PCA 2022: J.C. Newman Cigar Co. with Eric Newman
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Can’t say we’ve had the best week here at Casa Vanderslice. I, naturally, quickly passed the Covid on to my wife, so we are both feeling crappy. I tried a couple cigars, but I think my sense of smell is all but gone, which effects cigar flavor significantly. I expect I’m going to take a break for a while longer. I need to get back to work and get caught up there, as stuff stacked up (literally) last week while i was “on vacation”. Not the way I wanted to use that Paid Time Off. Let’s continue with the video interviews I did at the PCA show. I want to thank Ed O’Neil for helping out with the camera work. He had been at the show with Kevin (CigarProp), and needed something to do on Sunday and generously offered to help me out. My set-up isn’t as fancy as Kevin’s, but we got the job done. I had a nice talk with Eric Newman of J.C. Newman, makers of some of my favorite cigars. In the video he talks about the new El Baton cigars, the Diamond Crown Black Diamond, and the Cuesta Rey made in the Tampa Factory. Of course, their booth featured a cardboard replica of the El Reloj factory in Tampa, which was quite impressive.
Thanks to Eric for taking the time and to Sydney for her hospitality! I was able to finally meet Adria, who has been my contact there for several years, in her last official event with the company. Maybe we’ll see her around Philly sometime! That’s all for today. until the next time,
A very attractive dark Lonsdale with a very smooth wrapper. There are light aromas of sweet tobacco from the foot. The cold draw is perfect. Tonight’s beverage is a 903 Chupa Cabra stout.After toasting the foot to get past the char, the smoke is medium bodied and very flavorful. The profile is light toasted tobacco and Nicaraguan earth. There are also hints of flavors that will develop further into the cigar.
Carlito Fuente blended a 6 1/4x 52 with 13 tobaccos, including 2 wrappers and 2 binders, to celebrate Fuente Friday with 250 of their closest friends in Las Vegas at PCA 2022.
I’m traveling light on this trip so I’ve only brought my iPad and phone so the post might look a little weird. I’ll clean them up when I get home and get the computer out. In the meantime I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the first day of the PCA show. I guess I should mention the night before the first day which included a cocktail party hosted by Ace Prime in Crowned Heads. This was very well attended, although the setting was a little weird to me. And the past these cocktail parties have been a little more elegant let’s say. This was more minimalist in the unadorned event space at the convention center. This made the acoustics rather bad as otherwise not much fabric present to soak up any sound. But there are a lot of people there people seem to have a good time and I was able to sample Tim Ozgener’s new Ozgener Family Cigars Bosporus in a short robusto size. I thought it was very good, but I’ve enjoyed a lot of Luciano Marielle’s cigars. As it’s rather impossible to properly evaluate cigars at the trade show, I’ll revisit it later and report back.