The Tatuaje La Vérité is a special and revolutionary collaboration between Pete Johnson (Tatuaje Cigars) and Jose “Pepin” Garcia (Don Pepin & My Father Cigars). The cigars are composed exclusively of tobaccos grown at Don Pepin’s La Estrella Farm (vega) in Esteli Nicaragua.
The La Vérité cigar is a true vintage cigar because all of the tobaccos in it are part of the same crop - grown during the same year. Furthermore, it is an Estate (or Farm) Vintage cigar because all of the tobaccos in it come from one farm. To our knowledge, this is the first time a premium or super-premium cigar has been produced in this manner; similar to Vintage and Estate wines. As a Farm Vintage, the La Vérité cigars provide a snapshot of taste and aroma that captures a specific time and place.
PRESS RELEASE
Today, the New York City city council voted 46 to 1 to ban/prohibit flavored tobacco products. The ban does not include Menthol or Mint, like the FDA 'Protect Your Family from Smokers' bill, and it does not ban flavored pipe tobaccos - yet.
All of this is happening in the same city where the nanny-minded mayor changed the law so he could stay for a third term in office, banned indoor smoking, and is now trying to ban outdoor smoking in parks and beaches - because 'children should not have to see smokers'.
Where are all of the infuriated people? Where are Americans who value freedom? Individual Rights? And not just the rights you use, but all individuals' rights?
Within thirty minutes of this news breaking, I have witnessed emails, facebook, and twitter messages from industry members and not one of those messages had anything to do with the usurpation of our freedoms. Topics did include: tonight's featured bottle of wine to drink at home; something about farmville; a note about splurging on a ribeye steak because it's 'hump day'; a bejeweled score; what you are watching on TV or the internet; what you are smoking; what you are wearing for Halloween; what game you are watching tonight; who you are rooting for; and something about a golf tournament.
Sadly, many NYC tobacconists did not find out about the vote until the day before; so some of us are being rail-roaded and disenfranchised by the system. But, the real problem is our own apathy and lethargy. Where is the anger? The vote was 46 to 1!
These prohibitions started with the FDA justifying a ban of cigarettes that have a 'characterizing' flavor that 'can be attractive to children'. Yet this is the most bankrupt and illogical justification because IT IS ILLEGAL TO SELL TOBACCO TO CHILDREN. So that should be the focus - stop sales of tobacco to underage children! It's not rocket science; you don't have to be a genius to figure it out. The prohibition of products that are 'attractive to children' is the most insipid legislative trend I have ever seen in my lifetime; it is as bad as McCarthyism, Racism, anti-Semitism, and any other 'ism' which is based on an ideology of hatred and bigotry.
One hundred years ago men congregated in bars, pubs, and clubs to discuss matters of the day... at the time, most of them smoked. Yet today, we are not allowed to congregate, smoke, and talk in the same place - except for the rare retail tobacconist. And now the walls are crumbling around us.... The guiding principle behind the founding of America was 'the individual pursuit of happiness'.... so it was. What is the guiding principle behind America today?
Unfortunately, the path to freedom is wrought with challenges and sacrifice. For starters, sign The Tobacconist Preservation Act, join the CRA, get Certified, and finally, get your head out of your arse and take half of the time you spend watching TV, sports, or shopping for crap, and start fighting for your freedoms. Otherwise, all that is worth living for, the simple human pleasures, will be lost.
Body = Strength
Myth: The body and strength of a cigar are the same and/or related.
Truth: Body, in terms of flavor (taste+aroma) profile, does not necessarily correlate with the Strength of a cigar. Strength refers to nicotine potency or the intensity of spice – two separate factors. Body is a flavor descriptor which can refer to the depth, breadth, and richness of a tobacco (flavor).
So, a strong cigar can be medium bodied, while a full-bodied cigar can be mild or medium strength. As an example, imagine that chicken has a mild body, while beef has a richer body, yet both can be spicy/strong, depending on how they are seasoned.
One of the most recent and grotesque legislative threats to cigar smokers, our freedoms, and common sense is the Washington DC City Council's efforts to ban the sale of single cigars; because they are considered 'drug paraphanalia'. This is a legislative trend we have seen in other places and despite its stupidity, I'm sure we will see it again. So, we must address the problem with facts before it gets more ridiculous.
First, we must explain what a 'blunt' is, since most cigar smokers probably have no idea. The Urban Dictionary defines a blunt as a "cigar hollowed out and filled with marijuana." The term derives from the short-filler Phillie Blunt brand which was originally used to create blunts. The term blunt originated in the 1980s and continued to be a popular inner-city technique for smoking marijuana throughout the 1990s. Our research indicates it has faded in popularity over the last ten years.
It is important to note that blunts are made from short-filler, cheap cigars, which are available at convenience stores. Blunts are not made from premium cigars nor do they use natural tobacco leaves; they use homogenized tobacco leaf. A long-filler premium cigar cannot be emptied in the same way a short-filler cigar can and it would be prohibitively expensive to purchase a premium cigar to smoke marijuana. So, even if you think the government should prohibit products which can potentially have illicit uses, you must understand that premium cigars do not fit into that category. Furthermore, if you follow the logic of prohibiting products that can be used to smoke marijuana, then you will have to ban all paper, all plastic bottles, apples, and a myriad of other benign objects.
Ultimately, the idea of banning a product that has potentially illicit uses is absurd; by that logic you could ban almost everything in the world*. Even worse, it shows how intellectually bankrupt our legislators are and does nothing to protect citizens or our freedoms.
*This legislative mentality is brought to you by the same nanny state that believes it makes sense to ban products that are "attractive to children."..... Remember that our current legislators can take away ever pleasure and freedom you enjoy in the name of your "health and welfare".
It took over a decade to create and our pre-marketing campaign left many people wondering, where in the world is The Tobacconist Handbook? Well, The Tobacconist Handbook (TH) is here and available at Amazon.com. More importantly, we want to know who has the TH and would like to share your pictures with the Tobacconist University community: we are calling this the WITWITTH? Project. You can view the photos on our Facebook Fan page or Follow TU on Twitter to see the latest and greatest contributions to the WITWITTH? Project. Thank you to everyone who is contributing, and especially Jessica Padrón, who took the extraordinary photograph above.
We tell all TU Apprentices and Certified Tobacconists that getting Certified and passing the final exam is just the beginning of the process, albeit the hardest. Ultimately, Certification must be leveraged by wearing the Certified Pin and using the Certified Medallion, on business cards, store signage, and your website. After all, if you get Certified and never mention it to your customers, co-workers, vendors, and the community around you, then the benefits will never materialize. While TU is no magic bullet for what ails our industry, the ability to leverage it is a massive competitive advantage.
PS: every CRT store gets a framed diploma with their logo, store signage stickers, and the right to use the Certified Medallion as long as they maintain one CRT. Individual CRT receive the Certified Pin, a personal diploma, mouse pad, and more...
The Tobacconist Handbook Proof has arrived. And, it is indeed proof of our credibility and professionalism. These 205 pages, 120+ custom images/graphics, and 41,000+ words took almost fifteen years to create and then another 2,000 hours to distill into a handbook. I could not be more excited to preview it here for you. Thank you to all of the well-wishers and inquirers; it will be available in September 2009 and you will definitely be hearing more about it in the months to come. Please sign up for our email list (top left) to get the latest and greatest news!
Take a sneak peak at the Padrón Foreword.
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