IPCPR 2015: Alec Bradley

While the Alec Bradley booth may look much the same as it has in recent years from a structural perspective, there were some changes on the walls and to the product line. The company has been pushing its “Essential” campaign, featuring workers from the farms to the factory to the US operations, all under the header of being essential to the company.

The Alec Bradley Sanctum line was shown off at last year’s trade show but didn’t make its debut until just a few weeks ago. The next batch will be coming in August, meaning it should be widely available in just a matter of weeks.

The blend uses a Honduran corojo wrapper, Costa Rican binder and fillers from Honduras and Nicaragua, with the flavor profile described as offering natural sweetness and clean tobacco notes. It’s coming in a Robusto, Toro, Gordo and Double Gordo with pricing between $7.25-9.90,  The cigar also comes with a double band; the top band is held on with goma as normal, but the band underneath that is held on simply by tension and the top band, meaning that when you take the band off, you are pretty much guaranteed that it won’t cause any damage to the wrapper.

Borrowing from the introduction of the Sanctum, Alec Bradley was already teasing a 2016 release, Post Embargo.

It’s slated for a limited release towards the end of the year, with 1,000 boxes of the Robusto, Toro and Gordo sizes, along with 500 boxes of Lanceros made available to retailers who attended the show, with all sizes getting a box-press and a slightly different band than what it wore to the show. The crate is also not currently part of the retail presentation, so don’t expect to see that on shelves.

Here’s Alan Rubin with a bit more information on it:

The Nica Puro line expands with the Nica Puro Rosado which uses a Nicaraguan colorado rosado wrapper:

It retains the same five sizes and prices of the original Nica Puro line and is due out in September.

The Alec Bradley MAXX is one of the company’s long time favorites, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t time for a reblend and rebranding, which is what it’s getting this year:

The new blend keeps the cigar full bodied and full flavored and keeps the cigar available in five sizes, Nano (4 x 46), Fixx (5 x 58), Culture (6 x 54) Freak (6 3/8 x 60) and Super Freak (8 1/2 x 60) with pricing from $4.90 – $7.95.

While it’s still more than six months away, the 2016 edition of the Alec Bradley Filthy Hooligan was on display:

It’s a Black Market Toro with a candela barber pole design. The packaging gets an update to reflect the barber pole on the wrapper, with 2,000 boxes being produced in advance of St. Patrick’s Day, with an arrival at retail a few weeks prior to the mid-March celebration.

Speaking of Nica Puro, the Diamond Rough Cut returns with another 2,000 boxes that should be hitting stores this fall.The cigar was incredibly popular among retailers and consumers, so the company is giving them a few more.

On the Tempus line, there’s a new look and a new version, as the Tempus Nicaragua was unveiled.

It’s a Nicaraguan puro, with a total of eight different tobaccos coming from Estelí, Jalapa and Condega and five familiar sizes being produced: Terra Nuvo (5 x 50), Medius 6 (6 x 52), Magnus (6 x 60), Imperator (6 1/8 x 52) and Centuria (7 x 49). It’s a fuller and spicier version than the original Tempus line.

As for the original Tempus line, pricing is being brought down between 75 cents and $1.25 per stick, so don’t be surprised if you see a bit smaller number on the sticker before long.

Finally, Fine & Rare is back for 2015, a new size and blend called JRS10=(86), though you can probably get away with calling it “the new Fine & Rare.” Two-thousand boxes of 10 cigars are being produced, with 1,500 for the U.S. and 500 for Europe. It’s a 6 1/2 x 56 Toro Extra with a single stick price of $18.50.

Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.