A little over a week ago I received a package from Drew Estate, the distributors of Balmoral in the USA. Included in the package were samples of Panther and Mehari cigarillos and a USB drive of images. While there website isn’t exactly good for information if does have a pretty awesome feel of the old PC game, 7th guest. Balmoral was founded in 1895, and led by a renowned Dutch cigar manufacturer, the brand developed into […]
On Monday, August 11th, 2014 the city of Huntsville, AL passed an ordinance which prohibits the use of tobacco on city property. Huntsville is the 4th largest city in the state with a population over 500,000 people and is home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center as well as the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command at the Redstone Arsenal.
Crowned Heads, a company started by Mike Condor and Jon Huber after CAO Cigars was sold to General has made it a habit to build cigars around musical reference. The Jericho Hill is no different as it leans on Johnny Cash for inspiration. Jericho Hill was inspired by Cash’s rendition of “Cocaine Blues,” found on Cash’s 1968 live album, “At Folsom Prison.” The song is a tale of a man, Willy Lee, who goes down […]
In a growing trend, New Zealand might become one of the next countries to adopt a plain-packaging law. The law would require that tobacco products be sold without any branding or trademarks. The New Zealand Parliament Health Committee passed a bill last week that gives approval to legislation to introduce these measures. The law will be on hold until a legal challenge to Australia’s plain-packaging law has been resolved between the country and the World Trade […]
The 7 hospitals of the Allegheny Health Network in Pennsylvania has banned smoking on their grounds, joining a growing list of health care facilities that has topped 3,600. Starting on January 1st no workers, visitors or patients will be able to use any tobacco products on company property. The health network has declined to say how employees might be punished for not following the rule. Other Pennsylvania health networks UPMC and Greensburg-based Excela Health banned all […]
Country legislators voted 21-17 and became the first county in the state of New York to ban tobacco sales in retail stores with a pharmacy. According to CBS 6 in Albany. Supporters argues it would limit exposure to children and avoid sending the wrong message to consumers. The new law follows the CVS announcement that it would ban tobacco sales in its stores by October 1st. The only argument against the new measure came from […]
Recently we spoke on the show about the Cigar Journal Awards, and the best value cigar from Honduras was voted as the Flor de Selva for the Villa Zamorano. As luck would have it when I returned to work on Monday morning there was some samples from the company waiting for me in my humidor. According the Maya Selva Cigars website, Since 1995, when Flor de Selva was launched in France, the “Maya Selva Cigars” […]
This weekend I had a link sent to me of something I have been saying for years… There is no proof of second-hand smoke health risks, according to an article in Forbes Magazine. According to Forbes, a large-scale study was unable to find a clear link between second-hand smoke and lung cancer. In an article posted by the National Cancer Institute a study was conducted on 76,000 women for more than a decade, which found the […]
A.J. FERNANDEZ CIGARS PROUDLY UNVEILS A.J. FERNANDEZ DOCUMENTARY (Miami, Florida) August 11, 2014— A.J. Fernandez Cigars, recognized for creating some of the most acclaimed cigars in the industry proudly unveils a 13 minute documentary which went live today and can be seen on the home page of their website at: www.ajfernandezcigars.com. A.J. Fernandez, who has blended consistently highly rated cigars, is documented in a way that gives the viewer just a glimpse of the passion […]
Based on the press release the Laranja by Espinosa was a cigar I was most curious about. One, it utilizes a Brazilian wrapper, which is amongst my favorite, and the other was the press release stating that the wrapper was orange, for which the cigar is named. Laranja is the Portugese word for orange. Researching the tobacco, I was unable to find a reference to it, and I wonder if this was fabricated to increase the […]