From Michelle LaLonde, The Gazette

When Steve Siozios opened his tiny cigar bar on Crescent Sreet. 10 years ago, friends told him he was crazy.

“Everybody called me an idiot; they said cigar bars are passe, they’ll fade out of style. Now all the bars and restaurants resent me for being so lucky,” chuckled Siozios, the amiable owner of Stogies Cigar Lounge on Crescent St. in downtown Montreal.

What’s suddenly so lucky about owning a cigar bar in Quebec?

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Via David Savona,, at Cigar Aficionado:

Tobacco growers in the Dominican Republic are reporting an outstanding year in terms of overall yield.

A consistently sunny climate, cool nights and perfectly timed rain have combined for what some are calling the best crop in recent history.

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CAO, one of the world’s foremost premium cigar manufacturers, today announced the Grand Prize Winner of its recent “CAO Cx2 Challenge” Promotion.

Florida resident, Anthony “TJ” Waicul, was selected at random from the thousands of names who participated in CAO’s Cx2 Challenge. The on-line promotion asked participants to answer a list of multiple-choice questions pertaining to Cameroon tobacco and the CAO Cx2 Cigar line in order to receive a complimentary CAO Cx2 Cigar and CAO Cx2 Cap.

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Tabacos de la Cordillera™ has introduced its new Variety Sampler, with 3 each of its flagship Cumbres de Puriscal™ premium cigars in Gold, Silver, and Emerald bands. The cellophane-wrapped mini-bundles of 9 cigars are available in 2 of the most popular shapes … Robusto (5″ x 50) and Torpedo (6″ x 52).

Company Director John Vogel states, “Cigar lovers now save 40% off the cost of buying 3 of the regular 5-packs of each of the Gold, Silver, and Emerald lines. Being new to the market, we want to make it more attractive for smokers … especially those who favor Cuban cigars … to discover our unique and incomparable cigars.” The breakout company is the world’s only cigar maker to grow tobacco from “ancestral” pre-Castro seeds that date as far back as 1945, to Cuba’s Golden Age of cigars. Vogel, a graduate agronomist and 40-year genetical researcher in the premium cigar industry, grows all the tobacco naturally on Tabacos de la Cordillera’s 65-acre farm near the Costa Rican mountain town of Santa Marta de Puriscal.

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General Cigar Company disclosed that it has filed suit against seven defendants. They are seeking injunctions and damages for the marketing and distribution of counterfeit COHIBA cigars, trademark infringement, cybersquatting and deceptive trade practices.

Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America, stated, “Counterfeit cigars erode the prestige, profitability and reputation of the handmade, premium cigar industry. While there is no reliable data available on the volume of counterfeit cigars being sold in the U.S., recent crackdowns have indicated that the problem is much larger than even industry insiders had estimated. In fact, even if such sales account for a small percentage of the estimated $800 million which consumers spent on premium cigars last year, it is an alarmingly profitable business for counterfeiters.”

The court hearing is planned for June 1 at a United States District Court in Las Vegas.

From Rich Perelman at CigarCyclopedia:

One of the truly irksome aspects of the U.S. Government’s post-September 11 airport security changes is the inconsistent treatment of lighters.

Until last summer, when the Zippo Cargo Case was introduced by Otterbox, it was essentially impossible to transport a fueled lighter on an airline in checked baggage.

That was great for Zippos, but didn’t do much for cigar smokers who prefer butane to oil for lighting up. You could replace the Zippo mechanism with the clever Z-Plus torch insert, but that means leaving your favorite Dupont, Dunhill, Prometheus, Colibri, Blazer or other lighter at home.

Colibri has now eliminated the problem.

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