 Plus: new strains of tobacco in Cuba
Los Angeles, April 3 – Despite the lighter-than-hoped-for attendance, the NATO show floor bristled with new products, especially in the flavored cigar category:
• Altadis U.S.A. introduced a new machine-made cigar with a tipped end and pipe tobacco filler called “Black and Blue.” It’s made in Tampa and offers a mild taste.
Their popular Phillies line added the Piña Colada flavor to its Blunt line and banana to its Phillies Cigarillo line.
• Avanti Tobacco, makers of the popular Parodi, Avanti, Petri and Denobili lines of cheroots, added a Cherry Vanilla-Flavored version to its Parodi Kings line. Tony Suraci – pictured on the Ramrod box under a big cowboy hat – noted that the Parodi Ammezzati is still his top seller, with the Avantis a close second.
• Great Discovery’s of Houston, which commissions special versions of well-known handmade brands, added three new cigars to its growing line.
From Altadis, it now offers a special 10th Anniversary Montecristo Lot 98 Series A shape in the popular 7-inch by 50-ring double corona size, same as the tubed Montecristo Grande. The new Series A is offered in boxes of 20. Also available is a 10th Anniversary Romeo y Julieta Lot 96 Series B Maduro (5 x 50), the same size as the Romeo y Julieta Bully and the tubed Rothchilde.
From Caribe Imported Cigars, Great Discovery’s now offers a Baccarat Vintage Brilliante Cameroon Tubo in the 6 1/2-inch by 44-ring Lonsdale size. The Brilliante size is part of the Baccarat Casino Vintage line, but is made with all-Honduran-grown tobacco, while this special edition has a Cameroon leaf for the wrapper.
• The Heavenly Cigar Company, one of the leaders in the handmade flavored cigar market, introduced a new line of their cigars in plastic tubes. Dubbed the “Stairway to Heaven” for the stepped presentation boxes of 20, there are two sizes, a Petite (5 x 30) and a Corona (5 1/2 x 46) available in Celestial Cognac, Cupid’s Cherry Cream, Heather’s Honey Nut, Heavenly Vanilla and Raging Rum. All feature a Sumatra wrapper and Dominican binder and filler for a mild taste.
• Remember the trademark dust-up at last summer’s RTDA show over the Indian Tabac “Mocha” line which had to be changed to “Chocolat”? Well, the name is now “Java” and no lawsuit has yet been served by the Indonesian island of the same name . . .
• Cem Mukenbrun from James Norman Ltd. was pleased to note that his new Caballeros Vintage line is now in more than 100 stores nationwide. Announced in 2004, another trademark issue required a change in name from the original “Caballeros Aniversario” title, but it’s the medium-to-full-bodied flavor led by a Connecticut wrapper and pricing at about $5 which has made an impact with smokers so far.
• JM Tobacco, which has made a lot of friends with its value-priced JM’s Dominican line, introduced a JM’s Little Cigar at the NATO Expo. It’s available in natural, menthol and vanilla in packs of 20.
• John’s T’s, the market leader in pipe-tobacco-filler cigars, unveiled two new flavors in the black-tubed “Sweet T’s” line: Peach Whiskey and Rum & Cola. George Antonaros of Stratus Distribution (pictured) noted that because of the loose pipe tobacco in the filler, John T’s should be pierced, rather than cut, before smoking!
• S.A.G. Imports, the home of Fonseca and Joya de Nicaragua, also got into the flavored-cigar game with Cordova Miniatures, a small handmade cigar (3 1/2 x 26) “with a party attitude.” It has an Indonesian-grown wrapper and binder and Dominican filler, with the tips sweetened with cane sugar. Flavors include Vanilla, Rum, Honey, Chocolate, Cherry and Capuccino, all in tines of 10 or bundles of 25.
• Swedish Match also added flavors to its White Owl line, which has been significantly expanded over the past few years. New for 2005 in the Blunts size: Pineapple and Strawberry.
All of these new flavors make me wonder about the future . . . and the 1971 feature film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Remember Wonka’s in-development gum that promised a four-course dinner, but eventually turned Violet Beauregarde into a blueberry?
How about a “Tomato Soup” cigarillo which can be followed by a “Sirloin Steak” corona grande?
Come to think of it, how about an Excalibur No. II (maduro) washed down with a Chevere Ice Creams Flavors Mantecado? All I need now is a napkin made of homogenized tobacco leaf . . .
On a more serious note, the continuing popularity of machine-made cigars in a time when handmade cigar sales are expanding again is drawing more of the machine-made folks to look seriously again at sales in premium smokeshops. The latest indicator: John Middleton, Inc., makers of the popular Black & Mild, Black & Gold and Prince Albert lines, will be exhibiting at the RTDA show in New Orleans this summer for the first time since the 1950s.
From the Cubador:
Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper, Granma, reported that the island’s Institute for Tobacco Research has now developed six new varieties of the native “black” tobacco which are much more resistant to blue mold disease and has better characteristics against the Black Shank virus and Tobacco Mosaic virus (TMV).
All of these diseases can either destroy most or all of a crop, or in the case of TMV, cause the leaves to curl and become useless. One new strain of tobacco leaf called IT-2004 has especially high yield potential and can thrive even under drought-like conditions, making it ideal for use in the parched eastern end of the island. Such tobacco, grown in the Oriente province, is usually used for cigarette manufacture.
Granma reported that at present, there are 23,000 producers of tobacco on the island and the total planting covers about 33,500 hectares (about 82,780 acres).
On the political front, a visit to Cuba by European Union commissioner Louis Michel last week drew raspberries in a commentary by Oliver Kamm in The Times of London:
“The EU imposed diplomatic sanctions after Fidel Castro jailed 75 dissidents in 2003, Those sanctions were suspended after the release on medical grounds of 14 of the prisoners, and the EU has set itself till June to judge whether a diplomatic approach is the most effective course. Unfortunately, the symbols are almost a parody of the word according to [U.S. Secretary of Defense] Donald Rumsfield. ‘Old Europe’ bears the stereotype of feebleness in the face of appalling regimes. The stereotype is true (emphasis added)."
With an air of resignation, Kamm later concluded: “The Helms-Burton Act, which mandates sanctions on foreign companies that invest in expropriated U.S. property in Cuba, is so arbitrarily punitive that the U.S. is wary of applying its provisions. In that mess, the aim of democratic change in Cuba becomes obscured by disputes among allies. Tragically, the EU is the last place to look for a constructive alternative.”
~ Rich Perelman
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