CRA Freedom Sampler Fall 2023 Heads to Stores

The third sampler for 2023 from Cigar Rights of America (CRA) is heading to stores.

Earlier this week, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. began shipping the CRA Freedom Sampler Fall 2023, a 10-cigar sampler that is made to help fund the cigar trade organization. Cigar companies that sit on the CRA board donate cigars to the organization, which are then sold with funds going back to the CRA.

Like past samplers, this is a 10-cigar sampler with cigars from nine companies. Generally speaking, these cigars are either limited editions, exclusive cigars or higher-priced cigars from each company.

Each sampler has an MSRP of $204 and includes one of the following:

• Oliva Serie V 8 x 52
• La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull
• Diamond Crown Julius Caesar Pyramid
• Fuente Fuente OpusX ForbiddenX Destinao al Siglo Toro
• My Father García & García Robusto Deluxe
• Tatuaje 15th Anniversary Plus One Escasos
• Ashton Symmetry Sublime
• Arturo Fuente Rare Pink Vintage 1960’s Series Signature
• Padrón Black No. 52
• Rocky Patel ALR  Second Edition Robusto

For the first time in a while, none of the cigars in the sampler are new. Three cigars—the Oliva Serie V 8 x 52, Padrón Black No. 52 and Tatuaje 15th Anniversary Plus One Escasos—have not been released outside of a CRA Freedom Sampler, but all three were part of the CRA’s Summer 2023 sampler.

The cigars from Arturo Fuente, J.C. Newman, La Flor Dominicana and Rocky Patel have changed in comparison to the Summer 2023 sampler. In addition, this sampler contains two cigars from Arturo Fuente, whereas the Summer 2023 sampler had two cigars from Oliva.

There are 4,000 CRA Freedom Sampler Fall 2023 samplers.

CRA member companies donate the cigars to the organization, which then sells the packs. The proceeds from the sales are used to fund the CRA, one of the three main cigar trade groups. For each sampler, one of the member companies handles the distribution and sales; in this case, it was J.C. Newman.

While the CRA spent years trying to brand itself as a consumer organization akin to the NRA, its most tangible impact has been a seven-year-old lawsuit, which it has helped fund. Earlier this year, the joint lawsuit filed by CRA and the other two cigar trade groups scored a major victory against FDA’s regulations of premium cigars. For that particular part of the lawsuit, the CRA paid the legal bill for Michael Edney, the lead attorney in the case.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.