La Flor Dominicana (IPCPR 2012)

Litto Gomez of La Flor Dominicana joins us again for another year. Litto spends a few minutes with Brian talking about a few new things that LFD is bringing to the market starting with he Oro which comes in three sizes including Litto’s famous chisel format. All three sizes come in golden tubos and features a higher priming of the same Nicaraguan Habano wrapper that is on the Coronado. Also in the lineup this year is a new Corona …

AJ Fernandez Cigars (IPCPR 2012)

The success of Stogie Review is never our’s alone. We have lots of help. For the second year in a row, we had a lot of help getting time with AJ Fernandez. Lots of people played a role in making it happen and bringing all of us together to talk about AJ’s newest releases like Oval Maduro and what some are calling his strongest cigar to date, the new Pinolero. After a day of smoking on the show …

RoMa Craft Tobac (IPCPR 2012)

Making their IPCPR debut is RoMa Craft Tobac. We kept trying to get the RoMa boys early and often with very little success. I can’t even count how many times we said “lets roll pass Skip’s, he can’t be busy” just to find out he was indeed busy. I think the closes we got was before the show floor opened on Day 2 but that just turned into me getting them lattes (someone owes me $9 by the way). …

La Palina (IPCPR 2012)

For me Bill Paley is a local guy. I remember seeing him sitting in cigar shops in the area before he had his own cigar line in La Palina. I always thought Bill looked a bit intimidating but he is in fact one of the nicest most approachable guys in the industry who has always been a great supporter and sponsor of the things we do here at Stogie Review. So what does Bill Paley have for us this year? …

Johnny Soyak of Cigar in a Bottle

During the 2012 IPCPR Trade Show in Orlando, we bumped into Johnny Soyak, of Cigar in a Bottle, at the AJ Fernandez booth. Brian and I have been keeping an eye out for him since we first met him in Las Vegas, back in 2007. Johnny makes a unique product and houses a cigar inside of a bottle (sort of turning the bottle full of liquor into a large Tubo).

Cigars and produced by AJ Fernandez and will feature …

CAO Cigars (IPCPR 2012)

New and exciting things from our friends at CAO Cigars bro. The OSA line has been expanded to include two new sizes, Lot 46 and Lot T bro. Both of the new sizes are box pressed bro. Also being released this year is the new CAO Concert bro. I love that CAO learned a bit from the OSA release and thats making the Concert available at release in a range of ring gauges for everyone to enjoy bro. I had …

11 Minutes with Pete Johnson (IPCPR 2012)

I’m going to rename Stogie Review to Tatuaje Central. LOL. The amount of interview footage we’ve produced over the years is by far the most we’ve covered anyone and thats just interview footage. Pete likes to talk and we like to record…perfect pairing. I mention this in the video but Pete looks really refreshed. The last few times I’ve seen him he was looking tired, stressed as if he wasn’t having fun anymore. Like I said, he looks refreshed now …

Arielle Ditkowich of La Sirena Cigars (IPCPR 2012)

During the second day of the 2012 IPCPR Trade Show, in Orlando, Brian and I had the pleasure of speaking with Arielle Ditkowich, Brand Manager of La Sirena Cigars. Arielle gave us the rundown of the new Merlion as well as shared with us a potential line extension in what may be called the Sea Lion (Her favorite, non-production, size of the Merlion Cigar).

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Viaje Cigars (IPCPR 2012)

At the 2009 IPCPR show we had finished wrapping up interviewing Matt Booth when Matt told us about a friend of his, Andre Farkas. Matt made the introductions, we did our thing with Andre and the rest is history. It is pretty fascinating to see Viaje Cigars go from this little known company, tucked away at the show to one that is widely known, with a loyal following and a booth that is sought after by many.

This year Andre …

Tarazona Cigars (IPCPR 2012)

Covering IPCPR isn’t all about covering the same guys we do every year but to meet, showcase and get to know the brands that we had previously overlooked or brands making their debut. Making his Stogie Review debut is Eddie Tarazona of Tarazona Cigars. Eddie takes a few moments to tell us about his brand, his lines, his people and even one of his customers gets in on the action. It was great to finally meet Eddie as some …