On November 1 and 2, 2012, Up Down Cigar in Chicago, Ill., held events to celebrate the store’s 50th anniversary. On hand to commemorate the milestone was famed Davidoff blender Henke Kelner, who not only attended, but who also ran a blending seminar for those who were present. In addition, the event was the release of [...]

Rocky Patel has begun shipping the second release of its Candela cigar, The Edge Candela. The 6 x 52 Toro debuted last April featuring a Honduran Candela wrapper in boxes of 20. Pricing has risen from $6.40 to $6.85 per cigar meaning the boxes of 20 now carry an MSRP of $137.00. The Edge Candela [...]

March 7, 2013 (Tampa, Fla.) — Room101 is extending its popular Namakubi franchise with a bold and exciting new blend due out in early March 2013. The new Room101 Namakubi Ecuador is a fusion of wrapper and binder tobacco from a recent, highly rated Room101 release combined with the filler tobaccos of the original Namakubi [...]

March 7, 2013 — General Cigar announces that Punch® Rare Corojo is making its anticipated annual return to retail, this time with a new, strikingly-packaged figurado that is only available as part of the Honduran brand’s 2013 release. A total of eight Punch Rare Corojo frontmarks are now available, with suggested retail prices ranging from [...]

On February 20, Smokin’ Joe’s in Alcoa, Tenn. announced that it had just received the initial shipment of a new E.P. Carrillo Lounge Exclusive made just for them, the first E.P. Carrillo branded lounge in the world. The store added the E.P. Carrillo lounge in late fall of 2012, outfitting it with leather massage recliners, [...]

March 6, 2013 (West Palm Beach, Fla.) — TRUST. This is the cornerstone of the foundation of Sindicato Cigar Group LLC (“Sindicato Cigars”). Sindicato Cigars was officially launched January 16, 2013 when a group of passionate cigar loving Tobacconists decided to extend their cigar knowledge and experience into making cigar brands. Their goal is to create a cigar company [...]

Today we’re looking at the next cigar coming out in RoMa Craft Tobac’s Intemperance line called the A.W.S. IV. Back in February we had the news story about this cigar, which for the time being will only be available at RoMa Craft events starting in May. The A.W.S. IV is going to be part of the [...]

(Editor’s Note: this story first appeared in the March 4, 2013 version of The Newsletter.) Today is a big day. It’s the formal launch of our newest project, halfwheel.com/forum. The main objective is simple, we want to have a place to talk about cigars of all kinds. We love the level of depth we have in [...]

March 5, 2013 (Glen Allen, Va.) — CAO will deliver a smokin’ experience to guests aboard the Kid Rock “Chillin’ The Most” cruise which departs Miami today, March 5, 2013. As the winner of the CAO Concert launch sweepstakes, Justin Harris of Nashville, TN and a guest will set sail for the Bahamas on the fourth annual [...]

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Ashton recently sent out a letter to retailers and customers announcing several promotions to key members of their management team. In the letter dated March 1, Sathya Levin, the company’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, shared the trio of moves. Chip Goldeen is now the company’s Vice President of Sales, a title he [...]

March 4, 2013 — We are pleased to announce that we have completed the blend for our upcoming special edition release of Recluse. It is called the Recluse Draconian. It will be made in three vitolas called Sidewinders. Sidewinders are another new shape that we have created. As we did with our Kanu’ shape, the [...]