18
TOBACCO BUSINESS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013
NEWS & TRENDS
September/october 2013
Rocky Mountain Holds Fourth Annual Cigar Festival
Held in August, the event drew thousands.
Boulder,
Colorado-based
Smoker
Friendly’s Rocky Mountain Cigar Festi-
val took place at the Millennium Harvest
House in Boulder on Saturday, August
24, 2013. The Rocky Mountain Cigar
Festival, now in its fourth year, is a cel-
ebration of the premium cigar industry
attracting more than 1,500 consumers
and over 80 vendors within the pre-
mium cigar, craft beer, micro-distillery,
fine wines and lifestyle arenas.
Premium cigar vendors included
Padrón, Perdomo, Drew Estate, Liga
Privada, Tatuaje, Casa Magna, La Aro-
ma de Cuba, La Flor Dominicana, Ash-
ton, Nat Sherman, Camacho, Joya de
Nicaragua, Padilla, Oliva, Cain, Gran
Habano, Villiger, Rocky Patel, Gurkha,
Brick House, Saint Luis Rey, CAO, H.
Upmann, Montecristo, Kristoff, Asylum,
Diamond Crown, Room 101, Debo-
naire, Ortega, Plasencia, Outlaw, Iconic
Leaf, Ventura Cigar, Esteban Carreras,
C&C, JM Dominican, Black Label, Core
Zero, Providencia, Havana Time, and
Bloodline.
Craft beer was featured from the likes
of Oskar Blues, Left Hand Brewery, Bris-
tol Brewing Company, Fate Brewing
Company, Breckenridge Brewery, Wal-
nut Brewery, Sanitas Brewing Compa-
ny, Boulder Beer, Asher Brewing Com-
pany, Buffalo Beer, and AC Golden.
Wine and spirit vendors included
Breckenridge Distillery, Patrón Tequi-
la, Peach Street Distillers, Pyrat Rum,
Feisty Spirits, Ultimat Vodka, Woody
Creek Cellars, Blue Nectar Spirits, RJR
Spirits, Redstone Meadery, Slim Lizzy’s
Cocktail, Black Canyon Distillery, and
J&L Distilling Company.
Lifestyle vendors included
Cigar Snob
Magazine
,
Cigar Press
, Colibri, S.T. Du-
pont, Harley Davidson, Tommy Bahama,
Xikar, Armored Humidor Systems, Op-
eration: Cigars for Warriors, Lighters
Direct, Boveda, General Snus, The Cigar
Authority, Wicked Audio, e6 Energy, 4th
Generation Pipe Tobacco, Front Range
Anglers, Smokey Mountain, Colorado
Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Asso-
ciation, White Owl,
Boulder Lifestyle
Magazine
,
Smoke Magazine
,
Tobacco
Business
, Social Smoke, Grassroots Ra-
dio, J. Hilburn Custom Clothier, Santa Fe
Natural Tobacco, True Kustom Motorcy-
cles, Angel of Billiards, Boulder County
Republicans, Havana Manor, Cigars
on Sixth, Casa De Palma, The Robusto
Room, and The Clip Joint.
Senate Seeks Top Tax Increases for “Parity”
Bill seeks substantial tax increases on cigars, pipe tobacco, RYO tobacco, chewing
tobacco, moist snuff and snus.
Senate Bill Number 826 proposes tax
increases on cigarettes, taxed cigars,
pipe tobacco, RYO tobacco, chewing
tobacco, moist snuff and snus (see ta-
ble for tax increase amounts). Bill 826
would propose to tax on an estimated
per use basis “any other product that
has been determined by the FDA to be
a tobacco product based on the agen-
cy’s authority under the
Family Smok-
ing Prevention and Tobacco Control
Act
,” says Tom Briant, executive direc-
tor of NATO; a tax level equivalent to
the federal tax on cigarettes.
The bill was introduced by five sena-
tors: Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada),
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.),
Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Senator
Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Senator
Richard Durbin (D-Ill.).
Bill 826 would also require manufac-
turers to affix a “unique identification
marking” on any package containing
tobacco products before the product is
released for sale in the U.S. This marker
must include a unique serial number or
tracking code so that the product can
be tracked and traced by federal author-
ities in order to curb the illegal traffick-
ing of cigarettes and tobacco products.
Product
Current Federal Tax Rates
Proposed Federal Tax Rates
Cigarettes
$1.01 per pack
$1.95 per pack
Little Cigars
$1.01 per pack
$1.95 per pack on little cigars
weighing up to 4.5 pounds per thousand
Pipe Tobacco
$2.8311 per pound
$49.55 per pound
Chewing Tobacco
50.33 cents per pound
$10.37 per pound
Moist Snuff
$1.51 per pound
$25.91 per pound
Roll Your Own
$24.78 per pound
$49.55 per pound
Snus Single Unit
$24.78 per pound
9.75 cents per pouch or single unit
