Just the other day someone asked me what my favorite part of the recent IPCPR Convention & Trade Show was, and without missing a beat I replied “the four or so hours of sleep I managed to get each night.”

But besides that, there were a few things that caught my eye as I walked around the trade show floor, and thankfully none of them seemed to be novelty cigars or fancy socks as in years past. As my colleagues Charlie Minato and Brooks Whittington have already done, here are the three things that caught my eye at the 2016 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show:

La Flor Dominicana Salomon Unico ICPCR 2016

1. La Flor Dominicana Salomon Ünico — We all know that premium cigars are artisan creations, but this limited edition production from La Flor Dominicana blends artisanal and artistic into an impressive creation laid upon one of my favorite cigars. To top it off, there are said to be 100 different designs, all created and applied by one man in La Flor’s factory, and no two boxes are intentionally filled with the same 10 cigars.

While I haven’t smoked one to tell you how the flavor might change, I honestly don’t know if I could bring myself to light one of these beauties on fire; LFD might as well sell me a humidified shadow box for framing because I feel like these belong on my wall more than they do in my humidor. I’ve been intrigued with these cigars since I saw them earlier this year at the ProCigar Festival, now to know that they’re coming to retail shops near me has me that much more excited.

2. Colibri Slide — As the resident lighter reviewer/breaker, I feel like I should make mention of the one lighter that really caught my eye, the Colibri Slide. I’ve long maintained that there are only so many ways to light a cigar: matches, cedar spills, soft flame and torch flame. For the most part, new lighters at the show are the same guts packaged into a new form, and while that may be sort of true for this lighter, the fact that it is the first one to ignite by pushing up on the body of the unit has stuck with me since the first time I saw and used it. It’s probably the one lighter I’m most looking forward to using once it comes out to see not just how it holds up, but how the mechanism feels and works in daily smoking.

XIKAR Boveda IPCPR 2016

3. XIKAR Humidification Packs by Boveda — I never thought I would see the day when Boveda and XIKAR come together on a product. XIKAR has been the dominant name in the everyday cigar accessories category, though its humidification products always played second fiddle to the company’s lighters, cutters,

travel humidors and other accessories, while Boveda owned the portable, small format humidification segment. I’m incredibly intrigued to see what this does for both companies, as XIKAR’s sales force will almost certainly get Boveda into more and more cigar shops across the country, bringing Boveda more business and helping that company continue to grow. Hopefully it is a fruitful relationship for both sides, as I think it sure to be a great partnership for cigar consumers. While both Charlie and I were impressed with Boveda’s new 330g offering and would argue it was the most impressive product with Boveda’s name on it, I find this unlikely partnership the more impressive piece of news coming from the company.

Perdomo Drums IPCPR 2016JPG

I’d feel remiss if I didn’t mention the incredible custom Pearl drum kit that was in the Perdomo booth, as well as Nick Perdomo’s playing of said drums throughout the show. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much–if anything—about drums, but the setup was quite remarkable. While it made it tough to do the occasional interview, it was an impressive and massive creation of percussion and one that seemed to catch everyone’s eyes and ears on the show floor.

Unfortunately I don’t get nearly enough time to smoke all the new cigars, play with all the new accessories and take in the entire show floor, but once again I left Las Vegas with a lot of exciting new things to look forward to seeing in my local cigar shops.

Davidoff is the official sponsor of halfwheel's coverage of the 2016 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show.
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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 MLB.com, 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.