The amount of cigars made, sold and smoked in any given year will fluctuate, but something has changed that may never go back to the way it was. All booms stop booming, but there is more interest in the actual craft of cigar making than perhaps any other time in history. I don’t think that is going anywhere any time soon. You can’t see this week’s updates and not be excited about what’s next for cigar lovers:
What may first appear to be any other factory hard at work packing up their rolled and banded treasures is actually something much more special. The cigars being packaged for all of us to soon enjoy are the Jopito, named after Jopito Kelner. The Jopito has been blended by his son, Johannes Kelner, to be identical to the cigar his father smoked every day
The only thing we know about the cigar so far is that it uses a Meerapfel African Cameroon wrapper, which remains one of the most expensive wrappers in the entire industry. It’s beyond apropo that the Meerapfel’s tobacco be showcased in this blend, as Jeremiah Meerapfel recently announced his tribute to his own father’s legacy in the form of the “Richard” Master Blend.
Jopito, pronounced like JOE-PEET-O, was one of the original growers of the region along side Hendrik Kelner Sr. and is also credited for his ability to persuade large companies to move their production from Cuba to the Dominican Republic. It has even been said that he was a major force in getting Zino Davidoff to leave the Cuban cigar market and explore the Dominican Republic. What isn’t a rumor is that Jopito is a pioneer in the growing, curing and fermenting of cigar tobacco. As more information makes its way out about this project, you’ll be updated!
Dr. Gaby Kafie is in the Dominican Republic this week visiting La Aurora and we’ve got three exciting updates. First, Dr. Kafie revealed a new cigar to keep an eye out for and wrote “The Kafie 1901 Natural Serie L (Roman numeral for 50) is coming out soon. A 100% Dominican Puro, my dream cigar. This dream was only made possible in the land of tobacco, the one and only Dominican Republic. This is the place where tobacco dreams come true. Coming soon !!!”
Following that up is a look at the new Kafie 1901 packaging, the first edition to leave the legendary Dominican factory since Kafie moved production from his factory in Honduras to La Aurora in the DR.
I shared a few days ago that the Kafie 1901 DF Maduro was being reblended. Today, more news on that front – Dr. Kafie teased that African Cameroon may play a role in the refresh. African Cameroon and Andullo? Shaping up to be an exquisite experience. I’m really looking forward to this next chapter in the Kafie story and to what it means for the larger industry.
Cynthia L. González’s story is an amazing one that just keeps growing more vibrant. A contributing writer for Humo Latino Magazine as well as Cigar Public, González founded the Puerto Rico Cigar Festival and recently accepted the role of Director of Social Media for Sisters of The Leaf Global Movement NGO. Tune in this Sunday at 2pm EST To Meeerapfel & Fuente present Meet The Professor where Cynthia will be appearing as the special guest. This show is criminally underwatched, Hendrik Kelner Sr. was on last Sunday and that video only has 216 views as of this writing. Weekly regulars like Carlito Fuente, Jr., José Blanco, Jeremiah Meerapfel and Melanie Sisco have been talking shop and dropping gems on the regular and you’re all missing out! Even if you can’t listen or watch it as it premieres, set some time aside for this episode and you may find yourself binging the rest.
The Cavalier Genève team are headed to The Rocky Mountain and Cigar Festival to hang out with a couple thousand friends. Heading into the end of this great week of boutique news, Sébastien Decoppet has provided the first look at a new blend from their Fábrica Centroamericana de Tabaco S.A. factory. I reached out to Sébastien to see if he’d tease more of the blend and all he would reveal is that we will find out more in the fall. This may be a generational thing, or just me, but I really love the anticipation that even an update as minor as a tentative timeline can build around a new project. If our favorite cigar makers are spending time on something, they probably believe in it or believe in the process enough to know that it will bear fruit – so when we get little insights like this it is difficult not to imagine that there will be some new and unique experience for us to enjoy soon.
Privada Regional Crew, The Board of Deacons, has released The Deacon. The Deacon is a 5×54 Box Pressed Maduro blended by Tabacalera La Perla. Like the answers to many of life’s questions, the wrapper/binder/filler of this cigar remains undisclosed. I don’t have to know what’s in it to know that Paul Stulac and Stallone have had cigars produced there, and that will always grab my attention. Like all of the regional releases, production is limited and likely to sell out. Congratulations to the Board! Go show them some love on their instagram, the more people that experience what it’s like to bring to a cigar to market, the more appreciation there will be for the entire industry.
Keep on sending in your favorite cigar related news stories, posts and videos!