Well we just finished the final day of the RTDA show, and are we tired!  These shows are a lot of work.  You see, we are smoking 15 - 20 cigars a day, meeting with many manufacturers and sales people, plus we have to hoof it around 100,000 square feet of show space.  It’s tiring, but it’s all part of our job to bring you the most interesting products out there.

We have to say that we are very excited by many of the new products that we saw today.  We started off the day by visiting the Torano booth.  They had two very interesting new releases.  I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Casa Torano.  It’s been out for about a year, but only available in Connecticut wrapper.  This year they are releasing the Casa Torano Maduro.  This will raise the profile of this brand a bit as it will appeal to people who enjoy a Medium plus bodied cigar.  It has a dark and rich looking wrapper.  We are expecting this to sell quite well.  Their other new release is the Reserva Decadencia.  This is very interesting.  They start with a mild to medium bodied blend and slowly infuse fine port in with tobaccos.  This is not your common flavored cigar.  It has a subtle flavor of port and should appeal to all smokers.

From there we went to see a very interesting product called Colba.  Colba was the original name of Cuba when Christopher Columbus discovered the island.  He could not pronounce it, so he called it Cuba.  This fantastic cigar his hand made in Miami, by Santiago Cabana. Mr. Cabana has been in the business for over 6 decades. A native of Las Villas, Cuba, he arrived in the United States in 1993 and began manufacturing his cigars.  He is located in Little Havana and a friend of our close friend, Pepin Garica.  Colba cigars are medium to full bodied, and it is something we are very excited about!  Once you smoke them, we are sure you will feel the same way.

Next we stopped by the Oliva booth.  They are still tweaking all of their packaging, but they did have one new release.  They introduced their new Series V cigars, and we will have a launch party at the end of August for this delicious product.  It is medium to full bodied and has a rich and oily wrapper.  The Oliva family makes very good cigars and this one is no exception!  Should be a big winner for them.

We maneuvered our way over to the La Aurora and Miami Cigar booth, and they had a slew of new products to show.  The first thing we saw was the Leon Jimenes 300 series.  This not exactly new, but they are repackaging the brand for a fall launch of the full line.  We currently have the Limited Edition Cameroon wrapped cigar in stock in the Robusto size, but the 3 new sizes will be available soon.  Next we saw Jose Blanco’s latest creation, the La Aurora Barrel Aged Oscuro cigars.  He ages all of the tobacco for this baby in these giant rum barrels.  This imparts a slight sweetness to the tobacco while it retains a full, round flavor.  Also, he was showing us the La Aurora Connoisseur's Selection.  This is very interesting.  Have you ever wondered how a different wrapper can change the flavor of a cigar?  Well this package should answer that question.  This box comes packed with 100 cigars, but they are broken up into sections of 25 split between 4 different wrappers.  Ok, I'm sure many of you are familiar with the Preferido Robusto Cameroon Limited Edition they did 2 years ago.  It was fabulous!  This year they are doing the Limited Edition La Aurora Preferido Robusto in the Ecuadorian Sun Grown wrapper.  It will be full bodied but full of flavor.  We're very excited by this one!  The last thing we saw there was the Don Lino 1989.  This is a beautiful smoke.  It is gently box pressed and is easily the best Don Lino cigar ever released.

We finished our day at the Gurkha Booth.  Kaizad Hansotia, owner of the brand is unbelievably creative.  He told us about some excellent new releases in store for us this year. His premier release this year is the Black Dragon.  As always the packaging is simply beautiful.  The cigars are carefully put in Orange velvet trays.  Gorgeous!  Additionally, there is a new size in the Vintage Shaggy size called the XO (60 ring gage), and there is a new product in the G line called the G5, which will be available in 2 sizes.  We look forward to getting our hands on of all this new product from Gurkha.

Well that’s a wrap from the show!  We have many exciting new products on their way.  We hope that you enjoyed our blog of the show and we look forward to sharing these new products with you.