https://cigarandcedar.com/ The latest stories from Cigar & Cedar: the leaf, the makers, the ritual, the lounge, the vintage and the wire. en https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/cohiba-talisman-london-world-launch-2026/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/cohiba-talisman-london-world-launch-2026/ Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Nine years after its debut as a Limited Edition, the Cohiba Talisman joins the Linea Clasica as regular production. The world launch at the Orangery at Kensington Palace opened the brand’s 60th anniversary year. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/lfd-andalusian-bull-10th-anniversary-maduro/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/lfd-andalusian-bull-10th-anniversary-maduro/ Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 A decade after the original figurado became one of the most coveted cigars in the world, Litto Gomez returns to the 2016 La Canela harvest for a broadleaf-wrapped anniversary edition limited to 5,000 boxes. https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/wildfire-off-grid-october-release/ https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/wildfire-off-grid-october-release/ Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 The fifth release in Wildfire Cigar Co.’s made-to-order monthly series wears a towable trailer on its band. The October cigar is a 5 1/4 x 54 from Tabacalera William Ventura, priced at $14. https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/germany-cigar-tax-reprieve-2027/ https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/germany-cigar-tax-reprieve-2027/ Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 A proposed twelve-fold increase in the ad valorem rate becomes a modest step instead, after the German cigar industry warned the original plan would decimate the trade. https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/la-aurora-october-double-release/ https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/la-aurora-october-double-release/ Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Two vintage-dated releases ship this month from the Dominican Republic's oldest cigar maker: a Salomon built on 2016 harvest leaf, and a new annual release named for cognac's highest age statement. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/apostate-death-mask-oveja-negra/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/apostate-death-mask-oveja-negra/ Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 A Utah brand built on Mormon mythology moves production to Nicaragua's most notorious factory. The 5,000-cigar Death Mask started shipping October 1. https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/phx-cigar-week-smoke-n-the-desert-2026/ https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/phx-cigar-week-smoke-n-the-desert-2026/ Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Phoenix gets four days, ten events, and one hell of a weekend. PHX Cigar Week returns October 8-11 across six Valley cities. https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/beast-mode-kingmakers-marshawn-lynch/ https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/beast-mode-kingmakers-marshawn-lynch/ Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 The former Seahawks star's lifestyle brand makes its full cigar debut at a Las Vegas charity event, with a Nicaraguan blend developed alongside Kingmakers' Claudio Torres and a December retail rollout. https://cigarandcedar.com/vintage/montecristo-fragata-tfwa-duty-free-exclusive/ https://cigarandcedar.com/vintage/montecristo-fragata-tfwa-duty-free-exclusive/ Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 A 140mm x 54 Duke vitola, the first time the format has carried the Montecristo blend, arrives in 20-count travel humidors for duty-free and travel retail only. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/fermin-perez-puro-esteli-familia-disla/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/fermin-perez-puro-esteli-familia-disla/ Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 The Miami brand founded in 2021 moves all seven lines to Tabacalera Familia Disla in Esteli and U.S. wholesale to the new Domain Distribution platform, leading with a single-region corona. https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/don-emmanuel-anunnaki-enki-shipping/ https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/don-emmanuel-anunnaki-enki-shipping/ Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:00:00 -0700 After its InterTabac premiere, the fourth Anunnaki vitola pairs a 'cabeza tumbada' cap with a covered foot, keeping the Eladio Diaz co-blended recipe while changing how the smoke starts. https://cigarandcedar.com/index/golden-band-how-we-judge/ https://cigarandcedar.com/index/golden-band-how-we-judge/ Fri, 25 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Our annual ranking publishes its protocol before a single cigar is smoked: the panel, the blind rounds, the ballots, the conflicts. Rankings are never sold. https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/fda-premium-cigar-fight-explained/ https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/fda-premium-cigar-fight-explained/ Fri, 25 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 A decade-long legal battle over whether a handmade cigar is a tobacco product like any other. The courts have now answered, three times. What it means for the smoker. https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/harvest-2026-next-years-smoke/ https://cigarandcedar.com/wire/harvest-2026-next-years-smoke/ Fri, 25 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Cuba's crop is under severe strain; the rest of the industry's fields went largely unreported. What the published record says about the leaf you will smoke in 2027. https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/long-smoke-argument-for-slowness/ https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/long-smoke-argument-for-slowness/ Fri, 25 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 The cigar is the last luxury that cannot be hurried, streamed, or summarized. In defense of the unhurried hour. https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/herf-calendar-2026-2027/ https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/herf-calendar-2026-2027/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 London to Las Vegas, Tampa to Dortmund: the cigar world's gatherings from autumn 2026 through 2027, with each event's status marked honestly. https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/humidor-at-home/ https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/humidor-at-home/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 A humidor is a small climate, and climates need tending. The storage science for the home smoker: numbers, wood, seasoning, and beetles. https://cigarandcedar.com/vintage/auction-block-vintage-collectibles/ https://cigarandcedar.com/vintage/auction-block-vintage-collectibles/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 From London salerooms to online bidding rooms, a small but serious market decides what rarity is worth. A tour of the houses that handle it. https://cigarandcedar.com/vintage/price-of-smoke-2026-market-index/ https://cigarandcedar.com/vintage/price-of-smoke-2026-market-index/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Nobody agrees how big the premium cigar market is, so we are building the index ourselves. Here is what the public numbers say, and how we will measure what they miss. https://cigarandcedar.com/vintage/fake-band-trade-counterfeits/ https://cigarandcedar.com/vintage/fake-band-trade-counterfeits/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Holograms, UV ink, tamper-proof seals, seized shipping containers. The fight against fake Cubans is an arms race, and the counterfeiters keep up. https://cigarandcedar.com/index/state-of-the-leaf-2026/ https://cigarandcedar.com/index/state-of-the-leaf-2026/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 No public dataset describes the premium cigar industry as a whole. This winter we field the first annual survey of makers, retailers, and smokers. Here is what it will measure, and why. https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/first-cigar-beginners-guide/ https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/first-cigar-beginners-guide/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Start mild, start small, and buy from someone who knows the humidor. The beginner's guide to your first cigar, with editorial authority instead of retailer copy. https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/building-a-palate-how-to-taste/ https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/building-a-palate-how-to-taste/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Tasting is a method, not a gift. The cold draw, the thirds, the retrohale, and the vocabulary to describe what you find. https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/pairing-the-cigar-way/ https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/pairing-the-cigar-way/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Coffee, chocolate, and food, matched from the cigar's side of the table. Harmony or contrast, but never a contest. https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/inside-casa-del-habano/ https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/inside-casa-del-habano/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 More than 140 stores in 65 countries, one green-and-gold sign, and the strictest retail standard in the cigar world. Inside the franchise. https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/third-place-why-lounges-endure/ https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/third-place-why-lounges-endure/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Home is the first place, work the second. The cigar lounge may be the most perfect third place ever built, and that is why it endures. https://cigarandcedar.com/vintage/science-of-resting-aging/ https://cigarandcedar.com/vintage/science-of-resting-aging/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Aging refines a cigar; it does not rescue one. What the published record actually says about the sick period, the sweet spot, and the limits of patience. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/davidoff-havana-to-white-label/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/davidoff-havana-to-white-label/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 In 1989 Zino Davidoff burned more than 100,000 of his own cigars. The break with Cuba remade the brand, and the white band survived it all. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/new-hondurans/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/new-hondurans/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Beyond the giants, a generation of Honduran makers is building houses of its own: in Danli, at Las Lomas, and in a factory that spent twenty years rolling for everyone else. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/women-rolling-torcedoras/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/women-rolling-torcedoras/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 The cigar was long a male preserve. At Havana's El Laguito factory, nine out of ten workers are women, and the hands behind the bench have a story of their own. https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/toast-and-draw-lighting/ https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/toast-and-draw-lighting/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Three steps, one golden rule, and forty-five seconds of patience. Lighting is the most critical variable in the smoke, and the flame should never touch the leaf. https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/the-herf-anatomy/ https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/the-herf-anatomy/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Ninety minutes, five friends, one box: the herf is the last dinner party that requires nothing but time. https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/unwritten-rules-lounge-etiquette/ https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/unwritten-rules-lounge-etiquette/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Every lounge runs on a code, and almost none of it is written down. The etiquette, as the published guides and the old masters agree on it. https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/great-lounges-of-london/ https://cigarandcedar.com/lounge/great-lounges-of-london/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 St James's to Canary Wharf: the rooms where London smokes, from a shop that has stood since 1787 to heated terraces above the Thames. https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/cibao-valley-dominican-tobacco/ https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/cibao-valley-dominican-tobacco/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 In the valley around Santiago, the Dominican Republic grows the mild, elegant leaf that defines its cigars. https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/honduras-quiet-power/ https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/honduras-quiet-power/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 The Jamastrán Valley rolls a huge share of the world's cigars and asks for none of the credit. https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/cameroon-wrapper-africa-leaf/ https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/cameroon-wrapper-africa-leaf/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 From a rainforest on the Cameroon border comes what the Meerapfel family describes as the most expensive wrapper leaf in the industry. https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/ecuador-cloud-grown-leaf/ https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/ecuador-cloud-grown-leaf/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 On the equator, the clouds do the work that shade cloth does elsewhere, and the wrapper industry noticed. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/padron-three-generations/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/padron-three-generations/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 A $600 start in Little Havana, a burned factory, an embargo, and the most consistent name in cigars. The Padrón family story, from the public record. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/arturo-fuente-fire-and-rebuild/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/arturo-fuente-fire-and-rebuild/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 A Tampa factory in 1924, Nicaragua in 1979, two warehouses in 2011, Warehouse #3 in 2023. The story of Arturo Fuente is the story of a family that keeps rebuilding. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/casa-1910-mexican-leaf/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/casa-1910-mexican-leaf/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Few houses roll in Mexico. Casa 1910 built its whole identity there: a Mexican puro, a revolution for a namesake, and a blender with a Habanos Academy diploma. https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/four-cuts-guide/ https://cigarandcedar.com/ritual/four-cuts-guide/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Guillotine, punch, V-cut, and the bite you should never take. The first decision of every smoke is also the only one you cannot undo. https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/pinar-del-rio-vuelta-abajo/ https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/pinar-del-rio-vuelta-abajo/ Sun, 20 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 In Cuba's far west, a forty-thousand-hectare district grows the tobacco every other region is measured against. https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/esteli-after-the-boom/ https://cigarandcedar.com/leaf/esteli-after-the-boom/ Sun, 20 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Nicaragua's northern highlands survived revolution, expropriation, and embargo to become the handmade cigar's capital. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/torcedors-hands-anatomy/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/torcedors-hands-anatomy/ Sun, 20 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 Every premium cigar passes through nine operations and a single pair of hands. An anatomy of how a cigar is built, from filler to cap. https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/blenders-library/ https://cigarandcedar.com/makers/blenders-library/ Sun, 20 Sep 2026 08:00:00 -0700 A blend is not invented. It is built, leaf by leaf and harvest by harvest, from a library of aged tobacco. Inside the blender's craft.