CRA Freedom Sampler Summer 2023 Begins Shipping

The CRA Freedom Sampler Summer 2023 is heading to stores.

It’s a 10-cigar sampler, with cigars coming from various companies that are members of Cigar Rights of America (CRA). As with previous CRA Freedom Samplers—this is the second one this year—it contains a mixture of regular production, limited edition and exclusive cigars. In this case, three cigars are exclusive to the sampler, including two new cigars.

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

• Ashton Symmetry Sublime
• Diamond Crown Black Diamond Emerald
• Fuente Fuente OpusX The Lost City Toro
• La Flor Dominicana Salomones
• My Father García & García Robusto Deluxe
• Oliva Serie V 8 x 52
• Oliva Serie V 135th Anniversary Edición Limitada
• Padrón Black No. 52
• Rocky Patel White Label Toro
• Tatuaje 15th Anniversary Plus One Escasos

Three of these cigars are exclusive to this sampler. The Oliva Serie V 8 x 52 is a very long version of the regular Serie V blend. This is a parejo—meaning it’s about an inch longer than the Serie V Churchill Extra—and has not been offered for sale before.

The Tatuaje 15th Anniversary Plus One Escasos is a 5 7/8 x 52 robusto extra made entirely of Nicaragua tobacco grown by the García family, capped off by a corojo 99 shade-grown wrapper. According to Pete Johnson, Tatuaje’s founder, these cigars were made by one roller at the El Rey de los Habanos factory in Doral, Fla. and have been aging since last year. Furthermore, Johnson said that he has no plans on when these cigars might be released outside of the sampler.

While not new, the Padrón Black No. 52 has only been offered in CRA samplers. Padrón has described the Padrón Black as a Nicaraguan puro, there are two new sizes of the blend(s) scheduled to be released later this year.

The CRA Freedom Sampler Summer 2023 is limited to 2,000 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. Last 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.