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TOBACCO PLUS QUIETER BUT STILL SMOKIN'

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New cigars on view at the 2008 Tobacco Plus Expo in Las Vegas!

Las Vegas, NV, April 25 – The Tobacco Plus Expo in Las Vegas focuses on the convenience store, gas station and mass-market sector and draws a crowd that’s quite different from the annual International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailer (IPCPR) show held during the summer.

This year’s edition was a bit more subdued than last year and the number of cigar manufacturers and distributors was down, but that didn’t mean there weren’t plenty of new brands to see and new ideas to consider. Some of the highlights:

Jonathan Drew told anyone who would listen at last year’s Retail Tobacco Dealers of America (RTDA) trade show that the next market niche to be conquered would be cigars with some type of coffee flavor.

Drew made sure that he and his Drew Estates team would be well positioned and are in the process of introducing the Tabak Especial line, infused with Nicaraguan estate-grown coffee.

Drew Estates partner Marvin Samel noted that this blend is designed as a “bridge” between smokers who are used to infused cigars – such as Drew Estates’ Acid – and traditional cigars which are not infused, such as their Chateau Real line. The Tabak Especial has an extra-dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper that’s cured for two years, plus a Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan Criollo filler leaves for a medium-to-full-bodied taste. There will be six sizes available, in boxes of 24, 40, or 50.

Special editions continue to be popular and Rocky Patel has taken the concept to its logical end with the Rocky Patel Lancero Sampler. Capitalizing on the revival in interest in the elegant Lancero shape – in this case 7 1/2 inches by 40 ring – Patel created a box of 10 Lanceros with two each of five of his most popular blends: The Edge Corojo, The Edge Maduro, Rocky Patel Decade, Olde World Reserve and Sun Grown. The shape isn’t normally made in any of these lines, but a total of 2,500 samplers (25,000 cigars) were made and retail for $70.00 each, if you can find them.

Mike Chiusano’s Domrey Cigars is on a roll and introduced two new blends to the Cusano line, the Cusano 59 and the Cusano Habano LXI.

Both are made by hand in the Dominican Republic, with the Cusano 59 featuring an aged Cameroon wrapper and Dominican-grown binder and fillers for a spicy taste that’s calculated for medium-to-full body. According to Chiusano, the blend doesn’t overpower, but comes equal to the Cameroon wrapper in flavor and creates a unique balance. The Cusano Habano LXI features a Habano Sun Grown wrapper grown in the Dominican, and blended with Dominican-grown binder and fillers. Also medium-to-full in body, this is a cigar with rich flavors and an elegant band. Both lines are offered in four sizes, including a marvelous Preferido shape, a perfecto of 5 3/4 inches long by 57 ring gauge.

Increasingly-popular Arganese Cigars introduced its own 60-ring gauge stick, elegantly packaged in slide-top wood coffins holding one cigar. The new “Arganese Uno” is a 6-inch by 60-ring toro hat’s medium-to-full in body and made with all-Dominican tobaccos. It comes in boxes of five and has a suggested retail price of $16 each.

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Did you know?

“Although rarely seen today, coin-operated cigar dispensers have been around since at least 1893.