While visiting another booth, a representative from La Casta Cigars, LLC approached us and asked Brian Burt and I if we could stop by their booth, one space down from where we were. Turns out, we had already planned on stopping by as it made sense given our geographical plan to cover the show. Oh, and they had tequila.

Asociación Mexicana de Fabricantes de Puros S.C. is the Mexican cigar manufacturers’ association, a group I became familiar with because of their legendary Mexico party held annually at Inter-tabac. The booth actually contained three different manufacturers: Tabacalera R. Paxtian, La Casta Cigars and Tabacos La Victoria SA de CV (Miranda Cigars).

La Casta display

Out of that, La Casta Cigars, which operates out of the Puros Santa Clara S.A. de C.V. factory in San Andrés, is the only one with plans for the U.S. market. Jorge Ortiz Alvarez, the company’s head, told halfwheel they are currently applying for necessary licenses in the U.S. and expect to be on the market shortly.

La Casta Capa Flor

Capa Flor
This is offered in two variants, both using a San Andrés binder and a combination of Mexican and Nicaraguan fillers. The Habano version uses a wrapper from Ecuador, while the Maduro uses tobacco from San Andrés.

La Casta San Andres

La Casta San Andrés
This features an aggressive square press, San Andrés maduro wrapper, San Andrés binder and filler from Nicaraguan and San Andrés. It’s offered in four sizes: Churchill (7 x 50), Grande Toro (5 x 60), Toro (6 x 50) and Robusto (5 x 50).

Davidoff is the official sponsor of halfwheel's coverage of the 2015 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show.
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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.