We only opened a little over 3 months ago. We had almost no retail experience and enjoyed smoking cigars but knew nothing about the business of selling cigars. That didn't stop us from opening a kick ass Cigar Lounge in Fremont CA.
Well, John and I went to International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) in Orlando Florida this year. We were like kids in a Candy store. If you can smoke it and it isn't rolled in paper it's at this show. If it is something you use while smoking it's at the show. Giant booths from Fuente or Rocky Patel to tiny Illusione Cigars and accessories from Lotus and Xikar.
First stop was Alec Bradley.
They have a couple of new Products. - American Sungrown
- Nico Puro
- New York (was only available to New York retailers and is now opened up)
- Connecticut
Some interesting stuff. And, not thinking I didn't snap a lot of pics. I do like their It's a Boy/Girl boxes a lot. I think we are going to have to stock up on some of these
Next was Rocky Patel
Rocky as usual has some fine new blends out and some very cool accessories
I tried the Freedom by Rocky. It is a solid, medium bodied but fully of flavor smoke. This isn't available yet and has only been out in limited quantities for tasting and the show for about a month. At first it was a little harsh with a strong peppery start. But as it smoke it settled down a lot and was a great smoke. I am going to definitely put this in my usual rotation of what I smoke.
This is an exciting new Cigar. Rocky opened the Burn Lounge in Naples Florida. He is now releasing these great cigars he hand blended for his lounge to everybody! I haven't tried one yet (there has been a lot of smoking today trust me) but I'm looking forward to my first one.
John tried the Private Seller. John being eloquent "I really like it". It's a medium bodied cigar with a nice wide range of flavors. It was only rolled a week ago so this was very young and it will do some great aging before it is released to everybody. Keep a look out for this one and try a few when you get it.
Homerun slugger Gary Sheffield loves cigars and has been smoking them for a long time. He became friends with Rocky and they collaborated on a cigar that Gary blended and picked out that fits his taste (how cool is that to work with Rocky to produce your own cigar). Turns out they don't suck and now Gary and Rock are making them available to everybody. I'm smoking one now and quite enjoy it. Like the other new Rocky Patel blends a little aging is going to go a long way. But this too is going into my list of cigars to keep going back to.
The box is very cool with a baseball covering and stripes on it. This is probably one to save for the humidor and ambush Gary someday for an autograph.
They have tweaked the Serie V Melanio this year and brought out the Malanio. I already like the the Serie V. so I am looking forward to trying one of these. bad boys. I can't wait until we get them in!
There are also some cool gift packs of Nub that caught my eye. I see these being a great gift of if somebody wants to get some NUBs and try them out a great way to do it and get a free cutter.
Final official stop was La Flor Dominicana
As always LFD had some exciting cigars that I love.
Mysterio is one of the coolest looking cigars I've ever seen. Either a Natural and Maduro wrapper version with either a Maduro or Natural tip. In a Figarado I can't wait to light one of these up.
LFD also has a line of "Little Cigars". To tell you the truth I wouldn't consider something like this three weeks ago. I always thought of myself as a full bodied, big ring gauge, long cigar kind of guy. Well, I'm coming to realize that 1, if I put myself in a bucket then I don't get to experience as much in life and 2, I'm not a full bodied, big ring gauge giant cigar guy. Well at least not most of the time. I like a medium bodied cigar more often than full bodied. And at our recent Drew Estate 
event we introduced to the West Coast the new 4" x 44 ring gauge My Uzi Weighs a Ton, Baitfish. I fell in love with this cigar. It has a medium strength but a ton of flavor and is something you can grab and go with and smoke in 30ish minutes or so. I really enjoy sitting down for a nice long smoke but sometimes you don't get that or don't feel like that. The Baitfish is a hit with me. Now my eyes are opened to other small cigars with a ton of flavor and I think the LFD Maduro Small Cigar is going to work well for me.
event we introduced to the West Coast the new 4" x 44 ring gauge My Uzi Weighs a Ton, Baitfish. I fell in love with this cigar. It has a medium strength but a ton of flavor and is something you can grab and go with and smoke in 30ish minutes or so. I really enjoy sitting down for a nice long smoke but sometimes you don't get that or don't feel like that. The Baitfish is a hit with me. Now my eyes are opened to other small cigars with a ton of flavor and I think the LFD Maduro Small Cigar is going to work well for me.
It's almost 11:00PM in Orlando. Done with smoking, done with drinking Johnnie Walker Double Black and I'm done with this blog.
More tomorrow.
Thanks,
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