July 10, 2022 Brooks Whittington PCA 2022,  PCA 2022 Booths

PCA 2022: K by Karen Berger

In 2016, Karen Berger unveiled her K by Karen Berger line at the IPCPR Convention & Trade Show, two years after her husband—and industry veteran— Enrique “Kiki” Berger passed away in 2014. Enrique Berger was one of the first Americans to come to Estelí, and he established a cigar-making operation, Tabacalera Estelí, as well as a farm.

Since that time, the K by Karen Berger brand has grown in leaps and bounds, including the release of four new cigars at the 2021 PCA Convention & Trade Show. 

The booth was the same layout as last year, but the outfit that Karen Berger is wearing is wonderfully unique and she is as radiant as ever as she shows off her new cigar that is being released at the show.

K by Karen Berger 25th Anniversary by AJ Fernandez

The aforementioned new cigar is being made be made at AJ Fernandez’s Tabacalera AJ Fernandez de Nicaragua S.A., in Estelí. The name references the more than 25 years that Karen Berger and Kiki Berger have worked in the cigar business.

  • Wrapper: U.S.A. (Connecticut Broadleaf Habano)
  • Binder: Mexico (San Andrés)
  • Filler: Nicaragua
  •  K by Karen Berger 25th Anniversary by AJ Fernandez (6 x 52) — $16 (Box of 20, $320)

Production: 1,500 Boxes of 20 Cigars (30,000 Total Cigars)

Release Date: July 13, 2022

Overall Score

Enrique "Kiki" Berger K by Karen Berger K by Karen Berger 25th Anniversary by AJ Fernandez PCA 2022 Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A.
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Brooks Whittington

I have worn many hats in my life up to this point: I started out as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, then transitioned to photographing weddings—both internationally and in the U.S.—for more than a decade. After realizing that there was a need for a cigar website containing better photographs and more in-depth information about each release, I founded my first cigar blog, SmokingStogie, in 2008. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars, and it was one of the predecessors to halfwheel, which I co-founded.

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