How would you summarise the cigar world in 2023? Wrap it up for us : The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

[El Presidente]

How would you summarise the cigar world in 2023?

The cigar world has changed drastically since the late 90's/early 2000's. Then again what hasn't. 

The surprise for most of us has been the speed of change in the CC world since 2020. I get asked regularly as to what the next three years looks like and I would be fibbing if I saw too much that is positive. 

But let's focus on 2023. Bless us with a brief summary from your perspective taking into account what you have found to be "The good, The bad …..and the ugly" as it may apply to the various facets of the cigar world (cigars, industry, marketing, communities etal). 

Over to you. 

 

[GoodStix]

The good: flavour, they seem to be working with delicious tobacco.  The bad: supply, though lately we’ve been blessed at FOH.  The ugly: prices!  Again we’ve been fortunate to have FOH, but damn I miss the days BC.

[cnov]

11 hours ago, GoodStix said:

The good: flavour, they seem to be working with delicious tobacco.  The bad: supply, though lately we’ve been blessed at FOH.  The ugly: prices!  Again we’ve been fortunate to have FOH, but damn I miss the days BC.

That's a pretty spot on summary of the year from where I'm sitting.

[El Presidente]

22 hours ago, GoodStix said:

The good: flavour, they seem to be working with delicious tobacco.  The bad: supply, though lately we’ve been blessed at FOH.  The ugly: prices!  Again we’ve been fortunate to have FOH, but damn I miss the days BC.

Cuba is blessed with the best tobacco in the world. As Hamlet says, "it would take an idiot to f**** up a cigar using Cuban tobacco"

Supply is improving albeit I was old last week that  supply moving forward doesn't look as positive. 

Prices. 🙄...what in hell are they going to do with Trinidad? 

[GaryK 54]

7 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Cuba is blessed with the best tobacco in the world. As Hamlet says, "it would take an idiot to f**** up a cigar using Cuban tobacco"

Supply is improving albeit I was old last week that  supply moving forward doesn't look as positive. 

Prices. 🙄…what in hell are they going to do with Trinidad? 

Hopefully, the stock of Trinis keep piling up, they realize the error of their ways, and adjust price accordingly. However, Habanos being Habanos I wouldn’t bet my coin on that to happen.

Frankly, the Trinidad pricing strategy was the most painful for me. I have little to no interest in Cohiba. Trinidad, on the other hand… right in the middle of my wheelhouse for flavour. 

[El Presidente]

6 hours ago, GaryK 54 said:

Hopefully, the stock of Trinis keep piling up, they realize the error of their ways, and adjust price accordingly. However, Habanos being Habanos I wouldn’t bet my coin on that to happen.

Frankly, the Trinidad pricing strategy was the most painful for me. I have little to no interest in Cohiba. Trinidad, on the other hand… right in the middle of my wheelhouse for flavour. 

The shame is that they put a lot of effort into Trinidad Line extensions before 2022. Then, through what appears to be a plain and simple miscalculation, they have landed in the middle of a quagmire where they can't move forward and they don't want to go backward. 

They need to swallow their pride and adjust Trinidad pricing by 20% in order to give it a chance. 

 

[GaryK 54]

5 hours ago, El Presidente said:

The shame is that they put a lot of effort into Trinidad Line extensions before 2022. Then, through what appears to be a plain and simple miscalculation, they have landed in the middle of a quagmire where they can't move forward and they don't want to go backward. 

They need to swallow their pride and adjust Trinidad pricing by 20% in order to give it a chance. 

Totally agree. A 20% price cut would bring me back to the buying table for Trinidad. Thanks to you and your team Rob, I built a nice inventory of Trinidad from 2018 up to the point in time Habanos 'lost the plot' on pricing. Pains me because \the 'new wave' Trinidads were a great addition to the marca... love Coloniales and Reyes was my daily morning cigar and coffee smoke. Fundis for anytime I have 1.5 hours to relax and revel in how great Cuban tobacco can be.

One can only hope they can swallow their pride and admit the mistake on Trinidad. Let's see.

[jazzboypro]

I'm looking at the current Canadian prices and a 20% price cut does not even get my attention lol

[Bill Hayes]

The Good - Nudies

The Bad - Cuba attempting to be the Bourdeaux of cigars and making their primary industry so premium it is out of reach for most.

The Ugly - The possible affects on the local population in terms of quality of living.

[Greenhorn2]

14 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Cuba is blessed with the best tobacco in the world. As Hamlet says, "it would take an idiot to f**** up a cigar using Cuban tobacco"

Supply is improving albeit I was old last week that  supply moving forward doesn't look as positive. 

Prices. 🙄...what in hell are they going to do with Trinidad? 

Just double the price of Trinidad, then wait 6 months and put them on sale at 50% off and they will just fly off the shelves. 

[SCgarman]

16 hours ago, GaryK 54 said:

Totally agree. A 20% price cut would bring me back to the buying table for Trinidad. Thanks to you and your team Rob, I built a nice inventory of Trinidad from 2018 up to the point in time Habanos 'lost the plot' on pricing. Pains me because \the 'new wave' Trinidads were a great addition to the marca... love Coloniales and Reyes was my daily morning cigar and coffee smoke. Fundis for anytime I have 1.5 hours to relax and revel in how great Cuban tobacco can be.

One can only hope they can swallow their pride and admit the mistake on Trinidad. Let's see.

A $240/box of Reyes, $10 per stick would be a "reasonable" back to reality price. Likely not going to happen though. Trinidad will never be the status symbol Cohiba is. That was just wishful pipe dreams

[jazzboypro]

5 minutes ago, SCgarman said:

A $240/box of Reyes, $10 per stick would be a "reasonable" back to reality price. Likely not going to happen though. Trinidad will never be the status symbol Cohiba is. That was just wishful pipe dreams

That would mean a 72% price drop over here, not going to happen.

[Ford2112]

Good- Quality . The Cubans I've bought since 2021 have been very consistently good. I've have a handful of plugs at best and they are mostly very approachable young. With a couple three years on them they are killer.

Bad- Prices. Habanos be trippin.

Ugly- This " hey look at me and my Cohiba " generation. You know they aren't rich. Buy they try and act like it. It's not helping the common smoker. I see a lot of people on YouTube and IG trying to act like ballers with their "luxury cigars and lifestyles". 

[SCgarman]

1 hour ago, Ford2112 said:

Good- Quality . The Cubans I've bought since 2021 have been very consistently good. I've have a handful of plugs at best and they are mostly very approachable young. With a couple three years on them they are killer.

Bad- Prices. Habanos be trippin.

Ugly- This " hey look at me and my Cohiba " generation. You know they aren't rich. Buy they try and act like it. It's not helping the common smoker. I see a lot of people on YouTube and IG trying to act like ballers with their "luxury cigars and lifestyles". 

A few years ago JayZ and his entourage were down in Havana being driven around like he was a mafia Don waving big Cohiba cigars around. Do you think images like that don't influence young people in a bad way?

[ubiquito]

I was in Havana in 2013 when he and Beyonce where there. It was a shit show!

[Ford2112]

5 hours ago, SCgarman said:

A few years ago JayZ and his entourage were down in Havana being driven around like he was a mafia Don waving big Cohiba cigars around. Do you think images like that don't influence young people in a bad way?

Absolutely. I mean every time I see predator I want to chew tobacco

[HDGSN]

The Good - Nudies. Well rolled affordable options with Cuban flavors at heart.

The Bad - Habanos prices. Have not bought a single Cuban cigar since the price hike and do not see that changing.

The Ugly - No end in sight.

[Matt Holtz]

Just curious, does anyone know if the price normalization that happened across all Casa del Habanos locations happened in Cuba as well? I haven't been back since this happened, but the prices appear to be the same. 

[El Presidente]

21 minutes ago, Matt Holtz said:

Just curious, does anyone know if the price normalization that happened across all Casa del Habanos locations happened in Cuba as well? I haven't been back since this happened, but the prices appear to be the same. 

Largely the same unfortunately.