Sunday Fiver – 2009 Cigar Trends
Every industry has trends, and the cigar industry is no different despite it’s long history and tradition. A lot of “new” trends are really old ideas that have been refreshed, and brought back anew. Other trends are totally new, and may or may not stand the test of time to become part of the cigar tradition. I’ve picked out what I think are the five biggest trends from 2009. In no particular order, they are:
No. 1 — Tubes
This was a big year for putting cigars in tubes. Fuente released its first cigar in tubes, the King T. Tatuaje released new versions of their Black and Verocu cigars in tubes as well. And Rocky Patel released several tubed version of his many cigars, including the Decade and Vintage 1990 and 1992.
No. 2 — Pennsylvania Broadleaf Wrappers
The Rocky Patel Winter Blend 2008 kicked off this trend in a big way. The Winter Blend’s spicy Pennsylvania Broadleaf maduro wrapper proved to be a big hit. The followed that up by using it as the binder for the Spring Blend 2009. The Lancaster County-grown leaf found it’s way into a permanent release from Rocky Patel, the Patel Bros. A.J. Fernandez used it on his new Diesel Unholy Cocktail cigar La Herencia Oscuro Fuerte, John Hay Statesman Series and others are just the tip of the iceberg for this flavorful leaf. With recent problems growers have been having in the Connecticut River Valley, I think we’ll see even more cigar makers turning to the Keystone State for their Broadleaf tobacco.
No. 3 — Value Priced Cigars
As SCHIP began, and the economy continued to flounder, cigar manufacturers began releasing new cigars in the $6 and under range. CAO’s La Traviata, Tatuaje’s Ambos Mundos, Illusione Cuchillo Cubanos, and the El Baton and Brick House from J.C. Newman, and others hit the market. Arganese developed a cigar called the S-THIS, which attaches two cigars into one larger cigar, but are easily broken apart. For taxes purposes, it is one cigar. For smokers’ purposes, it’s 2 cigars. And these just weren’t ho-hum cigars released just for their relatively low cost. They were flavorful, well made cigars at a very attractive price. This is the trend I think will really stick. After releasing cigars of this quality, at this price, it will be harder for companies to put out new cigars with high price tags.
No. 4 — The “Happy Medium”
2006 brought us big ring gauge cigars. Sixty ring gauge cigars popped up everywhere. 2007 saw the strength of cigars go through the roof. It seems some cigar makers wanted to see who could make the most smokers lose their lunch. 2008 was the reverse of 2006. Lanceros and their skinny ring gauge hit center stage. This year, I think cigar manufacturers went towards what I call the “happy medium” zone. Cigars that were full of flavor, but didn’t want to make you hurl with their strength. Classic, medium-sized vitolas like the corona, petite corona, and corona gorda held sway. This veer from the extreme to better balance has led to some excellent cigars. Even cigars that professed power and loads of ligero like the CAO Lx2 and Cain Habano delivered that power flavorful without killing smokers.
No. 5 — Smoking Bans
The trend we all wish wasn’t. But we’ve got to face facts, and see the freight train bearing down on us. Seventy-one percent of the U.S. population live under some sort of smoking ban. One of the latest bans was in the state of Virginia. Many thought an old tobacco state, a state that is home to massive tobacco conglomerate Philip Morris, wouldn’t happen. On December 1st, 2009, it happened. Earlier this year, I wrote about how my feelings changed regarding Cigar Rights of America. Please, join if you can, and hopefully we can derail that anti-smoking train.
What are your top trends of 2009?
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