16 / 48
36
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
JULY/AUGUST 2015
• Drew Estate is also partnering on the
retail side.
It recently released a new
cigar called Pope of Greenwich Village
as part of Smoke Inn’s Microblend series,
available at Smoke Inn’s retail stores
in South Florida (and on its website)
in soft packs of 10 pieces. The blend
features a Mexican San Andres wrapper,
a Connecticut Stalk Cut Habano binder,
and Brazilian Mata Fina/Nicaraguan
fillers.According to Drew Estate’s master
blender, Willy Herrera, the cigar will
appeal to those who use Drew Estate’s
other maduro cigars. He adds that the
blend is “balanced, bold and just really
good,” with the cigar’s small ring gauge
enhancing the flavor of the blend.
• MoyaRuiz Cigars intends to keep
playing games.
It’s first cigar line, La
Jugada, paid homage to the game of
dominoes, and now its newest cigar
line, The Rake, is dedicated to the game
of poker. It features Nicaraguan fillers
composed of four ligero leaves—two
from the Jalapa region and two from
Esteli—and a Connecticut broadleaf
wrapper. The cigars, which are made at
Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory in Esteli,
Nicaragua, are available in four themed
sizes: Fix (5.625x46), Cut (5x52), Take
(6x52) and Vig (6x60). Cut and Fix will
be slightly box-pressed, according to the
company.
• Taking it to the limit bears repeating.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the
Hoyo de Monterray cigar, General Cigar
Company recently unveiled Hoyo de
Monterrey Edicion de Cumpleanos 150,
a 6x54 box-pressed cigar handcrafted in
Honduras featuring anEcuadoran binder,
a combination of Nicaraguan filler leaves
and a proprietary Habano Shade wrapper
tobacco—the first-ever grown in Esteli.
General Cigar released 4,000 15-count
boxes of this limited-edition cigar.
• Limited works on the convenience
side,too.
Swisher International rereleased
its Swisher Summer Twist limited-
edition cigarillo due to its popularity last
summer, according to the company. It is
touted to have a “sweet lemon-mango
taste” and comes in a resealable two-
count pouch in two for 99 cents and save
on two options. Swisher also unveiled
a new limited-edition Swisher Sweet
Calypso Cream cigarillo, described to
have a “blend of oranges and sweet cream,
with a slight hint of blueberry.” These
also come in two-count foil pouches with
the same merchandising/pricing options
as Summer Twist.
• Farmland acquisitions constitute a
major growth spurt for a major player.
Oettinger Davidoff recently acquired
tobacco farmland in Nicaragua’s
Condega region and in the Jamastran
valley of Honduras. The company has
also acquired land in the vicinity of its
box factory to build a new cigar factory
in Danli, Honduras, as the growth
of Camacho and other Honduran
brands have reportedly outgrown the
capacity of the current factory, which
will be divested, according to Oettinger
Davidoff. “Our acquisition of over 150
hectares of land in Condega, Nicaragua
and in Jamastran, Honduras represents
a further strengthening of our crop-to-
shop philosophy, which is an anchor of
our global strategy,” says Hans-Kristian
Hoejsgaard, CEO and board member
of Oettinger Davidoff. He adds that the
new Camacho factory will “underpin the
growth trajectory of the Camacho, Room
101 and Baccarat brands.”
• Growth of the most upscale kind also
remains in vogue.
In other Oettinger
Davidoff news,the company joined forces
with a global luxury lifestyle concierge
service, Quintessentially Lifestyle, to
launch the Hourglass Lounge, touted as
“the first global luxury concierge service
dedicated to the cigar aficionado.”Not for
everyone, the lounge “helps aficionados
around the world to have more time in
life to enjoy exceptional cigars and live
incredible experiences,thanks to its expert
around-the-clock concierge support,”
says Charles Award, senior vice president
of global marketing and innovation at
Oettinger Davidoff. “It is the ultimate
cigar aficionado luxury for those who
believe that time is the ultimate luxury.”
• Cigars and charity go hand in hand.
Dr. Jude Barbara, in association with the
Fuente and Newman families of Arturo
Fuente Cigars and J.C. Newman Cigar
Company,hosteda charitydinner for cigar
celebrities recently at New York City’s
Grand Havana Room.The proceeds were
donated to the Cigar Family Charitable
Foundation, which helps uplift the lives
of children and families in theDominican
Republic.
TBI
“I’m coming on stronger than ever at the show and beyond.
I’m here to stay, and I will take on whatever is thrown at me
as amanufacturer—whatever fiery hoops of regulation there
are, I am preparing to jump through them.”