2008 was a fascinating and delicious year in the world of cigars. Perhaps the only way to cover the broad range of ‘what happened’ this past year is thematically. So here goes...

Great Tastes

Hundreds of very tasty cigars were on retailers shelves this at the beginning of the year - and still are. New cigars, this year, were some of the best ever released. Small producers shone. Here are some examples to illustrate the point:

Made in Cuba:

Cohiba Maduro 5 - Cuba’s first maduro cigar was in full production

Regional Release cigars from Asia through Europe to Mexico were the most numerous and best in history.

Made by Pepin Garcia:

La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial - Ashton Distributors

La Riqueza - Pete Johnson

Cubao - United Brands

Made in Danli Honduras:

Cruzado - Dion Giulito (Illusione Cigars)

Tempest - Alec Bradley

Made in Esteli Nicaragua:

NUB - Oliva Cigars

80th Anniversary Figurado - Padron Cigars

Made in Dominican Republic:

Puro Vintage - La Aurora

Salamon - Litto Gomez

Cusano LXI

Made by the Big Boys (General Cigar Company and Davidoff)

Macanudo 1968 Maduro

Winston Churchill line by Davidoff

All of these cigars are worth trying and even more are worth keeping at hand in your humidors. What other trends were there - beyond making great cigars?

Consolidation

The shape of the cigar industry changed somewhat in that some smaller manufacturers were purchased by larger ones and many outsourced parts of their operations. CAO was sold to Henri Wintermans of the Netherlands but CAO has so far been left intact. Since then, the factories where most CAO cigars were bought by the new parent company.

Camacho, one of Honduras’ oldest cigar companies was also sold. Davidoff (Geneve) is the new owner and like CAO, Camacho has been left intact so far. These were the largest acquisitions of the year but more may be in the future because there are some company owners looking for buyers.

Hurricanes

Cuba was hit hard by multiple hurricanes which hit the capitol and tobacco-growing region of Pinar del Rio. Damage was so extensive that many experts expect this to negatively impact cigars beginning in 2010. Heavy rains around the caribbean were generally good for the growing regions outside of Cuba.

Cigar Prices Rose

Average prices of new cigar releases rose this year. Habanos made a standard price hike at the beginning of the year and their special edition cigars were all medium to high on the price spectrum. Non-Cuban cigars were also generally released at higher prices in 2008. Economic downturn at the end of the year did lower cigar importation values but final values are yet unreported.

US - Cuba relations?

As is common in cigar-circles there was much banter regarding the prospect of increased interaction between the US and Cuba. This year there was a high volume of chatter as Cuba changed its President for the first time since the revolution. Simultaneously the US held its long-anticipated presidential elections. Based on political rhetoric, I suspect that there is cause for monitoring this situation in the coming year. Having said that - nothing changed in 2008. What remained standard was... speculation.

Smoking Bans - and Fighting them

The trend of creating smoking bans continued at a rapid pace. Small and medium sized countries as well as cities added smoking bans this year. Opposition to these bans got organized - most notably in the US (Cigar Rights of America) and Germany (Zigarrenplatform). These groups have engaged their opponents but have yet to much impact the growing trend.

Wrap-up

So 2008 was very interesting. There were tremendous new releases. This is driven by competition. One of the positive aspects of this competition is an increase in creativity (tobacco types and cigar shapes). This is not the place for speculation about the future but rather to enjoy the fruits of 2008.

Wishing you the best for 2009,

Colin Ganley