News: Odds and Ends from Little Puff 2012
2 Oct 2012
In my hometown of Washington, the unquestioned top cigar event of the year is Little Puff. Since 1999, the event has been put on by W. Curtis Draper and, while I was unable to attend the main event Friday, I dropped by the After Puff lunch Saturday.
Little Puff Tops $600K Raised for Charity
Since its inception, Little Puff has expanded from one day to a full weekend of events, starting with a Thursday night VIP dinner, followed by the main event on Friday night, and culminating with the After Puff lunch on Saturday.
While ticket prices may be more than many other cigar events, the premium seems worth it because proceeds (including from an auction with one-of-a-kind cigars provided by manufacturers) go to charity. This year at After Puff, it was announced that since its founding, the event has surpassed $600,000 raised for various charities.
New CAO Hurricane Coming
Remember CAO’s Last Stick Standing promotion? Cigar smokers were encouraged to try three blends—”C”, “A” and “O”—and vote on their favorite. The “C” blend (after a few tweaks) turned into the new Concert, which was introduced at the IPCPR Trade Show.
Now Rick Rodriguez and Ed McKenna of CAO (pictured at Little Puff with the Capitol in the background) tell me another blend that originated from Last Stick Standing (this time the “O”) is set to be released. Dubbed the “Hurricane,” the slightly updated version of the “O” blend will come out at the end of Hurricane season in November. A smaller size of the cigar (with a label reading “AP 2012”) was handed out at the CAO-sponsored After Puff event.
photo credit: @CAOCigars
Looking forward to the Hurricane… My favorite stick from LSS was the O.