Out of the Humidor: Periodical Cigar Discussion : The RTDA 75th Annual Trade Show

[RedPop4]

Folks, I posted this on the cigar board I frequent and moderate. If the names and handles seem meaningless, I assure you, they are not. This is the trade show for the premium tobacco industry, the manufacturers and accessory folks are all there.

I went focused on cigars, so my apologies up front to those of you who smoke pipes or appreciate them. I only had two days to go to the show and would have needed two more, at least, if I were to cover all the cigar folks and make a dent in the pipe and pipe tobacco folks.

Retail Tobacco Dealers Association 2007
Houston Texas
August 6, 2007
Day One​

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Monday is in the books and we spent an easy day browsing the show floor taking in all the different exhibits and chatting here and there with representatives.

Walking through the main door, the first exhibit in the hall is the Puros Indios exhibit and there’s long time board member Frank Santos. It’s been two years, since RTDA in New Orleans since we’d had the opportunity to speak in person, and he was generous with his time swapping stories with Castanza and me, then also with Jefslat and Frau Evil who arrived moments later. The first cigar of the day was the Cuba Aliados Anniversary which was described to me as strong. The blend is called the Reyes Extra blend, in honor of Rolando Reyes, founder of Puros Indios/Cuba Aliados. The cigar I had was wrapped with a Sumatra wrapper, but also comes in a maduro. The size we had is one I can really get accustomed to smoking, being 4” x 48 ring gauge. It’s wide enough to be really flavorful and complex whilst not taking hours to smoke. Puros Indios/Cuba Aliados have, over the years, been inconsistent in flavor or construction. According to my tastes, however, neither of these manifested themselves; it burned well, stayed lit until I was ready to let it go, and had a great flavor. Although it didn’t seem TOO strong for me, it was medium to full-bodied. I’ll smoke more of these.

Passing through, the next stop right behind was CAO. They were extremely busy this morning. The Flavourettes were there handing out their cigars and pairing them with various wines and Ports as well as coffee. A sommelier was at the front of the exhibit decanting wine in a very interesting decanter. Not being a drinker, I passed, but Castanza and Jefslat tried it. The decanter is shaped like a really thin funnel, made of glass which sits in wrought iron stand. Inside the top of the funnel sits a glass ball which holds water and can be frozen to ensure that the wine stays at a proper temperature. Both Jeff and Todd agreed that the flavor of the wine, when compared, were totally different. This was really a unique thing to see. Mind you, by this point it was only 11:00 in the morning. What a tough job, right?
Showing the decanting system

We were given CAO Americas which Jefslat described as quite strong; as I was still finishing my first cigar, I have not smoked this one, yet. The CAO America filler blend is 100% ligero tobaccos from Nicaragua, the United States, Italy (the same as in the Italia blend) and Honduras, bound in a Brazilian leaf. It’s wrapped with Connecticut Broadleaf and a leaf of Connecticut Shade, to help it burn, sincie it's mostly ligero, also giving it an eye-catching look. I will update once I smoke this one.
CAO America
CAO America

CAO also threw one hell of a wingding on Monday night at the hot local club “Hush”, it was the “Escape with CAO RTDA Party 2007. The shuttle buses kept arriving and disgorging passengers even at 11:00 p.m. Shuttle isn’t the right word, as they were full-sized charter buses, this seemed to be THE event of the show, replete with a full-fledged stage show, and constant dancing all over the club by some very fetching young ladies. Our little group, along with Cubano67 and Kilobyte got to talk and enjoy for a good bit. I’ve been waiting for years to meet Ken (Kilobyte) as we’d corresponded here on Cigar Weekly while he was on active duty in Germany. This is a great “hobby” to enjoy.

Back to the show, though.

Musician/Comedian/someday politician, Kinky Friedman has a line of cigars out, now. He ran in the last Texas gubernatorial election just last year, and has been a cigar lover for years. He’s joined forces with the Oliveros company to make Kinky Friedman Cigars which can be found on the web at www.kinkycigars.com We had the chance to meet with him and discuss cigars and his political aspirations, he’s not given up, yet, and my Texan friends were proud to talk to him, and let him know they’d supported him last year. They’ve only just teamed up with Oliveros in the last couple months, and they’ve got, in just that little bit of time some nice packaging and bands. They only have one blend, just now, described as having a “medium-bodied filler blend of Honduran and Nicaraguan tobaccos and a Costa Rican binder. This is wrapped with a Habano wrapper grown in Honduras. The sizes are interesting!

• • The Governor –a 5.7”x 60 Toro
  • Kinkycristo –a 6.25” x 60 Torpedo
  • The Willie –a 6”x 48 “Twist Head & Shaggy (foot) named in honor of his friend Willie Nelson
  • The Texas Jewboy –6” x 56 Torpedo
  • And the Utopian –6” x 52 Toro Gordo.

Jefslat, Frau Evil and Kinky Friedman

Lonsmen: Castanza and Kinky Friedman

Rounding the corner from Kinky Friedman, we found an exhibitor with tables and tables of pipes, and in the center of the exhibit is a table with boxes of cigars, big surprise there, but they’re open on top and in front. This is one of the things I really like about going to the RTDA is checking out all the smaller operators. Since I don’t know many industry big guns, it’s difficult sometimes to get in their booths as they’re usually busy with clients and guys making real deals. We found here, this little brand called “Flor de Camaguey. They describe their presentation from their literature:
“The sight of a freshly-opened box of Flor de Camaguey is a sight to behold indeed. Fifty unbanded oily-wrapped puros nestled in a lightly colored natural wooden box is a sight rarely seen in a tobacconist’s humidor.”

These are Nicaraguan puros, with Corojo, Rosado, Connecticut and Maduro wrappers, with the exception of a couple parejo shaped sizes called the Supremo, a robusto and toro, everything in the line is a figurado, either torpedo or figurado. I had a Corojo wrapped little perfecto with the tuck at 4.5” x 52. This is a brand almost no one has ever heard of, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. Jefslat chose a longer perfecto, with the tuck and fatter in the middle with the Rosado, but he didn’t enjoy his as much as I enjoyed mine. But it’s still a nice cigar, not banded, they appear in the open boxes almost as if they’re right on the floor of the factory.
Flor de Camaguey


Again, rounding the corner back to the front of the hall was Los Blancos. I first learned about these cigars the last time I went to RTDA, two years ago in New Orleans, just three short weeks before Katrina turned our world upside down. Los Blancos still features their Premiere Selection which has four distinct blends :

• • Sumatra—with tobacco from both the Jamstran (Honduras) and Jalapa (Nicaragua) valleys. The Sumatra wrapper is the only tobacco not grown on the Blanco family’s farms. This is the red-boxed and banded blend.
  • Maduro—Made with a Habana 2000 leaf wrapper, around the same blend with added tobacco from Esteli. This is the yellow-boxed and banded blend
  • Connecticut Shade—This is the blue line
  • Criollo—Made with a Habano Criollo wrapper it’s their newest blend of this series, but has been available since 2005

This program, with the colored boxes which are refilled with Spanish Cedar inserts instead of brand new boxes (the boxes are heavy cedar, and made to stay in the shop) are tied together with similarly colored caps, shirts and other accessories. I found this to be the most innovative presentations in 2005 and I still think that this is a winner. This system has now been patented.
Los Blancos Criollo blend
Los Blancos Premiere Selection Sumatra and maduro

Cesar Blanco, Jr. had time for us, and introduced us to their new brand “Primos.” He said, “how do we top the Premiere Selection?” Primos is a premium bundle brand, but not a second. The wrappers are aged three years and are Habano Criollo in both Rosado and Maduro. To be fair, the Rosado didn’t appear to be all that dark of a red, but a pretty, silky natural color. The binder is Jalapa with a filler blend inside made of Honduran, Nicaraguan and Peruvian leaves. These should have a price point around $3.00 or so at retail with a high end price somewhere around $4.79

Blanco reiterated his company’s commitment to retailers telling us they have no plans to sell online or to catalog companies. They prefer to reward the tobacconists who have stuck with the company over the years.

In another vein, I asked his opinion of the obstacles facing the tobacco business, right now with the taxes being pushed through Congress to fund the SCHIP programs, and FDA regulation.

He said tobacco, especially cigars, are really being “crucified.” “The industry should have been more proactive over the last many years to fight this, as well as to separate itself from ‘big tobacco’ and cigarettes, But the rhetoric from the anti-tobacco side has been so strong, and the “mobilization that we’ve seen over the last 30 days or so should have happened long ago. A change of approach is in order; if we could get one state’s ban repealed, we could get a snowball rolling in the opposite direction. Last year’s concern was the California ban and tax, (we) should have mobilized then.”

He promised a new, stronger blend at next year’s show.

After lunch, I found my old friend (in terms of board years) Al Argenti (Aja) of Cuban Imports, a company his brother Michael founded a bit over a year ago. Many here know of our friendship, but these guys are making things happen. At last year’s RTDA they premiered their company with three cigars. One is their own brand called Exile, which is quite good, but the other two were new blends of H. Upmann and Por Larranaga, affectionately know here as Por Larry (say it aloud, then wait for the ads to appear.) These are two of Cuba’s oldest brands, and have had a presence in the American market for years as well. The brands are owned by Altadis, yet Michael and Al were able to work with Altadis to market these two new blends, and they have, in effect, “made boutique cigars from two of the oldest brands owned by the world’s largest tobacco company.” They are introducing this week, however, another line. This time it’s a El Rey del Mundo called “Olvidados” which means “The Forgotten.” According to Al, this is a blend that Frank Llaneza created years ago, but never produced in numbers. Frank Llaneza, the long-time head of Villazon Cigars (Honduras American Tobacco) is now retired. But these cigars are made for Cuban Imports by Villazon, and this blend is the very strongest blend made in that factory today. Remember, too, that the Villazon brands are a subsidiary of General Cigars. In two short years, Cuban Imports have worked with three recognized brands owned now by two of the largest conglomerates in the world. I smoked an ERdM Olvidados this afternoon, and it IS quite good it’s got a nice punch to it. From their press release come the details of this line of cigars, which will be available in October.
Al Argenti and I

“El Rey del Mundo ® OLVIDADOS is an imperiously bold cigar experience coupled with a complex mosaic of delicate flavors. Fastidiously crafted by legendary cigar maker Estelo Padron protégés Edwin Guevara, Marco Lean and Ramon Bueso, El Rey del Mundo ® OLVIDADOS is comprised of deeply aged Nicaraguan ligero, Honduran viso and Dominican seco filler tobaccos. The long-awaited new blend is delicately enveloped in a smooth Connecticut Broadleaf binder surrounded by a dark Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. Proudly presented in lustrous rosewood cigar boxes, El Rey del Mundo ® OLVIDADOS is available in five (5) sizes: ‘Chateaux R’ (5” x 54 Robusto); ‘Chateaux E’ (6” x 52 Epicure); ‘Chateaux T’ (6 ⅛” x 54 Torpedo); ‘Chateaux X’ (6” x 60) and ‘Chateaux D’ (7¼” x 54 Double Corona). The suggested retail price of each cigar ranges from $7.99 to $11.99.”

El Rey del Mundo Olvidados-Outer Box
El Rey del Mundo Olvidados-Inner Spanish Cedar box
El Rey del Mundo Olvidados-cigars
MrsYogi getting down to business with Aja

Look out for this one in October.

Of the other Cigar Weekly folks we ran into in our travels around the hall, vudu9, Dion Giolito of Fumare in Reno is representing Illusione. He gave me a pretty PC which I’m going to try and smoke tomorrow evening at the CW Herf at 10 Downing Street Pub. UPDATE: Smoked this on Tuesday morning and it was fantastic, nice, complex and full bodied.
vudu9

I ran into Tinderbox215, Roger McLain of Mobile, Live2Fish from the Dallas area and Mowee, Frank Seltzer, who I’ve been dying to meet for six years, now. Hockeymaniac, David Schwartz who’s here working with Stinky also crossed paths, it was nice to shake his hand as well.

There is NO WAY that I can live up to the standards set for me by Nivek, who used to compile these reports. He knew EVERYONE at RTDA, and was always able to sit down with all the players and discuss their new lines, and their thoughts about the cigar business, where it’s going, what’s succeeding and all. I don’t feel like I came close, yet as I write, this report gets longer and longer. I hope to be able to bring more tomorrow.
Two albums of my photos.

 

[RedPop4]

RTDA 2007
Houston Texas
August 7, 2007
Day Two​

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Day two turned out to be better than day one. They were actually day two and three of the show, but due to our schedule….well, mundane details aside. Mad Dawg, Doug McGuire, was waiting for us and others to arrive when we walked into the door near the Puros Indios exhibit where we were quickly joined by 1RedDawg, Jeff Hogan, and off we went.

By the time Castanza and I arrived, Doug had already been over to meet Pete Johnson of Tatuaje who had time to breathe before we got there, but was slammed. He had a moment for a word later on again as well as time for a photo. Mad Dawg has already related in a separate post what discussion ensued.
MadDawg, TommyBB and Pete Johnson

Right across from Tatuaje was El Rey de Los Habanos and Don Pepin Garcia. I got to talk to Oquel Guerra from Sales & Marketing who told me about their new line, a limited edition cigar, called “El Centurion by Don Pepin Garcia. This year’s offering will be unique, they made only 50,000 cigars, in three sizes. These are called
• Guerreros 5 x 50 Robustos
• Gladiadores 6 ½ x 52 Toros
• Emperadores 5 ½ x 52 Belicosos.

The leaves used to construct this cigar were aged for three years using two Nicaraguan varietals, namely Criollo 98 and Corojo 99. Each year’s edition will be a one-off, not to be duplicated. Speaking to Don Pepin afterwards, when he got free for a moment, he told us that he “tried to get the flavor of this cigar as close to the Cohiba Edicion Limitado made in 2000, the year before he left Cuba. Next year’s cigar will be like a Montecristo with an oscuro wrapper.”
Don Jose “Pepin” Garcia

There will be another new addition to the Don Pepin Garcia line with a light color band on it to set off the wrapper. I was asked not to say what it is by Oquel Guerra, however I can tell you it is quite good, full flavored with just the slightest sweet touch to it.

The 601 brand, also from United Tobacco has added another line, according to representative Patrick Vivalo. The new 601 has a green band is their offering this year. This cigar is a Nicaraguan puro with an Oscuro Habano wrapper, and it’s made in Esteli. Each 601, he said, “has its own character, and the sales of the green, especially, is improving each month.” Like Pepin’s other lines, they’re “not making too many, but everything is full-bodied.” Don Pepin is rolling these for Erik Espinoza of United Tobacco. The 2007 601 Edicion Limitada is a special blend and size manufactured only once a year in very limited quantities and sold only at the RTDA show. This year’s edition is the Presidente size, 7 ½ x 52 which isn’t available in any other 601 vitola and comes in a commemorative ceramic humijar. The 601 Green “is by far the fullest and strongest of the 601 Serie.” The humijar is priced at an MSRP of $336
Humijar

The rest of the Green Serie are as follows, all available in boxes of 20, except where noted:
• Corona 5 x 42 in a box of 40
• Tronco 5 x 52
• La Fuerza 5 ½ x 54
• Trabuco 6 1/8 x 58
• La Punta (perfecto) 5 ½ x 48 x 52

United Tobacco also has a new line called the K24. It’s manufactured in Honduras by Rocky Patel for United Tobacco, exclusively. This blend has been in development for over a year. Interestingly enough, though it’s made in Honduras, it’s a Nicaraguan puro featuring the growingly popular Nicaraguan Jalapa Habano Wrapper. It’s also billed as a “Very Full Bodied” cigar. It will come in four sizes, available in boxes of 20:
• #5 5 x 52
• #6 Torpedo 6 x 52
• #8 6 x 54
• #9 7 x 52






I mentioned on another thread the Defiance Cigars. These are a new effort by Xikar, Inc. Andy O’Dwyer spoke to us for a moment telling us about this program. This year’s Defiance is definitely only Phase 1; it’s rolled by Jesus Fuego who previously worked for Nestor Plasencia and more recently Rocky Patel. The Defiance is Xikar’s way of ‘putting their money where their mouth is’ as 5% of all proceeds from sales will go to state coalition in the state where the cigar is sold. That state coalition will, hopefully, being to work politically in that state to fight smoking bans and tobacco taxes. Xikar is tying this to a centralized website for all their retailers in order to keep track of what’s going to each state’s coalition and keep up-to-date with the effort. It is hoped that Phase 2 incorporates other brands of cigar, with Padron being mentioned for next year. This cigar is presented with a double band, a large Defiance band and a smaller band with the brand of cigar, this year’s version, obviously, bearing the Xikar brand. These are rolled in Nicaragua in 4 sizes. Andy O’Dwyer stated that “this can’t just be marketing, it has to be a concerted, sustained effort.”

From Xikar, we rolled into the Perdomo exhibit where we were greeted momentarily by Mr. Nick Perdomo who then handed us off to their Daniel Colon, their director of marketing and Arthur Kemper their Director of Sales. Their new cigar is something that Nick Perdomo believes his cigar and presentation would resemble “if a cigar could be made in Cuba, this is how they’d design it.” The Perdomo Habano is a new line that comes in five sizes, presented in a hand-stained, slide-lid box that allows the lid to sit open almost as if it’s got hinges. The tobacco comes from each of his three different farms around Esteli, Condega, the Jalapa Valley, and is blended to be perceived by most smokers as either medium to medium/full-bodied. The wrappers are Corojo or triple-fermented Nicaraguan maduro. “For us, every store so far has written this item” said Arthur Kemper. The sizes are:
• Robusto 5 x 52
• Toro 5 ½ x 54
• Torpedo 6 ½ x 54
• Gordo 6 x 60
• Presidente 7 x 56

These should retail between $5 and $7 per cigar.
Perdomo Habano

The art work on this is amazing, if I do say so.
Perdomo Habano art piece

”The artwork was given to Nick by a collector he’s friends with; it’s an old Cuban design from the late 1800s which we copied. Nick loves the art and the brand was designed around the artwork which his friend gave to him three years ago.”
Moderators with Arthur Kemper and Daniel Colon

In addition, although it may already be in stores, this is the official debut of the Lot 23 Maduro. It’s the same blend as the Lot 23 named for the field where all the tobacco is grown in Nicaragua.



Dion Giolito, know to us here at CW as “vudu9” introduced to us another addition to his Illusione brand. It’s a really traditional culebra but its provenance is different from the rest of the line. “This is the only vitola made in Miami, and it features a viso blend with a viso wrapper. This tobacco has been marinating since February of 2006.”
Hockeymaniac with a culebra
Illusione Culebra

We decided to give Drew Estates a try, and were rewarded with a warm welcome from Marvin Samel-Founder and Executive Vice President. We were also greeted by Joey Oliva who visits CW to read mostly, as “Cheo Malanga.” Marvin was really forthcoming in telling us about the Liga Privada #9, which is quickly achieving mythical status. There are only 40,000 of these cigars, and it will stay this way for a while yet. They use a Broadleaf wrapper, and since they don’t sweat it, the leaf takes two years to mature. The other problem he said is that “we’ve been the leading seller of infused cigars for years. The problem is that the flavored or infused cigars hide any changes in the tobacco blend. So when we went to make a traditional cigar, we didn’t have a large stock of reserves. You need years of reserves, because if you change the blend, or run out of one leaf and substitute another, you’ll be called out immediately on the forums and by customers. We’re now up to a point where we have almost three years of reserves, which is just above what a young company really needs.” They’ve only been able to add 50 new store-accounts this year for this cigar due to the small amounts.

By this time Steve Saka came rolling up to us, we introduced ourselves and greeted him in the name of ElkTwin. He was eager to discuss the Liga Privada #9 as well. “Tell people not to buy them or even try them. We only have 40,000 of them, and if they like them I won’t have any more to sell them and they’ll get angry at me, so tell them to just forget they exist. LOL. This cigar is my first attempt to make something I’d like to smoke. I don’t like infused cigars and then I became the president of a company that makes flavored cigars; I had to find something to smoke. So we took ten different basic blends, or ligas, each with like 4 blends for a total of 40, and we tried them all. It wasn’t until we got to the #9 did we find the blend I really liked. I’m not a big believer in limited editions, and these should sell for more to justify the costs. But if I did that they’d be overpriced. It’s a blend of seven different tobaccos from all kinds of farms and countries. There’s a Matafina from Brazil grown by Jose Fuego (father of Jesus Fuego as discussed in the Defiance report) it’s simply too difficult to get all seven tobaccos to make enough cigars to make a real effort. We would need at least 300,000 cigars per year IF the tobacco was available it would be worthwhile to sell. There’s no upside to this cigar for anyone, LOL, not enough to sell or to produce enough to meet the demand it would create.”

Saka told us, “tell them (you guys) to buy the new Chateau Real instead, we’ve got millions of those.” Chateau Real is Drew Estates’ newest release. It’s a blend of Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos wrapped in a golden Connecticut Shade wrapper. It’s a mild cigar, according to their literature, that’s meant to remind older smokers and introduce younger smokers to what the Clear Havanas (Cuban tobacco rolled in the U.S. before the embargo) used to taste like.

Now, before you go thinking this guy’s a jerk, he wasn’t he was serious, but joking. The Liga Privada #9 would be simply too difficult to produce annually at a price people would pay. Steve Saka is a legend in the cigar industry, a man who's definitely standing up for the regular Joe type of smoker.Steve Saka and MadDawg

I owed a visit to a cigar we’ve posted about here called Avalon Cigars. Founded in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the heart of Blues country by Tom Ramsey and Gary Hilton, these are the new kids on the block. “We’re not as familiar with all the names and traditions of Cuba and the other manufacturers, so we went with what we knew, the Blues to name our cigars,” I had one of the reps. tell me. Tom Ramsey told me he’s having “an excellent show. Flattering. That’s the word I’ve been using since Sunday. The guys I looked up to, the ‘rock stars’ in the industry, know who I was!! I was blown away! Our influences in the industry, Pete Johnson (founder of Tatuaje,) and Tim Ozgener (President of CAO) stopped by. We’ve been picking up orders and stores all week. It’s really been building from visits on Sunday and early Monday, to return visits to schedule appointments.” They’ve also got a small write-up in the Summer 2007 issue of Smoke

Avalon has two presentations. One with gold foil to catch the eye in the tobacconist’s humidor, presented in unfinished slide-lid boxes which are appealing to retailers since they take up less shelf-space. But the other cigar, the Juke Blue is the real conversation piece. Like all their Miami-rolled cigars, they’re then returned to Clarksdale for aging in pecan-wood. The Juke-Blue, however has a wrapper that’s infused with pecan essence. Ramsey says “60% of people hate it while the other 40% like it. I smoked one and heads turned wherever I went. You can really smell it ON the wrapper leaf while you’re smoking it although the flavor isn’t really noticeable on the palate. However the smell of the smoke is distinctive. My Texian friends, Jefslat and Mad Dawg both said it smelled like they were standing next to their smokers.

Says Ramsey, on his first ever RTDA show, “It’s enjoyable mingling in the industry.” Tom Ramsey with Jefslat, Tommy and Mad Dawg

One last note, CW member easyt, Tim Wong, is a representative for the Pacific Coast with Carlos Torano. He tells me, this year, they’ve not only come out with the Casa Torano in maduro, but they’re bucking the trend. Tim says “I was FINALLY able to convince Charlie to roll a Lancero size anything, and it’s in the maduro Casa. They’re just ready now.” Look for these soon in your stores. When he means just ready he means he, himself, only had one all week with a band on it, that was regular production and not a test cigar.


There were and are so many more we would have liked to meet and talk with. Although the total numbers were down, many of the big names were simply busy every time we walked by. And while I would like to have brought you more information, I’m not going to get these guys to quit doing business to talk to me.

There are more photos in my gallery, we ended our run at the show with a big Cigar Weekly Herf at 10 Downing Street Pub at the corner of Westheimer and Kirby Drive in the Upper Kirby neighborhood. In attendance from these forums were : 1RedDawg, and his son Hotshot, Husker, hockeymaniac, Stinky, Tinderbox215 and his son Charles, Cubano67, Coastlwader and MrsCoastalwader, Jefslat and Frau Evil, Fatshotbud, Castanza,MrsYogi, …cigman, myself, Frank Santos and Jose Ortega of Puros Indios, easyt of Torano, Arthur Kemper and Nick Perdomo of Tabacalera Perdomo.

See all photos

 

[warbird]

Thanks for the update Pop. Looks like a good time. There are some interesting new smokes coming out this year. I also here the recent crops should make for some excellent smokes for several years to come.

As also looking forward tom trying to the line from Cuban Imports. Their previous lines should be even better this year as well.

 

[SGB]

RTDA

Excellent write-up. Haven't been to market in years, was always so busy 'working' didn't have time for too much fun. I need to go again just for fun and see old friends.

SGB

 

[RedPop4]

It may not be RTDA next year. There's a movement afoot to change it to IPCPR....Something Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers......but they'd be abandoning their big money from Altadis, General, Swedish Match, Henry Wintermanns (now the owners of CAO) and Swisher.

 

[warbird]

It may not be RTDA next year. There's a movement afoot to change it to IPCPR....Something Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers......but they'd be abandoning their big money from Altadis, General, Swedish Match, Henry Wintermanns (now the owners of CAO) and Swisher.

I think its wrong headed, but that's just my opinion.