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Bylined articles
One Footnote Keeps Premium Cigars Out of the FDA's New Foreign-Factory Rule
News: The FDA's new foreign tobacco factory rule opened for comment June 29. Premium cigars are exempt, but the whole carve-out is one fragile footnote.
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The Cheaper Oliva Serie V Is the One I Rebuy, Not the Melanio
Reviews: Oliva Serie V vs Melanio, three from each box, tasted side by side. Which Nicaraguan blend earns the extra dollars, and when the cheaper one wins.
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Once Every Three Years: CAO Revives the Amazon Basin Daggers for 2026
News: CAO revives Amazon Basin Daggers for 2026, a 4x38 built on Braganca leaf harvested once every three years. What the $24.99 five-pack really buys.
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Is the El Rey del Mundo Robusto Worth a Box? Six Years In, I Keep Reaching for It
Reviews: The El Rey del Mundo Robusto isn't a special-occasion cigar. It's the Honduran value box I keep reaching for - and here's why it earns the shelf.
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For America's 250th, Most Patriotic Cigars Are a New Band on an Old Blend
News: The America 250 cigars for Fourth of July 2026 are mostly new bands on old blends. Which releases are genuinely new, and which just got a flag?
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The Best Everyday Cigar Isn't the Priciest One. Federal Tax Records Show Why.
News: A $1.50 cigar and an $88 one pay nearly the same federal tax. Here's what that says about the best everyday cigars, and where your money goes.
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My Father La Lealtad Review: A Torpedo That Trades Power for Polish, Made in Honduras
Reviews: My Father La Lealtad review of the box-pressed torpedo, a Garcia blend that trades Nicaraguan power for polish and ships from Honduras, not Esteli.
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Espinosa's Warhead Independence Day 250 Years Has No American Tobacco In It
News: Espinosa's 601 La Bomba Warhead Independence Day 250 Years ships in June for America's 250th. What the PCA preview confirms, and what it doesn't.
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65 Seats: What Casa Fuente in Las Vegas Got Right, and the Patio Decision That Ended It
Culture: Casa Fuente in Las Vegas closed after twenty years. It wasn't the cigars - a landlord cut 65 patio seats from the best-known cigar lounge on the Strip.
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AVO Expresivo 2026 Is the First AVO Made in Honduras, and the Price Is the Story
Reviews: AVO Expresivo 2026 is the first AVO made in Honduras. A critic on what the Burn Brighter rebrand changes, and why the price matters most.
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Cigar of the Year 2026: Which Contenders Survive Three From the Box?
Reviews: My take on the cigar of the year 2026 race, the 90-point inflation that rigs it, and the contenders I'm actually tracking before I score one.
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La Flor Dominicana's Carbon Flower Sells the Case, Not the Cigars
Culture: La Flor Dominicana's $200 Carbon Flower puts five San Andrés toros in a carbon-fiber case. What you're really paying for, and what survives.
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Sixty-Four Years of the Cuban Embargo: How a 1962 Ban Built Nicaragua's Cigar Industry
News: The Cuban cigar embargo turns 64 this February. How a 1962 import ban pushed Cuba's tobacco families into Nicaragua and Honduras and remade your humidor.
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Only 4.8% of Cigar Makers Say They're 'Very Concerned' About the Leaf. So Why Are Prices Climbing?
Culture: Brands blame an aged-tobacco shortage for premium cigar prices rising. The PCA's own 2026 survey tells a quieter, less flattering story.
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Four Decades In, the Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Still Outsells Fuente's New Releases
News: The Arturo Fuente Don Carlos review nobody writes - why a 40-year-old Cameroon blend outsells Fuente's new releases, and what the FDA ruling changed.
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Pete Johnson Is Spending Tatuaje's 20th Anniversary Year on Two Old Lines and One Wrapper Swap
Tatuaje 2026: Pete Johnson is spending the brand's 20th-anniversary year on two old lines and one Mexican wrapper swap - the release ledger, sourced.
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Three Days in Estelí Without Smoking the Same Blend Twice
Culture: A trip through Estelí, Nicaragua's cigar quarter - the big factory tours, the boutiques off the main road, and what survives the flight home.
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Oliva Serie V Melanio Robusto: It Outperforms Its Own Toro
Reviews: Three boxes of the Oliva Serie V Melanio Robusto across six months - where it sits in the line, where the burn went wrong, and the buy call.
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My Father Cigars' 2026 Story Isn't Le Bijou. It's a Factory in Honduras.
News: My Father Cigars 2026 - the year their Honduran factory becomes real, the Blue line settles into national distribution, and Le Bijou 1922 sits out the calendar.
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Six Whisky and Cigar Pairings From a Decade in Southern Lounges
Culture: Six whisky and cigar pairings a working culture writer would actually make again, from fourteen Southern lounges and one stubborn notebook.
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Ybor City's Cigar Factories Outlived the Industry That Built Them
Culture: Ybor City cigar history on foot. The brick factories still stand, but the hand-rolled trade that filled them was killed in just fifteen years.
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