IPCPR

As I’m sure most everyone knows, the IPCPR show is coming up this weekend.  1000′s of cigar makers, accessory manufacturers, retailers and cigar lovers in general will descend on New Orleans and work as hard as they can to leave a heavy cloud of grey smoke behind when the show is over.

Many manufacturers have shared information on some of what we can expect to see from them after the show.  In the technology driven times we are in it is very easy for a manufacturer to drop a pic on Facebook to tease us or run a contest via Twitter to reel us in ~ and most of us are all too eager to take the bait.

A lot of the pre-show hype shows some very promising cigars coming to market.  My wallet is already begging for mercy, but it shall not receive it!  Some of my favorites have new cigars coming out, like the Nosostros (that’s Español for ‘US’) from illusione and Jonathan Drew.  I love what these guys do with cigars, many people shy away from all of Drew Estate’s sticks because of the stigma of their Acid line – but that is their loss as Drew Estates makes some excellent traditional cigars.

You also have the Room 101 Cigars coming from Camacho and Matt Booth at Room 101.  An interesting fusion from a cigar maker with some hardcore viral marketing (we’re still working to forgive them for the Black Brand Project debacle) and an alternative silver jewelry and accessory maker.  Matt Booth has been tweeting for the last several days about his trip to Sturgis and upcoming trips to New Orleans and Las Vegas.  Hmmm… last I heard he was having corn flakes and cognac, I hope he’s OK… A few of their followers scored some samples to try out before they are released, I wasn’t one of them.

Pete Johnson has shared some pics with us via his Facebook page.  We’ve got to see the box for The Drac, the second release in Tatuaje’s Monster series.  He also teased us with some pics of the packaging for La Verite, the Verocu Tubos, Black Tubos and The Boris cigar – which Pete is calling “Frank out of costume”.  Can you hear my wallet sobbing as I type?

Another potentially exciting release is the Cain cigar from Sam Leccia.  Unlike his Nub line the Cain will be a traditional size cigar and mde with all ligero.  When I spoke with Sam briefly at his NubLive event in Roswell, GA he mentioned the triple-fermentation process used helps to smooth the tobacco out so you can enjoy more than just the nic-kick of this power bomb.  Unfortunately the pre-release reviews seem devoid of much info on the flavor profile and focus on the fact that this is a heavy hitter of a cigar.

And the list goes on; Cubao Maduro, Murcielago, My Father Le Bijou, CAO La Traviata, Rocky Patel 1961…  All of these makers have a loyal following and they’ll definitely have people waiting for these to hit shelves.  I’d love to be one of the guys at IPCPR to grab some of these early, but I’ll have to enjoy the show through blogs, Facebook and Twitter.  At least the new technology makes it quick and easy for me to get jealous of my B/SOTL that do get to go.