PCA 2023: De Los Reyes

Last year, I was told that the De Los Reyes booth—which also houses Casa de Sueños, Debonaire House, Patoro, Topper and, sometimes, Cattle Baron—would be getting replaced with an all-new booth for 2023. While the old booth reminded me a lot of the De Los Reyes factory in the Dominican Republic—including dark hardwood furniture and pastel-colored panels elsewhere—the new booth seems about efficiency.

I would venture to guess that the new booth is a substantial savings in cost and time to set up. As someone who is responsible for the logistics of halfwheel’s trade show booth: I understand this completely. Objectively, I liked the look of the old booth better. But I’m neither the one paying for it nor am I the one setting it up. If you knew the costs of everything related to the booth—or whether or not there is air-conditioning during set-up—I’m pretty confident you would understand that sometimes simplicity is the answer. Also missing from last year was Nirka Reyes-Estrella, though it appears she sent a film crew in her place.

Unfortunately, it looks like I forgot to ask Brian to get a walkaround video of this booth. Fortunately, I took some photographs just in case, but I don’t think they captured the booth. Basically, there’s a rectangular display in the center of the booth that can display products on either side. Each company more or less occupies one of the displays, though De Los Reyes got multiple. That makes sense for a number of reasons; perhaps most notably, De Los Reyes was the only one of these four companies that was displaying all-new products.

Saga Golden Age Yamasá

As the name implies, this uses a wrapper from the red soil found in Yamasá, located in the center of the Dominican Republic. Jean-Michel Louis, managing director for De Los Reyes, told me that the company wants smokers to focus on the wrapper, so it’s not disclosing the other tobaccos. One of the most interesting parts is that the company has announced how the blend will change over time. Specifically, the wrapper will always be from four years ago, so the 2023 release uses a wrapper from the 2019 crop grown by Monika Kelner, next year will use a wrapper from 2020, etc.

• Wrapper: Dominican Republic (Yamasá)
• Binder: Undisclosed
• Filler: Undisclosed

• Saga Golden Age Yamasá (5 5/8 x 47) — $14 (Box of 10, $140)

Production: Undisclosed

Release Date: July 2023

Saga Solaz Corona

The Solaz is getting a new lonsdale vitola—my notes say it’s being called a corona—that is only being sold in these small eight-count boxes. The boxes are 4×2, making them extremely compact. Louis told me that these have been ready since the Solaz line launched in 2019, but the company held it back.

• Wrapper: Ecuador (Connecticut)
• Binder: Dominican Republic
• Filler: Dominican Republic

• Saga Solaz Corona (6 x 44) — $9 (Box of 8, $72)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: July 2023