the words Ceci n’est pas un pipe (“This is not a pipe”) under his painting of a pipe. And if you were to argue that it is indeed a pipe, he would suggest you try to put tobacco in it.
I say, if you think smoking is bad for us, look what it does to the cigarette. Continued

Photo: Marcel Duchamp

Zimbabwe Tobacco Production May Rise 38% This Season

(Bloomberg) Zimbabwe’s tobacco production may climb 38 percent to 170 million kilograms this season as more farmers start growing the crop, according to the country’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board.
Output may rise from 123 million kilograms last year, said Andrew Matibiri, the board’s chief executive officer, by phone today from Harare, the capital.
Tobacco production in Zimbabwe is still below peak levels of about 236 million kilograms achieved in 2000, before President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Front party sponsored often-violent seizures of most white-owned farms. Output slipped to a low of 58.6 million kilograms in 2009, reflecting the effects of a political and economic crisis which peaked during 2008. Continued

Cigar factory fundraising taken up a notch

(Polk County Democrat) $50,000. That is what the City of Bartow projects it will cost to protect and preserve the former Thompson Co. Cigar Factory, according to Bill Melvin and Trish Pfeiffer, two members of the Thompson Cigar Factory Redevelopment Project committee that spearheaded the drive to save the cigar factory from the wrecker’s ball, and which has been given the responsibility to raise the necessary funds. The committee is working with, but not connected to, the city. ... There also is a website (http://www.cigarfactorybartow.com/) and a Facebook page (cigarfactorybartow), said Pfeiffer. Continued

Photo: Thompson Cigar Factory Preservation and Restoration Project

Smokers' sanctuary rolling into Pittsburgh

(Tribune Review) Chris Lyle is opening a sanctuary for smokers.
He's renovating a former BP gas station in Mt. Washington into a place that will buck the virtual ban on smoking in public. This refuge from political correctness will welcome cigarette and cigar consumers with open arms and waiting matches. Continued

Photo via Lamarde

The Instant Expert: to the afficionado, a cigar is never just a cigar

(TheNational) THE BASICS A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried tobacco that's ignited and sucked on to draw smoke into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown especially in the tropics, most notably in Cuba, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras, as well as in Brazil, Cameroon, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines and the eastern United States. The word comes from sikar, the Mayan-Caribbean Indian word for smoking, which became cigarro in Spanish. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

Zimbabwe tobacco selling season 2011

(newsday.co.zw) The 2011 tobacco selling season commences this morning amid high expectation of brisk business on the back of an improved agriculture season. Contract sales are expected to begin tomorrow (Thursday). Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive Andrew Matibiri on Tuesday said they were set for sales. “Everything is in place,” said Matibiri. Continued

Click Snus versus Tre Ankare: Can this new Swedish snus unseat the old champ?

(SnusCentral) ... I believe the flavors of the two snus are very close, with two big differences. One is that Click Snus is not subdued or subtle at all. It has a more in your face; notice me, initial burst of herbal flavor, followed by a spicy, almost peppery note in the background.
I now believe that spiciness is the base tobacco. It reminds me of a dark maduro wrapped Dominican cigar, with the spice mixed with earthy lighter tobacco middle, or the kick the, verboten in the US, tobacco imparts to Montecristo snus. Continued

World Cigar Lounges: The Garden Room at The Lanesborough Hotel, London

(Cigar Aficionado) There are cigar bars. There are cigar lounges. And then there's The Garden Room at The Lanesborough.
London's high-class hotel (a personal butler for every room) is head and shoulders above its competitors when it comes to catering for the lover of the leaf.
Not only is this sensational cigar terrace warm, with underfloor heating, overhead heating and internal heating provided by killer vodka Martinis, it also houses one of the best-stocked humidors in the northern hemisphere. Continued

"Winston", "Marlboro" and "Chesterfield" were Latvia's most popular cigarettes in 2010

"Winston", "Marlboro" and "Chesterfield" were Latvia's most popular cigarettes in 2010, according to information on excised goods compiled by the State Revenue Service (SRS). ... According to SRS figures, the largest producers and importers of tobacco products over nine months in 2010 were Philip Morris Latvia, British American Tobacco, JTI Marketing and sales, Rasta 1 and Tabakas nams grupa. Continued

Photo via modernmechanix.com

Wall Collapse Shuts Down S&S Candy and Cigar Company

PITTSBURGH (WPXI) The exterior wall of the S&S Candy and Cigar Company on Pittsburgh's South Side partially collapsed early Monday morning. ... The wall that fell away included a painted sign on the building's exterior, listing the products it sells.
Many onlookers said they just hope the long time South Side business can survive. Continued

Luciano Tobacco Pipes: A Brief History and Review

(Bob Tate) Luciano (pronounced: Lu-chee-ah-no) pipes are made in Italy and are the creation of Luca Di Piazza, owner of NeatPipes. Luca wanted to create a high quality line of pipes that would be affordable to all pipe smokers. In the beginning months of 2007, he set to work making the first pipes that would carry the Luciano name. He wanted to make sure that every pipe in the Luciano line had all of the correct engineering that makes a pipe a good smoker, but he wanted to be able to produce them in a way that keeps the cost of the pipes low and affordable. The way that he achieved this was by having each pipe Hand Finished instead of Hand Made. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

New hard pack for Swisher Sweets Little Cigars

(CSNews) Swisher International introduced new 84-millimeter hard-pack packaging for the company's Swisher Sweets Little Cigars. While the traditional soft pack will remain available, the popular 84-millimeter-length hard pack is designed to resist bending and crushing to preserve the product in its original condition, according to the company. Hard-pack Little Cigars are available in: Sweet, Menthol and Silver. Continued

Mujuru drawn into fight for tobacco Auction Floors

(Zimbabwe Standard) THE fight for the control of Boka Tobacco Auction Floors between the late tycoon’s family and the Zimbabwe Industry Tobacco Association Centre (Zitac) has drawn in Vice-President Joice Mujuru, who has been asked to intervene.
Zitac, which is fighting Boka Investments over the ownership of property on the floors, says it asked Mujuru to mediate in the matter after disturbances at the floors last Thursday.
Boka Investments alleged Zitac sent “thugs” to stop renovations at the floors but Zitac has denied the claims. Continued

Latest tobacco notes from dubinthedam

Nightcap at the club: A new old tobacco blend

The other night, we opened up a tin of the new Dunhill Nightcap at the pipe club. A good half dozen of us tried it out and everyone declared it good, very good. At least half of the group were skeptics, myself included. The harmoniousness of the blend won us over - not too much latakia, not too much perique - it was just right. We only got one bowl each and they only had one other can to sell (which I didn't get to in time), so don't take this as an unqualified endorsement, but if you get a chance to try Nightcap tobacco, please do.

Photo: "Moon Time" (Nightening).

Dry Boxing: Best Cigar Smoking Tip Ever?

(Robustojoe) There is nothing like a moist, fragrant cigar. The wonderful aroma we sense upon opening our cigar humidors is mouth-watering to a cigar lover. But sometimes that aroma can indicate we are getting too much of a good thing. Continued

Photo: Smithsonian Institution

Sherlock Holmes: Tobacco Fiend

"Sherlock Holmes playing by Jeremy Brett smokes very much. He often doesn't eat or sleep, he doesn't speak...but...he SMOKES every time."

New Hearth & Home Tobaccos and Tins

(PipesMagazine) Pipe smokers have more choices in high quality tobaccos than they’ve ever had at any point in history, and the Hearth & Home brand is making sure of that. It seems that tobacco blender Russ Ouellette never rests and always has some unique new tobaccos in the works. Two of the new Hearth & Home blends just released were previewed at the West Coast Pipe Show in November 2010 to rave reviews … but they have not been available until now. Also debuting with the new tobaccos are new tin-art designs. Continued

Old Hoosier Cigar building fire

HUNTINGTON, Ind. (WANE) Fire crews responded to an explosion and fire at the Old Hoosier [Huser?] Cigar building in the 800 block of Tipton St. in Huntington.
Witnesses reported hearing explosions and then seeing flames shoot 20 to 30 feet into the air. Continued

Legend of Famed Cuban Tobacco Grower Endures

Cuba (Prensa Latina) The legend of tobacco grower Alejandro Robaina, revered as the ambassador of Cuban cigars, Habanos, endures in photographs, news clippings and the splendor of his tobacco fields. Documents and other family heirlooms fill a modest museum built in the old farm El Pinar, and tell the story of the white-haired man with a straw hat who died in 2010 at the age of 91. Continued

Jonathan Drew, Marvin Samel and Drew Estate make cigars their own way

(Cigar Aficionado) Take one look at Jonathan Drew and you'd never think he was the head of a cigar company. With his blue- or tangerine-tinted eyeglasses, ever-present flood-level pants, sandals and New York accent, one would sooner place him as a hipster artist or poet than a guy who makes his living overseeing the production of tens of millions of cigars per year. Continued

IPCPR Supports International Pipe Smoking Day, Feb. 20

(benzinga) Millions of pipe smokers around the world will be celebrating the fourth annual International Pipe Smoking Day on February 20 supported by the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association. Pipe smokers everywhere will “raise their pipes together to foster friendship, benevolence, and tranquility across all borders,” according to the United Pipe Clubs of America. To celebrate the occasion, many pipe clubs and tobacconists across the United States, Europe and elsewhere are staging pipe smoking events at 9:00 p.m. locally to bring together their members and others interested in pipe smoking. Continued

Poor tobacco harvest in Gonda

(sify) Farmers in Gonda in Uttar Pradesh are incurring huge losses in tobacco production because of last year's floods.
Several parts of the land are unfit for cultivation, thus farmers were unable to sow enough tobacco. ... Brij Lal Singh , a farmer said "Earlier we used to make profits of 8,000-10,000 rupees ($176- 219) per acre but now we even don't earn even 3,000 ($66) from one acre" Continued

Store owners find wall-sized century-old cigar ads

PRESCOTT, AZ (Daily Courier) Rich and Jenny Schulte thought it would help boost the historic look of their new Whiskey Row store to remove the pegboard and plaster on one long wall to uncover the old brick. But they never suspected what else they'd find. Two huge cigar ads were painted onto those bricks about a century ago when the store was the Grand Saloon. Continued

Famous Pipe Smokers

"Just a video I put together showcasing some of the more famous people who enjoyed the occasional pipe. I'm sure there are plenty that I missed."

"Cigarette Wars" on CNBC Wednesday, March 2nd

(CNBC) "Cigarette Wars" goes inside Americas original cash crop -- the companies that sell tobacco, the people who smoke it, the elected officials who are trying to get rid of it, the federal law enforcement agencies who are fighting it on the black market and the Kentucky farmers who grow it.
An original CNBC documentary, CIGARETTE WARS, will premiere on Wednesday, March 2nd at 9pm ET. It will repeat that evening at 10pm ET, 12am ET, and 1am ET.
The documentary will also repeat on Sunday March 6th at 10pm ET. Continued

Brigham U.S.A. Opens for Business

(PipesMagazine) If you haven’t seen a Brigham Pipe before, you will soon. Their new U.S.A. launch is just around the corner. Many people know and cherish Brigham Pipes as they’ve been around for over 100 years. However, they have been difficult to find at U.S. retailers.
Brigham’s past availability in the U.S. market has been spotty for years; creating shortages, higher prices, and frustrated consumers.
By the Spring of this year, those problems will be solved. It will be much easier for U.S. customers to obtain a Brigham Pipe, and to obtain it at an affordable price. Continued

Pepin Garcia Adding Extra Fat Cigars

(Cigar Aficionado) José “Pepin” Garcia is adding new sizes to some of his existing lines, and each is considerably fat, reflecting the trend of American smokers gravitating toward ever-thicker cigars. The Don Pepin Garcia “Blue Label” brand, which is rolled in the tiny El Rey de Los Habanos factory in Miami, Florida, on historic Calle Ocho, now has a size called the Toro Gordo. The six inch long, 56 ring gauge shape is a first for Garcia, and the only cigar in his considerable and ever-growing portfolio to have those dimensions. Continued

On Smoking a Cigar

(City Journal) ... I still remember my cigarettes on the job. The pleasure of the smoke was existential in the deep-night solitude of the shift. Caught between the rural night quiet and the danger of the highway trade, I could see myself as a subject—frozen in exhale behind the glass of the station building—in a painting by Edward Hopper. When I took in a breath of the Camel, my petty world became whole and my place in it somehow as it should be. Continued

Painting: Gas by Edward Hopper

Want a Cuban cigar? Try enlisting

(statesman.com) He was the last person I expected to find at one of the most heavily fortified American military bases in the world. But there he was, staring back at me from a shelf stacked with macanudos. Che Guevara, in all his cigar smoking, Cuban Revolutionary glory taking up center stage at the smoke shop, one of several cigar stores here at Camp Victory.
Because of a quirk of international law, American soldiers can buy Cuban cigars here in Iraq ... Continued