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| MIAMI CIGAR DEBUTS "RUKY" |
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Page 1 of 2  Plus: California Democrats propose potential cigar tax of 123%!Los Angeles, June 17, 2009 – Traditionally, manufacturers have introduced their new blends and sizes at the major cigar trade show, the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) convention and exhibition. That is changing. In the more recent and challenging sales environment, more and more makers are announcing their new blends and styles in order to create interest prior to the show, hoping to generate more orders at the event. In recent weeks, new blends from Alec Bradley, Camacho and Cuban Crafters have been revealed and now, fresh off “National Nestor Miranda Cigar Day,” Miami Cigar & Co. is taking a new size of its Nestor Miranda Special Selection to the national market. The “Ruky” is, like the rest of the Special Selection line, made in Nicaragua under the direction of Pepin Garcia. But the size is unique, a short perfecto of 5 5/8 inches by 52 ring gauge. “‘Ruky’ is Nestor Miranda’s nickname,” noted Miami Cigar vice president Rene Castenada in the announcement. “From the age before he was a teenager, growing up in Holguin in the tobacco-rich Oriente Province of Cuba, his friends called him ‘Ruky.’ The name has remained among his closest and oldest friends. “Inasmuch as he insisted on the creation of this vitola, we thought it appropriate to name it ‘Ruky.’” The cigar itself features a Nicaraguan-grown Habano Oscuro wrapper, a Nicaraguan-grown binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan filler leaves, a slightly different blend that used for the other Special Selection sizes (a 5 1/2-inch by 54-ring robusto and 6-inch by 60-ring toro). It’s been in limited distribution, essentially in a test-marketing phase, for about eight weeks. “We have been extremely gratified by the initial response,” said Castenada, “so we decided to expand the distribution even before the IPCPR.” The Ruky was a strong seller where it was tested during the 500 Nestor Miranda National Cigar Day in-store events on June 12, so the decision was made to release it a couple of months early. The Special Selection Ruky will also be uniquely packed, offered not in boxes of 20 like the other sizes, but in a hinged box of five cigars which will retail for $40.00. California Democrats: raise tobacco taxes again, now! Desperately trying to close the state’s runaway budget deficit, California Democrats are pursuing a plan to raise $1 billion by jacking up the state’s tobacco tax by $1.50 per pack to a total of $2.37, a 172% increase! For cigar smokers, this could amount to a tax hike from the current 45.13% of the manufacturer’s wholesale price (including the Federal SCHIP tax; yes, California is taxing the tax) to 122.9% of the wholesale price, raising the price of a cigar designed to sell at retail for $5 to $8.07 before the state sales tax, which is now 8.25% – highest in the nation – and will be 10.25% in Los Angeles County come July 1.This is due to the California tobacco tax scheme which ties the tax on “other tobacco products” to that of cigarettes. |
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Did you know?
“Cigars, as we know them today, began serious production in Seville, Spain around 1676.
