Thompson Cigar Blog

Celebrate the rich cigar heritage that once made Tampa the “Cigar Capital of the World.”

Come out and see us at the 2009 Cigar Heritage Festival on Saturday, November 21 at Centennial Park (on 9th Ave. between 18th and 19th Streets) in Historic Ybor City, Tampa, Florida! The festival will be held from 10am until 5pm.

Thompson Cigar will have Great Deals on all boxes of Rocky Patel, Oliva, Nub, Cain, J Fuego, Alec Bradley, and many more. Also take advantage of specially priced samplers, single cigars and bundles as low as $20.

Cigar Dave will also be arriving at the festival at 11am and will be holding a live broadcast for his show from noon to 2pm.
You can also witness master cigar makers, Wallace and Margarita Reyes, attempt to break the record for “World’s Longest Cigar.”

Don’t worry about leaving the kids at home because at the festival there will be a Kid Zone to keep them entertained, as well as an adult Game Zone (featuring NCAA football, poker, dominoes, & more), a food court, tours of the Ybor City Museum State Park, live entertainment, cigar rolling, a charity beer garden, authentic cultural food vendors, along with cultural activities for the whole family.

Our friends asked us to post a link to their Midwest Smoke Out.

Check it out if you’re interested!

http://store.3dms.com/data/dmssmokeout/html/-12/

Our friends at The Collectors Weekly shared this story with us and we’re very pleased to pass it on.

November 3rd, 2009

By Maribeth Keane and George Spencer (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Tony Hyman has been collecting cigar boxes since he was 12. By his 17th birthday, he had amassed a collection of some 2,300 boxes. Recently, we spoke to Hyman about his online National Cigar Museum, the legendary self-igniting cigar, and the history of cigar manufacturing in New York City. Hyman can be reached via his website, www.cigarhistory.info, which is a member of our Hall of Fame.

The National Cigar Museum has been open for 10 to 12 years in various formats on the Internet, but I completely redesigned the site about four years ago. In the early days, I’d send information to cigar collectors and industry executives, and they’d post it, so they had control of the site. But when iWeb came out for the Mac, it made it so easy to build and maintain a site that I took it back from them, because they weren’t posting enough new material.
Cigar tobacco tin from Virgina in the 1920s.

A 1920s cigar tin from a popular Pierre Lorillard brand.

Since I’ve taken over the site and revamped it, I’ve put up 168 exhibits. Some of them have as many as 100 photographs. My long-term goal is to have about 300 exhibits covering the history of cigars as well as the various artifacts associated with them—premiums, labels, boxes, photographs—and the complete gamut of memorabilia, including ashtrays and holders. I want to create a permanent source of information for everyone interested in the field.

For the most part, the photographs in the museum are of my own collectibles. There are also a few exhibits from people who are very prominent in the field. For example, I went to Amsterdam and photographed several major collections of Dutch cigar tins. As a result, I’ve posted two exhibits—pre-World War I tins and post-World War I tins. Those are images from other collections.

My goal isn’t to hog the glory, such as it is. Instead I want to provide information to amateurs, beginners, and dealers, so they can properly evaluate what they have. I’m happy to refer to other collectors and their collections, and I show pictures of things that they own. Nonetheless, more than 90 percent of what’s posted belongs to me. I label the pieces and note in an item’s description if I don’t own it.

Read the rest Here

Thompson Cigar and the entire international cigar community is saddened to learn of the death of Avelino Lara on October 27, 2009. He passed away in Havana at age 88.

Lara was the original overseer of the production of Cohiba cigars. Born and raised in Cuba, he worked in the cigar industry his entire life, having learned about tobacco and cigars from his own grandfather. First the director of the El Laguito factory, where Cohiba cigars were produced as well as Trinidad cigars and Cuban Davidoff cigars, Lara moved to the Bahamas later in his life to begin working with Graycliff hotel and restaurant. There he rolled cigars and eventually created the Graycliff brand with the Garzaroli family.

Paolo Garzaroli, president and co-founder of the Graycliff Cigar Co., said, “Avelino will be sorely missed. Even though he was no longer present in the rolling room each day, the torcedores continue to refer to his passion, knowledge and his constant testing of their skills. I will personally miss his dedication to our company, his drive for perfection, and his many wisdom’s which he shared with me.”

At Thompson Cigar, we would like to thank Mr. Lara for his many contributions to the cigar industry and express deep condolences to his family and friends.

By Victor Vitale, President of The Cigar Agency

I’ve been in the cigar industry for 15 years and owned my company The Cigar Agency for 4 years. The Cigar Agency is a national distribution company (business to business) for cigars. We specialize and distribute only brands owned or managed by The Cigar Agency. ORTSAC 1962 is a brand that I launched in the United States in 2008. It has succeeded beyond my expectations as everyday a new fan discovers ORTSAC 1962. I started the brand based on the popular consumer belief that Cuban cigars are the best cigars in the world. Cuba is another great cigar and tobacco producing country; however, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua produce great cigars as well. In fact many of the Cuban technicians are domiciled in these countries, making fantastic cigars that are available in the USA.

I worked very closely with the blending technicians at the factory to create ORTSAC 1962. After the blend for ORTSAC 1962 was finalized I had to choose a brand name. At that time I had no plans to call it ORTSAC 1962. I started with the phrase “Direct target Havana Cuba” and researched the relationship between the United States and Cuba. What I found was fascinating: a top secret plan by JFK, the CIA, and cabinet members in 1962 to assassinate Fidel Castro in retaliation for the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fact: In 1962 JFK, CIA and Cabinet members discussed Operation Ortsac, a black operation plan to assassinate Fidel Castro. And drawing from that history, in 2008 the Cigar Agency launched ORTSAC 1962 cigars to prove that Cuban cigars are not the best in the world.

ORTSAC 1962 cigars have a Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper with Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. We use all long filler premium tobacco. The cigar is smooth and creamy with hints of pepper and spice. Overall, ORTSAC 1962 cigars are medium ¾ strength with complex flavors. It’s been highly rated in Smoke, Smoke Shop, and Cigar Press magazine. It’s also a favorite of many internet consumer advisory sites.

I hope you enjoy my cigar, the ORTSAC 1962, and the pleasure and camaraderie it may bring.

How I came up with the name Cubanacan is a story that goes back to my childhood in Cuba, days that bring back memories of an unforgettable era.

I remember late one afternoon I was sitting on a street corner with friends playing corchito (a game for children that imitates baseball). My mother called for me so I could get ready to visit my grandfather. My grandfather was a kind hearted and hard working man. He made an honest living working in the tobacco fields and hand rolling cigars, a tradition he passed down to his sons with great passion. Visiting him was very exciting for me. I looked up to him and always had a deep admiration and sense of respect for who he was and the morals he lived by, eager always to learn something new from him.

My grandfather’s house was a modest home, in an old part of town called Pueblo Nuevo, near the Bay of Matanzas. After what seemed like an eternity we arrived at his house. We greeted the family and while everyone was preoccupied telling stories and catching up, I was concentrating on sneaking away. I rushed through the living room and ran to my favorite spot, “el vapor,” which was my grandfather’s name for the cigar room because it was always filled with smoke that seemed like vapor. There he had his wooden cigar table and piles of tobacco leaves ready to be rolled into fine Cuban cigars.

I walked into the cigar room and sat in my grandfather’s chair, then took a deep breath to smell the sweet, woody aroma of the tobacco leaves. Then I noticed my grandfathers chaveta (a knife used to hand cut the leaves). I grabbed it and was suddenly startled by a deep voice. “Careful! You don’t want to get cut!” I thought my grandfather would be angry, but surprisingly he went on to say, “Why don’t you let me show you? Get me some viso.” (Viso are the leaves from the middle of the plant and contribute to the flavoring of the cigar.)

I went over to get it and noticed an old magazine next to the pile of leaves. On the cover was a beautiful woman and beside her the word Cubanacan was written. I was dazed for a moment, but quickly went to my grandfathers side. He taught me that day how to hold the knife and cut the tobacco leaves. Everything he said sparked my interest. I have always remembered that day, that magazine cover, and the name Cubanacan just stuck. Maybe it had a little something to do with the image of that gorgeous woman.

Anyhow, this is why I wanted to use this name. I later came to learn that Cubanacan is also a part of Cuban history. The very name Cuba was derived from the Taino indigenous word Cubanacan, which means “center place” or “great place.”

By Carlos Mederos
Cubanacan Cigars

Any holiday calls for a great cigar, especially Labor Day, when you’re celebrating the end of summer and enjoying a long weekend. After going through the final draft of Thompson Cigar’s September 2009 catalog (check your mailbox), one brand caught my attention as an ideal Labor Day smoke. Cubao (pronounced- KU-BOW) was one of the hottest brands to be released last year. I was lucky enough to try out a Cubao at the 2008 IPCPR trade show, so I’m excited to recommend these cigars to other smokers.

Erik Espinosa and Eddie Ortega from United Tobacco worked vigorously with Pepin Garcia to create this wonderful Nicaraguan blend. Medium to full-bodied, the aged Nicaraguan tobacco was hand-selected in Pepin’s factory for its compatibility with a spicy Ecuadorian wrapper. The result is perfection! It is strong enough for your palate to pick up on every taste and flavor after a day of good food and drinks. For Labor Day, when it’s time to relax, barbecue, and enjoy the last summer days, the 92-rated Cubao is the way to go.

Cigar Blog 101 Bonus: Cubao Maduro Coming Soon!

Also check out our Labor Day cigar offers at Thompson Cigar. Try our C.A.O deal: 5 C.A.O. Tubo cigars for just $25.95.Or get 24 Victor Sinclair cigars for just $39.95. You’ll save over $50 and enjoy a generous blend of Cameroon, Sungrown, Corojo, Maduro, Tusker Sungrown, Double Maduro, Primero, and Bohemian cigars in this special offer.