This month’s Altadis U.S.A. contest is a Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua prize pack (see above). The prize pack includes: RYJ Playing Cards RYJ Lighter RYJ Custom Binoculars This month’s contest is based on a Cigar Draft on Prime Time Special Edition 159. On this show, Bear Duplisea and Will Cooper each drafted ten cigars that made the CA Top 25 List ten years ago (2014). In addition, each drafted two “wildcard” picks of cigars not on the list that were also released that year. You can watch the show by clicking here (or by scrolling down) or check out the draft board. To enter, you ..read more

Stogie Mag was one of the more interesting newcomers at the 2024 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show. Stogie Mag is a humidor inspired by an AR-15 magazine, which is used for ammunition storage in a gun. The creators of Stogie Mag come from the gun industry and have a passion for smoking cigars, which led to the development of this product. A magazine is a device that allows a person to quickly load multiple rounds into firearms. Much like a magazine dispenses firearms, the Stogie Mag is a travel humidor that dispenses cigars. The unit can hold up to six cigars that measure up to 5 1 ..read more

Coming into the 2024 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show, the big story from Quality Importers Trading Company (QI) was it was getting back into the premium cigar space. QI’s focus has been in the accessories space, but over the years it has been involved in premium cigars. Most notably, it was best known for its Cult Cigars brand. The company also distributed Ortega Cigars for a short time. This year, QI comes back into the premium space with a new brand called Conspiracy Cigars. The unique proposition of this project is the company is integrating its accessories with almost every ci ..read more

Next month, E.P. Carrillo is bringing back the Pledge of Allegiance for 2024. It was at PCA 2024 that Cigar Coop learned the Pledge of Allegiance was returning. In a press release announcing the Pledge of Allegiance 2024, Ernesto Perez-Carrillo said, “The Pledge of Allegiance 2024 is not just a cigar. It’s a representation of the American Dream that I had the privilege to live. This special blend has been crafted with a vision—to create a smoke that honors the journey every American, whether born in the USA or an immigrant, has taken or is still on. Last year’s reception to the release inspi ..read more

The Drew Estate Liga Privada Unico Serie Year of the Rat is back for 2024. A limited release of the Year of the Rat has been exclusively made available to Drew Diplomat retailers. Drew Estate first made Year of the Rat available in 2016. It was originally a lounge exclusive at a Drew Estate-branded lounge at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, home of the Florida Panthers. The release of Year of the Rat coincided with the 20th anniversary of Scott Mellanby’s “Rat Trick” during the Panthers 1996 Stanley Cup run. Year of the Rat returned in 2020 as an event-only cigar. In 2021, Year of th ..read more

  The 2024 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) Trade Show marked the first time since 2019 that the brands of General Cigar Company were being showcased at the PCA Trade Show. While the Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) made a return to the PCA Trade Show, the decision was made to focus on the brands of Forged Cigar Company. This year, it was General’s turn, marking the return of several other brands. In many ways, it was a big deal to see brands like Cohiba, Macanudo, Punch, and Hoyo de Monterrey at the Trade Show again. General and its sister company, Forged, have garnered quite a reputati ..read more

On Prime Time Special Edition 159, it’s our 7 year anniversary show. Tonight we go back to the roots of Special Edition and commemorate with a thematic show. We use tonight to launch a new series within this show called “Cigar Draft”. Cigar Drafts are nothing new and have been going on in cigar media for over 15 years. Tonight we will pick our on spin of the Cigar Draft as we draft cigars from the CA Top 25 list of 2014. Plus, we have our Vintage Rock-A-Feller Cigar Group U.S. History segment, Tabacalera USA Great Things are Happening Here, and Espinosa This Day in Sports History segments ..read more

On Prime Time Jukebox Episode 123, it’s the second installment of “Down the Rabbit Hole” The concept works as follows: Dave and Coop start with a familiar song and then go down the path of selecting a song inspired by that song. Each will go through nine iterations of this exercise and choose a song from the inspired previous song selected. Ultimately, we will see where this journey takes each of them. Plus we got music news, cigar news, the music pairing of the week, and the Developing Palates Review of the Week In this episode, Dave smokes the Don Pepin Garcia 20th Anniversary and Coop smo ..read more

For Episode 122, it’s our 2024 edition of our annual Women in Music show. As we do each year, we explore some of our favorite female artists and discuss some of our favorite tunes by them. In addition we got plenty of music and cigar news to catch up on.  On this episode, Dave smokes the H. Upmann 175th Anniversary by Altadis USA while Coop smokes the Perdomo Habano Bourbon Barrel Aged Maduro. Check out our video or audio for Prime Time Jukebox Episode 122: Women in Music V – 2024 Edition:  As always you can follow along with our Spotify Playlists: Full Episode 122 Playlist Ref ..read more

Prime Time Jukebox Episode 121 features the 15th installment of our Album Archaeology Series as we tackle Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Much like an archaeologist digs and hunts for gems, on Album Archaeology, we dig into the I/O album. We go deep into each of the tracks of this album, looking at the music, lyrics, and stories behind this album. Most of the time, we have discussed a classic album; this time, we tackle a new album by a classic artist. It’s one we feel is already an instant classic. We will also recap “The Big Game” and the Usher Halftime Show. Finally, also have a lot of music news inc ..read more