IPCPR 2015: Day 3 Recap

In just a matter of hours, another IPCPR Convention & Trade Show will come to a close. The floor was open from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., and when that final announcement is made that the show floor is closed, the forklifts start rolling in, the boxes get packed, the carpet comes up and people start heading for the airport.

One of the most common questions that I get asked on the floor revolves around what I’m hearing buzz about, and all too often my response has been lacking. The simple answer is that nothing has really captured my attention. Sure, there are some projects I find incredibly interesting; the return of Steve Saka and Nicholas Melillo, Pete Johnson’s collaboration with Altadis on the Henry Clay Tattoo, the Padrón Dámaso, and a handful more. But I haven’t had the opportunity to smoke a number of the new releases, which leaves me searching for a response.

As I rack my brain for cigars to recommend—and this is after three days of criss-crossing the show floor–there’s one thing that really disappoints me about a number of new releases, and that it has become that much more apparent that the 6 x 52 (or thereabouts) size has become the standard for single-vitola releases. I’ve almost lost count of how many I have seen.

I have nothing against the size at all; I certainly like a good toro as much as the next person. But to make it the de facto size for so many releases is just too much. I had one person on the manufacturing side tell me that it’s because it’s an easy to roll size and it’s a midpoint for fans of big and small ring gauges, long and short cigars. I’ve seen a few with figurado heads, but most are your standard toro parejo.

I’ve been an advocate of single-vitola releases for some time now, going back to when I pretty much fell in love with the original Liga Privada Único Serie Dirty Rat. It was unapologetic with its 5 x 44 vitola, and I knew that Drew Estate’s team found that this blend worked best in this size, and if you were too whatever of its size, you could simply move on to something else.

But yet, here I see so many companies making cigars that try and cater to everyone when it comes to size. I understand this is a business and people are trying to sell cigars, but I for one would much rather have a manufacturer just say that “X blend works best in Y vitola, and that’s what we’re making it in, end of discussion.”

Other than a full day of covering more booths at a more hurried pace than we have the past three days, I’m not really sure what to expect from Tuesday on the show floor. I certainly don’t expect any big announcements; a number of people on both the retail and manufacturing side have already left, and pretty much everyone is counting down the minutes until 1 p.m. That’s not to say people don’t want to be here; just that everyone here has other things to get back to. Hopefully all four of the halfwheel writers can get some quality time with a number of manufacturers and bring our reports to you in the coming days.

Of the six IPCPR Convention & Trade Shows I have covered, I will once again leave feeling like I missed a number of booths, or that I didn’t talk to everyone I wanted to, or that I might have missed what may be the best cigar on the floor. The show continues to get bigger and bigger, many of the booths get more spacious, and the distances I need to walk farther and farther.

That said, it’s still an incredible gathering of people from all over the globe around the common love and business of premium cigars, and getting to spend time with those folks is something I value very much. I’ve talked tobacco with growers and buyers, new sizes and industry trends with brand owners, and much more. While I understand that retailers may have some very valid reasons for not attending this year’s trade show, it still amazes me why more don’t show up and take advantage of all that this annual gathering has to offer. If your local B&M didn’t get a certain cigar because they didn’t go to IPCPR, you need to encourage them to do so next year. There are a handful of sticks that were only available to the retailers who made the journey, and a few that I’m glad to know I won’t be missing out on since my local shops were in attendance.

I look forward to firing up a few more sticks in a bit of defiance to New Orleans’ smoking ban before I head home, having one more Sazerac or French 75, and saying hello and see you later to as many people as I can.