Cigar Advisor heads for IPCPR New Orleans 2009

By Gary Korb

IT'S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR again when the premium cigar producers, distributors, and dealers march off to Cigar Mecca - the annual IPCPR Convention and Intl. Trade Show. This year my fellow Famous Smoke Shop copywriter, Hayward Tenney, will be attending his first IPCPR show, so he's pretty revved-up. (Hayward is bringing an extra bag just for all his IPCPR booty.) Believe it or not, I still have cigars in my humi from three shows ago!

Each day Hayward and I will post a summary of what we discovered at the show on the homepage . Please be sure to check our Cigar Advisor Blog, as well as tweets on our Cigar Advisor Twitter page. We're also going to try to get some video reports uploaded to our Famous Smoke Shop YouTube channel.

Cigar Monster "Show-Stopper" Specials
Humberto will be back at Famous Smoke Shop home base in Easton, PA where he'll be posting IPCPR "Show-Stopper" specials on www.CigarMonster.com. So, while Arthur and Hal are looking for good deals at the show from the manufacturers, you'll be able to get some good deals during the show by keeping your mouse perched near the CigarMonster image in the left-hand column of our home page.

Some of the people we plan on be stopping by to see include: Rocky Patel, Jon (CAO) Huber, Nick Perdomo Jr., Alan (Alec Bradley) Rubin, Avo Uvezian, Christian (Camacho) Eiroa, Mike (Cusano) Chiusano, Jonathan Drew, George (G.A.R.) Rico, Abe (Pinar Del Rio) Flores, Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, Jose Oliva, Eddie Ortega & Erik Espinosa (E/O Brands), Jose (Miami Cigar) Blanco, Pete Johnson, plus many more, and hopefully a few surprises.

Due to the immensity of the IPCPR show, it's difficult to see everyone we plan to see and smoke all the cigars we want to try, but here's a wish list of some of the new cigars we plan to report on:
Alec Bradley Vice, Family Blend, and SCR
Camacho Room101
La Traviata by CAO
Davidoff Ltd. Ed. 2009 Toro Especiale Seleccion 702
Don Lino 1989 (re-blended)
Cubao Maduro
EP Carrillo
Fuente Aged Selection "Lost City"
Murcielago
Perdomo Grand Cru

Moreover, there's no guarantee Famous Smoke Shop will stock all of the cigars mentioned above, but as we check in with the buyers each day, we'll do our best to let you know which new cigars they do plan to take in.

In addition to some of the cigar makers mentioned above, I'll also be interviewing Catherine Llibre and Hendrik Kelner who will talk about the great work ProCigar is doing for our industry. Also on my itinerary is an interview with IPCPR Legislative Director, Chris McCalla, who will talk about the important role the organization is playing to help curtail tobacco legislation.

That's it for today, but come back tomorrow for our first report of the show. I have a feeling this is going to be one of the best IPCPR shows yet.  (_[ca]__{{{