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The Cigar Industry Centric Podcast
Episodes
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Quality Importers Trading Company declared 2023 "Year of the Palió" as there was a big focus on the Palió brand. For many years Palió was known for its innovative cutter. Over the past few years, Palió has become a value-priced brand for cutters and lighters in the Quality Importers portfolio. When Xikar was acquired, that would become the more premium line of cutters and lighters. This year Quality Importers decided to introduce a series in-between the Palió and Xikar series in terms of price point known as Palió Pro which will feature three lighters priced between $44.99 and $49.99. Meanwhile Palió as keeps true to its roots as a value-priced brand as Quality Importers introduced a new value-priced lighter known as the Palió Pistola.
Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qh4
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
On August 15 2010, Will Cooper went to his first IPCPR Trade Show as a buyer. After an adventure getting an Iced Coffee in the heat of New Orleans, he decided to chronicle his tales of his visit to the Trade Show and Cigar Coop was born. Along the way, he met some interesting characters and one of them was a newcomer to the cigar industry named Matt Booth. Over the years, Matt and Coop have developed a friendship akin to the Odd Couple -at the same time that friendship expanded to the rest of the team. Tonight, we welcome Matt Booth to this anniversary show. All I can say is put on your seat belts for this one.
Bear and Coop will reflect on the last 13 years as well.
Plus we have our U.S. History segment, Tabacalera USA Great Things are Happening Here, and Espinosa This Day in Sports History segments.
References
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
On August 15 2010, Will Cooper went to his first IPCPR Trade Show as a buyer. After an adventure getting an Iced Coffee in the heat of New Orleans, he decided to chronicle his tales of his visit to the Trade Show and Cigar Coop was born. Along the way, he met some interesting characters and one of them was a newcomer to the cigar industry named Matt Booth. Over the years, Matt and Coop have developed a friendship akin to the Odd Couple -at the same time that friendship expanded to the rest of the team. Tonight, we welcome Matt Booth to this anniversary show. All I can say is put on your seat belts for this one.
Bear and Coop will reflect on the last 13 years as well.
Plus we have our U.S. History segment, Tabacalera USA Great Things are Happening Here, and Espinosa This Day in Sports History segments.
References
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
Cigar Coop has been covering the Trade Show since 2010, and every year we manage to visit Topper Cigars' booth. There is a rich history for this family, and owner Chris Topper is quite proud of it. There aren't any new offerings from Topper Cigars this year, but there were a couple of things of interest. First up, there is a second production run of the Topper 125th Anniversary Cigar - which, as the name indicates, commemorates 125 years of Topper Cigars. In addition, Chris Topper gave us a little glimpse of what the next project will be.
Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qgp
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
Cigar Coop has been covering the Trade Show since 2010, and every year we manage to visit Topper Cigars' booth. There is a rich history for this family, and owner Chris Topper is quite proud of it. There aren't any new offerings from Topper Cigars this year, but there were a couple of things of interest. First up, there is a second production run of the Topper 125th Anniversary Cigar - which, as the name indicates, commemorates 125 years of Topper Cigars. In addition, Chris Topper gave us a little glimpse of what the next project will be.
Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qgp
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
At an FDA Seminar at the 2013 IPCPR Trade Show, a relatively unknown new brand had its debut cigar launched. That brand was Fratello Cigars, owned by Omar de Frias who worked for NASA. Following the Trade Show, Omar would take a grassroots approach to introduce his cigars to the market that he called "Fratello Road." Fast forward to 2023, and this year Omar and Fratello are celebrating ten years in the cigar business. Our visit to the Fratello booth included a lot of reminiscing over Fratello's decade in the cigar business. In addition, there were a couple of new releases. The first was Fratello - The Lunar, which is being released in conjunction with the upcoming Nova-C Lunar Landing project. In addition, the Fratello Sorella, a line that hasn't had a full U.S. launch, will now see one.
Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qgf
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
Tuesday Aug 15, 2023
At an FDA Seminar at the 2013 IPCPR Trade Show, a relatively unknown new brand had its debut cigar launched. That brand was Fratello Cigars, owned by Omar de Frias who worked for NASA. Following the Trade Show, Omar would take a grassroots approach to introduce his cigars to the market that he called "Fratello Road." Fast forward to 2023, and this year Omar and Fratello are celebrating ten years in the cigar business. Our visit to the Fratello booth included a lot of reminiscing over Fratello's decade in the cigar business. In addition, there were a couple of new releases. The first was Fratello - The Lunar, which is being released in conjunction with the upcoming Nova-C Lunar Landing project. In addition, the Fratello Sorella, a line that hasn't had a full U.S. launch, will now see one.
Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qgf
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Monday Aug 14, 2023
It has been over five years since Quality Importers Trading Company acquired Xikar. Since then, the company has worked hard to make it one of its flagship brands in the portfolio. In the past few years, the innovation pipeline for Xikar has not slowed down - and that trend continued at the 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show. This year, the company showcased a new in-line dual-flame lighter known as the Xikar Ion. There are some more collaborations coming with New York jeweler Jacob & Co. Also the company has done a soft launch of its next generation of the Xikar Xi Cutter -the Xikar Perfect Xi1 Cutter.
Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qfX
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Monday Aug 14, 2023
It has been over five years since Quality Importers Trading Company acquired Xikar. Since then, the company has worked hard to make it one of its flagship brands in the portfolio. In the past few years, the innovation pipeline for Xikar has not slowed down - and that trend continued at the 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show. This year, the company showcased a new in-line dual-flame lighter known as the Xikar Ion. There are some more collaborations coming with New York jeweler Jacob & Co. Also the company has done a soft launch of its next generation of the Xikar Xi Cutter -the Xikar Perfect Xi1 Cutter.
Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qfX
Sunday Aug 13, 2023
Sunday Aug 13, 2023
In 2022, the company known as El Artista underwent a rebrand. El Artista brands are owned by Ram Rodriguez, who also owns the Tabacalera El Artista in the Dominican Republic. The rebrand included a portfolio restructuring as well as changing the company name for the brands to Artista Cigars. Last year as a part of the portfolio restructure, the company previewed an eponymous line of cigars titled Artista. This line consists of two offerings - Artista Harvest and Artista Midnight. It took almost a year, but a couple of weeks before the 2023 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show, Artista made it to the market. We talked to Ram Rodriguez about the line, and Bear Duplisea had an opportunity to present Ram with an award for #2 Cigar of the Year for the Buffalo Ten Connecticut.
Full PCA Report: https://wp.me/p6h1n1-qfx