Stogie Guys Friday Sampler No. 269
23 Dec 2011
As we have since July 2006, each Friday we’ll post a mixed bag of quick cigar news and other items of interest. Below is our latest Friday Sampler.
1) Demonstrating the lengths some groups and politicians will go to control tobacco, five U.S. senators are now urging the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to outright ban flavored cigars nationwide. “Cigars with candy-like flavorings such as strawberry, watermelon, vanilla, and chocolate attract kids to smoking and help hook them on this addictive habit,†wrote Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CN) in a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. This move further underscores the need to differentiate premium handmade cigars from cheap machine-made sticks, as well as the need to pass the “Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2011,†which would repeal the FDA’s authority to regulate cigars.
2) Last week we reported that Camacho Cigars signed a three-year deal to become a corporate sponsor of the Orange Bowl. But on Tuesday, ten anti-tobacco groups sent a letter to collegiate athletics officials saying that “the Florida cigar company’s sponsorship of the football games have no place in sports and shouldn’t be allowed under federal tobacco marketing restrictions.” According to an article published yesterday, representatives from Camacho, the NCAA, and the Orange Bowl have not yet responded to the letter.
3) Inside the Industry: Oliva is making a new version of its highly-regarded Series V smoke in its new Miami facility starting early next year. Barry Stein, proprietor of ACigarSmoker.com, is joining Miami Cigar & Co. Cromagnon is finally available in boxes that brand owner Skip Martin calls “cubes” with 35 cigars each. (To celebrate, Cromagnon is giving one lucky winner a free trip to Austin, Texas, full of cigars, beer, and BBQ. Details here.)
4) Around the Blogs: Stogie Review reviews El Primer Mundo Epiphania. Smoking Stogie smokes a J. Fuego 777 Corojo Paka. Cigar Inspector inspects an E.P. Carrillo Club 52. Tiki Bar kicks back with a Savinelli Dos Campeones 21. Nice Tight Ash checks out a Casa Magnus Domus Optimus.
5) Deal of the Week: This weekly special gets you 10 quality sticks for just $30. Included are top smokes from Excalibur, Gurkha, Camacho, Romeo y Julieta, Rocky Patel, CAO, and Perdomo.
photo credit: Flickr
Patrick Ashby
Co-Founder & Editor in Chief
Patrick Semmens
Co-Founder & Publisher
George Edmonson
Tampa Bureau Chief
Like most of you I don't care for flavored cigars or the machine-made cigars they sell at gas stations. But this is a dangerous powergrab. Plenty of people over 18 years of age buy up those flavored cigars… Are we to criminalize them? Will this create a black market of flavored cigars?
And how do you define "flavored" anyways? Plenty of premium handmades have notes of chocolate, or cherry, etc.
Item 2; Cigars should have no place in sports? Save for hotdogs, burgers, potato chips, beer, and other athletic substances.
If you read the AP story on the Camacho/Orange Bowl issue, you'll see it uses the CDC figure of 11% of high schoolers smoke cigars. I've written the AP pointing out that the CDC defines current user as someone who smoked a cigar with 30 days of the survey and that likely means many, if not most, were smoking marijuana in a hollowed out machine-made cigar. I suggested they consider the context in the future when using those data, since I think almost anyone would agree they're misleading. Could anyone really believe that one in 10 teenagers smokes cigars with any sort of regularity? I'll let you know what I hear back.