Category: Industry News

Marvin R. Shanken, the founder and publisher of Cigar Aficionado, has passed away. The magazine, as well as its sister publication, Wine Spectator, announced Shanken’s passing on Thursday. He was 83. Shanken was born on Oct. 4, 1943, in New Haven, Conn. After graduating from American University, he worked for an investment company. As part of research about a potential vineyard purchase, he was introduced to the world of wine, which eventually

Vector-KGM has been busy lately adding new color options to a number of its products, and today the company announced that it has added a pair of new options for its Arsenal lighter. A mahogany and black two-tone and a black bamboo and gunmetal two-tone join the lineup, which contains five other color options: nickel, gunmetal, black matte, Prizm, and chrome satin. The Arsenal is a powerful double-jet torch flame,

MBombay has announced the release of two new limited edition pyramid vitolas, each with at least five years of age on them. The first cigar is the Kesara Pyramid 2020, a 6 x 54 pyramid vitola made with an Ecuadorian Connecticut-seed wrapper covering an Ecuadorian Havana 2000 binder and filler tobaccos grown in the Dominican Republic and Peru. Kesara—the Sanskrit word for saffron—was the company’s fourth line when it debuted

My Father Cigars has announced that next month, it will be releasing a limited edition version of its Le Bijou 1922 line that uses a Connecticut-seed wrapper. Full details of the blend aren’t being released by the company, but the core Le Bijou 1922 line uses a dark, Nicaraguan habano oscuro wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and filler. While images of this new version haven’t been released, it’s expected that

Colibri has a new lighter available that it’s gearing toward fans of flat flames and compact designs. It’s called the Mosaic, and it measures 2.68 x 1.49 x 0.39 inches, making it less than half an inch thick and one of the slimmest lighters that Colibri has released. While the body is slender, the flat flame it puts out measure 0.4 inches wide, which helps deliver a large, even flame

After getting previewed last month, Plasencia’s year of the goat cigar has been formally announced. The Plasencia El Año de la Cabra is a 6 1/4 x 60 perfecto that uses a wrapper from Azacualpa, Honduras over a Honduran binder and fillers from Honduras and Nicaragua. Plasencia says that the Nicaraguan fillers were grown under its organic farming program. This is the seventh consecutive year that Plasencia has released a

At this week’s 2026 Tobacconists’ Association of America (TAA) meeting, Altadis U.S.A. is showing off the Saint Luis Rey Eiroa 30th Anniversary Maduro, a new, darker version of the line that’s a collaboration between the cigar giant and Christian Eiroa of CLE Cigar Co. The maduro version features an Ecuadorian habano maduro wrapper, a Honduran corojo binder, and a blend of Colombian Pinareño and Honduran corojo filler tobaccos. The company

In 2023, RoMa Craft Tobac announced a new series named CRAFT Maquette, designed to give consumers a unique peek into its blending process by letting them taste the progress of a blend at a specific point in time, rather than just producing miniature versions of that blend. Some of the cigars in the series are complete one-offs, while others have direct ties to regular production cigars. However, all of the

Cigar News – October 28, 2026 SPINK Hong Kong is honoured to present the “A” Collection, an exceptional single-owner cigar collection spanning Lots 1 to 234, at its Fine Cigar Auction on Thursday, 5 November 2026. Assembled over two decades by a European collector and housed in a 24-hour climate-controlled walk-in humidor, the collection covers pre-Embargo treasures and sought-after discontinued editions from the 2000s. Featuring 48 lots of Limited Editions

Cigar News – October 28, 2026 Casa Carrillo proudly announces the 2026 Casa Carrillo TAA Exclusive, a limited-edition release created exclusively for members of the Tobacconists’ Association of America (TAA). Continuing the tradition of creating distinctive blends for TAA members, the 2026 edition brings together tobaccos from five countries to deliver a medium-plus strength smoking experience. The blend features an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, complemented by an Ecuadorian Sumatra binder and