Stogie Guys Friday Sampler No. 504

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) Serious Cigars, a four-location retailer in Texas that also operates an online shop, has been acquired by Tabacalera USA, the U.S. premium cigar division of Imperial Brands PLC, a global tobacco conglomerate that includes Altadis U.S.A. and JR Cigar. As part of the acquisition, Tabacalera USA has created Casa de Montecristo, Inc.—a division that will focus on the management of the various Casa de Montecristo locations. Eventually, the four Serious Cigar stores in Texas will be known as Casa de Montecristo by Serious Cigars. “Ron and JeanneMarie Lesseraux founded Serious Cigars as a small online retail business in 1996,” reports the Houston Business Journal. “They opened their first location near Willowbrook Mall in December 2003 and have since opened three other locations in the Galleria area, near George Bush Intercontinental Airport and in Webster. The Lesserauxes will remain with the company to help with the transition, and no major changes are expected for Serious Cigars’ stores or website, according to a Nov. 2 press release.”

2) Inside the Industry: If you have an extra $25,000 laying around, you can cash in on one of five 50-count Oro Blanco Special Reserve 2002 cigars from Davidoff. What makes this cigar worth $500 apiece? “The Oro Blanco Special Reserve 2002 is like no other cigar,” according to an email circulated by Davidoff yesterday. “The tobaccos used to craft it will be used for Oro Blanco alone. No other cigar will ever–ever–use the same tobacco. The experience of enjoying an Oro Blanco will therefore be like nothing else aficionados have ever known.” Each batch of 50 must be specially ordered at a Davidoff Flagship store.

3) From the Archives: Maybe the worst sight you can see when you open your humidor is a cigar with a beetle hole. But if it happens to you, don’t panic. Our tip from 2010 shows how to mitigate a potential beetle outbreak.

4) Deal of the Week: Limited quantities of our StogieGuys.com-selected sampler are still available at Cigar & Pipes. Included are cigars we enjoyed years ago that still remain staples in our humidors. Just $58.49 gets you 10 cigars, well below MSRP, including some high-end smokes from Padrón, Fuente, and Oliva.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Serious Cigars