Cigar news you can use: Updates from Ministry of Cigars

Cigar news: Weekly review of cigar news and events.

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Weekly news week 28 2020 by Ministry of Cigars Weekly news week 28 2020. We started the week with praise. Praise to an online cigar inventory database that we have been using for years. Stogierate.com is the website we use as an inventory tool for all our cigars. And we published episode twenty of The Philip & Ferdy Cigar Show. The guys smoked an Undercrown Maduro Dogma. They also zoomed with Pedro Gomez Rodriguez, opened a Liga Privada swag pack. And showed the HENK Cigarbone, a versatile travel humidor. Reviews and Stallone As usual, two reviews were published. We reviewed the Hiram & Solomon’s Shriner Robusto on Monday. And Friday we published a review of Illusione’s One-Off. That cigar has an interesting background, with multiple owners. Now it’s part of Illusione. Todd Vance, former sales manager for A.J. Fernandez, Cornelius & Anthony, La Familia Robaina, and Padilla moves to Stallone Cigars.

New releases

Crowned Heads is releasing a cigar which took 3 years to create. They named it after the 1000 days the project lasted. The Mil Dias comes from Tabacalera Pichardo in the Dominican Republic. Tabacalera is releasing a new cigar with a nod to the 1920s. The Capitol is plastered with artwork in the style of those roaring twenties. Rocky Patel Premium Cigars is releasing another installment of the Winter Collection. Plus the company is releasing the Grand Reserva in the United States. For the last two years, that line was exclusive for international markets.

International markets

A lot happened internationally as well this week. The Netherlands sees the release of 200 boxes of Rocky Patel Special Edition in a unique size. The Corona Gorda is not a size from the regular Rocky Patel Special Edition line-up. Only 200 boxes were made, and all ended up in The Netherlands. Jas Sum Kral shipped the Swedish exclusive Sota Kakor to the Scandinavian country. Spain sees the release of a commemorative Montecristo cigar. Limited to 2000 boxes of 15. The boxes contain vintage Montecristo #3 cigars with an added ring. Lebanon welcomes EPC cigars and La Familia Robaina. Cigar Boutique is bringing in the brands from Ernesto Perez Carrillo and Hirochi Robaina. Robaina is the grandson of industry legend Alejandro Robaina. Nordic Cigars, the distributor for RoMa Craft in Norway is expanding the portfolio. The Swiss cigar enthusiast can now enjoy Fratello cigars.

More new cigars

That’s not all. Alec Bradley announces a limited-edition Alec Bradley Fine & Rare Greatest Hits boxset. This boxset contains 25 original release Fine & Rare cigars. Alan Rubin picked five editions, and five cigars of each of these blends ended up in the boxset. Espinosa is ready to release the latest installment of the limited-edition series 601 La Bomba Warhead. The Warhead VI is limited to 10.000 cigars. Camacho is launching the Camacho Nicaragua, but don’t be fooled by the name. Drew Estate is releasing a Candela version of the Factory Smokes. Unfortunately just for the largest online retailer in the United States. And that retailer does not ship internationally.

Sad news

There is bad news to report this week. All tobacconists in Malaysia were called by the government this week. They had two days to take their webshops offline. The ban on online sales is finally starting to get enforced, with one company already in court. That company sold cigarettes. Again cigars are the victim of the cigarette industry. A few weeks ago, Kaizad Hansotia from Gurkha was forced to step down after a stream of insensitive and sometimes even racist memes on his Facebook. When he left, it was agreed he would sell his stake in the company. Ministry of Cigars promised to follow the news closely. Hansotia is now negotiating with two interested parties. But the saddest news is that some anonymous people use the current tense situation in the USA as a weapon in personal grudges. An anonymous Instagram account manipulated a photo of a VP of Rocky Patel Premium Cigars. He made it look like it was a blackface racist post and called for a boycott. Rocky Patel released a statement providing context to the whole situation. The context, and the real photo before manipulation, proved that there was no racism involved at all.