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Brooks Whittington

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About the author

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.

Press Release: Inaugural Davidoff Art Weekend in the Dominican Republic

March 24, 2014 (Basel, Switzerland) — On February 28 through March 2, 2014, the Davidoff Art Initiative hosted the inaugural Davidoff Art Weekend in collaboration with…

Press Release: Drew Estate to Release Undercrown Dogma

March 24, 2014 (Miami, Fla.) — Drew Estate announced today their plans to release a new size within their Undercrown cigar line. The size will be…

Foundry Europium

First introduced at the 2012 IPCPR show, the Foundry Tobacco Company started off as a way for General Cigar Company to show off some of its more…

Legacy Brands Adds Tortuga 215 Reserva Cedro Belicoso

Legacy Brands by Victor Vitale is adding a second vitola to its Tortuga 215 Reserva Cedro line that will be in retailers hands by the…

Press Release: Blessed Leaf Announces Release of Kairos

March 13, 2014 (Miami, Fla.) — Kyle Hoover and Chris Kelly, the leaders of BlessedLeaf.com, a Christian cigar-based ministry, announce the release of the long…

Press Release: Fratello Cigars Announces New Box Pressed Torpedo

March 17, 2014 (Springfield, VA) — Omar de Frias is proud to announce a new addition to the Fratello line of cigars.  The new vitola will…

Crux Cigars Plans Three New Lines For May

Minnesota-based Crux Cigars has not shipped a single cigar to retailers yet, but the company is already preparing its second batch of releases. In May,…

Oliva Federal Cigar 93rd Anniversary Reserve No. 2

Since 2011, Federal Cigar has commemorated its anniversary by releasing custom blends and line extensions from various cigar manufactures. Earlier this month, we learned that…

Portraits: Michael Herklots

Always impeccably dressed, Michael Herklots has been in the industry more than 15 years, first as a store manager at the Humidor, then as a sales…

XIKAR VX V-Cut Cutter

Introduced at the 2010 IPCPR trade show, the XIKAR VX V-Cut Cutter was the company’s take on reinventing the cat’s eye cut. Jerry Dear, former…

ROMEO by Romeo y Julieta Gran Bully Special Edition

Originally introduced in 2012, the ROMEO by Romeo y Julieta blend was an addition to Altadis U.S.A.’s existing Romeo y Julieta brand featuring a different wrapper and…