UK Cigar Scene Magazine September Issue 9 | Page 28
IPCPR 2015 Report
from New Orleans
Recently returned from ‘The Big Easy’ Simon Jackson
owner of Mysmokingshop in Preston has had time to
reflect on his time spent at the huge IPCPR 2015 Cigar
trade show in New Orleans. Here is his report for UK
Cigar Scene:
“After a good few hours travelling and a few time
zones jumped we finally landed in New Orleans
on Thursday evening, just enough time to grab a
bite to eat, smoke a cigar and get acclimatised. On
Friday morning we set off, myself and Scott Vines
of TOR Imports, for a short stroll to the Ernest
N. Morial Convention Centre where this year’s
event was to take place, we needed to register in
preparation for the next days ‘Big Show’.
The first thing that hit you was the sheer size of
the Convention Centre, we entered at the main
front doors and it took a further 20 minutes of
fairly brisk walking to eventually arrive at the
registration desks. Once registered we slipped into
the main hall to get a quick preview of what was to
come. After this, with a free day ahead, we headed
to Don Leoncio Cigars for a smoke in comfort and
the company of Jose Oliva from Oliva Cigars.
The first day of the show was finally here, up
bright and early and ready for a long day ahead,
myself and Scott arrived and joined the queues
waiting for the doors to open. They opened, and
wow! where to start, Scott had plenty of meetings
so I decided to go it alone. First booth I hit was
Daniel Marshall and had a great chat with the
27
man himself about the quality of his work; a
selection of his humidors will be available from
Mysmokingshop very soon.
I continued down the hall with the plan of starting
at one end and working my way past each booth
so nothing was missed, 6 hours later I hadn’t even
passed half way! I found a couple of great cigars,
the first was Buho which intrigued me at first
with their very small range, I grabbed a sample
from them as was blown away with the quality,
an order was placed and they are on route. The
next company that really grabbed my attention
was Romacraft, unfortunately they are not ready
to export this year, and hopefully we will see them
soon in the UK.
The most notable cigar of the day was the
Cabinetta Series from Joya de Nicaragua Cigars,
a cigar that is definitely going to be a favourite
of mine for a long long time. What an idea! The
taste of a Maduro with the smoothness of a
Connecticut.
After a very enjoyable evening courtesy of Ashton
Cigars, day two arrived very quickly. My first
port of call was a meeting with JC Newman,