It’s gotten a bit dusty here around StogieLife lately but my recent trip to IPCPR 2010 is a great reason to get things dusted off and moving again.  I’ve got the typical excuses for why it’s been so quiet here – work, life, I was abducted by aliens and taken to a planet without cigars. (The horror!)

This was my first trip to IPCPR and I’m thrilled that I was able to attend.  There’s no way to cover everything that went on in a blog post or two but the combination of the convention and all the festivities after the show closed each day is something that won’t be forgotten.  I hear that attendance was down this year, but there still seemed to be a decent turnout.  I’m sure most people that read blogs have already seen the basic information on the show so let’s jump in and get to the meat and potatoes of the show… the cigars!  My list is in no way all-inclusive, but I’m sure others around the net will help me fill in the blanks.

IPCPR 2010 New Cigars

• LFD Air Bender Chisel – It’s the Air Bender, in a chisel.  La Flor Dominicana also has a maduro Salomon coming out and a chisel sampler which will have some cigars only available in the sampler.
• Room 101 LTD “Conjura” – Box-pressed with a Rosado wrapper, more full bodied than the regular Room 101. Limited to 12,500 cigars in each of 4 sizes.  I tried an unbanded show sampler size of this one (smaller than the one in the pic) and really enjoyed it.  It’s very full-flavored and had a lot of sweet tobacco and spices in it.  I don’t care for the regular Room 101 line and was surprised by this one, it’s a great smoke.
• Guillermo Leon by Guillermo Leon – Habano wrapper with both a Cameroon and Corojo binder. Fillers from Peru, DR, Nica and Brazil.  I tried this one at a launch party thrown by Guillermo Leon, all attendees were give a very nice 4 pack sampler.  I can’t give a lot of details on the smoke as I was kind of in sensory overload at the party.  I can say that I enjoyed it and will try
• EP Carrillo Core Line – I don’t have much info on this one just yet.
• Nestor Miranda Art Deco – Made for Nestor Miranda by Pepin. 60% Nicaraguan Corojo and 40% Dominican San Vicente. Dual binders with a Nicaraguan Corojo ’06 wrapper. Had one of these at the show and really enjoyed it.
• Illusione Singulare 2010 – Not a ton of info on this one. It’s an LE, it’s 6 x 50″ and the size is called “The Phantom”.  It is a milder cigar, Dion said it is at about 45 days right now and after 90-days it opens up and at 120 days it phenomenal.   I’ll have to get some more of these – no way I can wait another 2 months to smoke it.
• Viaje 50/50 Red (Mild to Medium) – Follow up to the original 50/50, not as strong.  This was a good smoke but it went totally dead on me at the halfway point (perhaps where the tobaccos changed?) and I had to fight to get it relit, once relit it burnt very well.  I didn’t notice a transition in strength.  I’ll need to smoke more of these before I can give a fair assessment.
• Drew Estate Dirty Rat – It made it!  For a long time there was a lot of underground buzz on this cigar and whether or not it would go into production.  DE had this one on display at the show and the presentation is awesome.  Expected retail on this is about $12.00, high for a corona, but is due to the methods used in making the cigar in this size.  I’ve had the pre-production samples and I will be in for a box of these.
• Torano Family Single Region – First in a series from Torano. Made entirely from tobaccos from one farm or ‘finca’, this years release is from the El Estero in Jalapa region of Nicaragua.
• CAO La Traviata Maduro – Another great value cigar from CAO.  If you like the regular La Traviata… and you like maduro cigars… well, you get the idea.  I tried this one courtesy of Jon Huber on the show floor and it enjoyed it quite a bit.
• Macanudo Cru Royale – Buzz at the show is this is the best stick they’ve ever made, lots of non-Macanudo fans said it was good.  I haven’t had a chance to try this one yet.

I’ll add more reviews of these cigars soon, I’m smoking as fast as I can people!  I met a lot of great people at the show and there were some people that worked almost non-stop to get excellent coverage of the show.  Check out some of the great videos, reviews and write-ups on these blogs:

Stogie Review
Smoke Signals
In With Bacchus
A Cigar Smoker’s Journal
Nice Tight Ash
Smoking Hot Cigar Chick

Also need to send a thank you to my friend Stephen Boyajian.  Steve owns CigarFriendly.us, a directory of cigar friendly locations around the world.  It’s an excellent resource for any cigar smoker that travels.  Find locations or add your favorites to the listings.  In addition to CigarFriendly, Steve and I are working on a few other sites that we hope will be useful to cigar smokers, more info on that to come.