As we walk from booth to booth or stumble from party to party, we get asked a lot, what have you seen that is cool/exciting/interesting at the show?
It’s a question I ask retailers a lot—and with good reason. There over 200 different cigar or cigar accessory companies with products on display at the show, so the chances of missing something are pretty much guaranteed. For those employed by manufacturers, this problem gets even worse since most are pretty much stuck in their booth the entire time, meaning they don’t get to look around.
So with that premise, we’ve decided to add a new feature. The top three things each of us saw at the trade show. There’s no real parameters, just list out the top three things from the show.
Here are mine:
1. S.T.Dupont Complications Lighter — I am not in the market for a $41,000 lighter, but I sort of want to be. The dual flame (it has both a soft and a torch) concept is not entirely new, but no lighter that has attempted the concept has made this much of a statement—or come with this much of a price
2. Oliva VR Tour — It was only a matter of time before a cigar company got into the virtual reality space and Oliva executed it pretty well. The tour starts in the fields and leads you to the factory where you can select a cigar for José Oliva and Fred Vandermarliere to talk about. Given that Oliva isn’t one to open the factory to tours, this is as close as many will get.
3. Boveda 330 Gram — It’s a really big Boveda. And that’s sort of all that has to be said. I look forward to replacing Bovedas in my cooler a lot less thanks to the monster-sized Boveda.
You might be wondering why no cigars are mentioned. There’s a couple reasons, but it largely comes down to: I’m not going to recommend a cigar I haven’t smoked and I hardly smoke on the show floor. I counted a total of four cigars I smoked on the show floor, none of them past much more than an inch. Simply put, it’s hard enough juggling a notebook and a camera, adding a cigar to the mixture is too much.