Next Trend in Cigars?

I know what the new trend is!

Make the cigar smell and taste like breakfast cereal!

Just for the heck of it, I had a Tatiana Waking Dream on the short drive to work this morning. (They were a present for my bday, a small tin of 'em)

I'm glad I had it in the morning because it's vanilla cream, Hazelnut, and Single malt flavored.. I'm not usually a fan, but what they hey, they were a gift.

I swear the damn things smell and taste like COCOA PUFFS!!!!!!! I'm almost tempted to try a glass of milk with one of these things....heh heh heh.
If you get a chance, it's a great novelty smoke. Reminded me of my childhood, saturday morning cartoons and cocoa puffs...mmmmmmmmm:dr
 
Yea, it seems like cigars are getting bigger and bigger. I understand that people like different gauges (I'm more of a small-to-medium gauge person). I don't think they'll get so big that they get uncomfortable, however, they're getting far too big.

Personally, I would like to see them stay the way they are, they're good for a reason. We don't need variety to come in the form of size, rather it's provided in the form of interesting blends and the environment that the tobacco crops grow in.
 
I started off about a year ago smoking cigars and at first I was going for the mild taste, longer cigars with about a 42 RG...longer and slimmer was better in my eyes back then. But now, I am going for the toro with a 50 to 54 RG and full-bodied is what I desire. I want to feel the buzz...
 
I'm curious to what the next "new" tobacco craze will be. Remember when Cameroon was the big thing, then Maduro, Then Crillio, now everybody has Corojo. Maybe it will be hybrid stuff, like a cross between corojo and cameroon or conn. shade and crillio. Who knows what the mad scientists are cooking up.
 
Wacky shapes, sizes, cigars cross-promoted with TV shows, tobaccos from places not normally known for growing—OH wait that’s just CAO (although I like all their smokes)
 
I agree with the Smaller smokes, not necessarily as a replacement, but i think more companies will add these lines to their product list.
I also think more companies will concentrate on quality not quantity, making sure that they create some really good cigars, with cigar smoking becoming harder to do and having less time to do it, people will want to make the most of it and wont accept bad sticks.
 
I am curious about the dude a few posts above me saying that there may be more hybrid wrappers coming into play. I hope that doesn't make it a trend to have the barberpole style sticks with two or three wrappers...seems like a gimmick to me.

Although, I guess if they tasted good...:w
 
Ermo said:
I think the trend has been bigger for a while now, I wouldn't be surprised if smaller RG cigars started making a comeback to reverse the trend. The trend is a circle, not a wavy line.
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I sure hope this is the case. I've always been a fan of the smaller rg smokes.
 
I think they are going to concentrate on their blending and maybe vintage years. I also see a trnd to more smaller RG and fewer choices in sizes.
 
I really think the smaller ring guage is going to take over. With all the smoking bans, it makes it impossible to have a cigar at most resturants and most bars. Typically here in NY you can see people standing out in the freezing cold to have a cigarette.... Unless you go to one of the few cigar friendly places in NYC you will not be able to enjoy one at a bar/resturant. So what do you do if you want a smoke. You are basically limited to something out of a tin, or say a club corona size. When it comes down to it, I don't know how that will effect the market, but people have less and less time to just sit down and relax while they smoke, many people commute via mass transit, so I believe smaller cigars will tend to become even more popular, maybe more around NYC and other cities with smoking bans.
 
I see a lot of bigger ring smokes, but I don't really care for em.. Im happy with Robusto as the biggest ring I smoke... Coronas are some of my favorites as well. Regardless of trend, I will still smoke what I like.
Scott
 
Honestly,
I think we've topped out on the large guage cigars. I think the trend is starting to edge toward high priced more complex cigars. Unfortunately, the ESG isn't or hasn't been able to live up to what the VSG is.

20+ dollars for a cigar is up there, but i've seen people pay it! I'd gladly pay that though for a nicely aged VSG sorcerer. I have not been dissapointed yet.
 
We don't know enough to predict the next trend.

Well I think the next trend in cigars will mirror that of the beer/malt liq/wine cooler segements of the alchoholic beverage market.

First you had some strong regional brands which were gradually overtaken by large national brands with large distribution systems. Eventually the micro brew revolution came about with the emphasis on craft and quality. Then the so-called "malt-ernatives" the Sky, Smirnoff, Mike's Hard Lemonade malt beverages (woodchuck hard cider for example can also be lumped into this group). The last try is that of enhanced beverages, that is beer with vitamins or alchoholic beverages mixed with an energy drink (I don't know if this latest try will ever take off).

Curiously the micro brew revolution followed closely with the cigar booom of the go-go nineties. That is when people have more money to spend they start to treat themselves to luxury goods en masse.

The malternative trend with its emphasis on sweet tootie-frootie alchoholic beverages that are highly accessable to younger drinkers. You can see the flavor/infused cigar trend as a mirror of the malternative beverage trend. Highly flavored cigars that don't require the smoker to search or decipher the flavor of the cigar. No nuance, no subtleties, just flavor an a buzz.

Now that leaves enhanced cigars as a possibility as well but I am not sure there will be any movemen on this front. Firstly, I don't have the foggiest idea how one would be able to get vitamines from a smoke. Long term cigar smokers are the scotch drinking crowd and not the same sort of trendy types who must have/be seen with a cosmo, apple martini, or pink champagne.

I don't think that the re-introduction of cubans to the American market will have a large long term impact. Most of the people who would be inclined to smoke cubans and have the means probably already do.

Now that being said the privatization or liberalization of cuba's national cigar industry is another thing entirely. If that were to happen, cuban leaf would find its way into all sorts of blends and a truly long term impact would be felt throughout the cigar smoking world for decades to come.

However, most of latin America has a horrible record regarding the liberalization of formerly nationalized industries. A great long history of cronyism and mismanagement in the sale of formerly national industries is the general norm. If stability and a galacial pace of groth with a marked lack of innovation and efficiency is what you want then perhaps socialist cuba is what cuban fans want.

So where does that leave us?

Well Acid and CAO are hedging their bets with younger smokers/occasional smokers with their flavored lines (I mean come on, the CAO's Flavorettes look just like the "Fanta girls?" If you don't know what I mean look it up, the resemblance is uncanny. This leads me to believe that their target audience is similar.). However I do not see the sort of advertising support that would lead me to believe that either of these tactics will succeed. Most potential new smokers simply don't know that these sticks exist. Of course the young adult catagory is what every manufacturer wants and from young adults come brand loyalty.

Money goes towards oppurtunities and it is unclear whether or not Acid or CAO flavors has realized any sort of return on their investment in this younger segment. Find out who is making a killing in which product and you will be able to predict the next trend; the next trend will follow along tangential lines. Follow the money and you will find the next big trend. Right now we, the cigar loving public, simply do not know enough about where and how the cigar manufaturers make their money to make more than a shot in the dark.

yours in struggle,
R-U Rah Rah
 
Re: We don't know enough to predict the next trend.

Airborne RU said:
I don't think that the re-introduction of cubans to the American market will have a large long term impact. Most of the people who would be inclined to smoke cubans and have the means probably already do.

Now that being said the privatization or liberalization of cuba's national cigar industry is another thing entirely. If that were to happen, cuban leaf would find its way into all sorts of blends and a truly long term impact would be felt throughout the cigar smoking world for decades to come.

However, most of latin America has a horrible record regarding the liberalization of formerly nationalized industries. A great long history of cronyism and mismanagement in the sale of formerly national industries is the general norm. If stability and a galacial pace of groth with a marked lack of innovation and efficiency is what you want then perhaps socialist cuba is what cuban fans want.

So where does that leave us?
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Wow, those are some fantastic ideas you have there. The way I see it, just like you said, it would be difficult to keep the market from being flooded, therefore decreasing the quality of the product.

Secondly, I don't think that the interest would fall off that much if the market were to be opened. The interest alone in this "new" product that not many people have had the opportunity to enjoy, let alone afford, would drive the market for many years to come. If the quality drops, then so does the interest in it. So, it's easy to see why companies like C.A.O. and Acid are trying to invent something new and different, because too much of the same is never good, while competition is.
 
T-Money NY(Yankees?),

As I read you post I remembered that on the Cigar Afficionado website they have an article about the new massive freezer unit in Cuba. That coupled with CAO's new Vision cigar (built in humi capacity in its dress box and "draw testing") it appears that the next trend will be one we won't be able so see but may realize in the smoke, that is a concentration on quality.

Of course both of these efforts in quality are capital intensive and I don't think that many of the smaller independant makers will be able to make the same investment by themselves (if they band together into some sort of co-op maybe they will be able to afford the same massive freezer action). The energy cost alone might be prohibative for many of the smaller makers to go at it alone.

When these new freezer units come on line, if they aren't already, I anticipate that cigar beetles will indeed be a thing of the past and perhaps on cigar boards like these we will talk about cigars made post 2006 vice pre 2006.

On a related note, 4 months back while deployed to Iraq I noticed that my buddy had a Cuesta Rey cigar en tubo. Of course its fairly warm in Iraq and my buddy didn't know better to protect this stick from the heat. In the glass tubo I noticed holes and a fine powder. It was interesting sort of like an ant farm, but instead of ants there was the demon bug. I think that the beetles eventually ran out of air because there ceased to be activity after a time.

Other than freezers there is the the "draw testing" that CAO is running their new "Vision" line through. I don't know what that is, I suppose there will be some sort of proprietary sucking machine that each stick is pressed against prior to the stick being capped.

Of course I could be wrong and it could be some large retired man name "Sal" who eats twinkies all day chomping down on each cigar saying "good...nah this one gives me a hernia. Hey. Hey! Can someone get me some Chap Stick? I'm working here!"

This of course begs the question how bad would a cigar have to be, to be rejected by Sal and what would CAO do to the cigar if it drew poorly. Would they just throw it away? For some reason I don't think so.

Anyone else have some ideas on what the next trend is?
 
Almost two years later lets revisit this question. The next trend in cigars. . .

What line of development have we seen?
Well from my vantage point it actually does look like some elements of the cigar industry have moved toward more "limited edition" and "seasonal offerings."

Rocky Patel's summer blend looks for all the world like a direct riff on Samuel Adams' summer brew (I wonder if RP will come out with an Oktoberfest smoke?). It also looks like every maker across the board is offering smaller and smaller select offerings that seem to be hard to find (La Riquenza, Tat black, ESG, Noventa, and if this years RTDA is any indicator A. Fuente, Pepin, Padron, and L. Gomez will be offering more uber rare smokes.)

So what does that mean? Looks like the trend has move to more and more boutique. The market doesn't seem to have a saturation point for cigar exclusivity.

What was not foreseen?
Senor Pepin Garcia. Almost two years ago he was pretty well known and very successful following his 03 debut with Mr. Johnson. But I do not thing anyone could have foretold his wild success and near ubiquity.

What didn't come to pass?
More emphasis on the flavored or enhanced smokes. There really just doesn't seem to be a market for it beyond the young smoker who enjoys the novelty.

The problem however looks to be that the cigar market is mature and growth will be hard (single customer sales does have an upward limit). So where is the growth?

Magic 8 ball sez.
I'll stick to my guns and say that something will still be added to cigars to make it different enough to attract newbies. The main hurdle for newbs is the knowledge gap, same as in wine. Easier flavors = more accessible. So, i think that the next trend will look like a mild version of pipe tobacco. Oriental tobacco and herbs to give it more flavor but less kiddieness (moon mango splash is a turn off to most smokers). Call this possible trend the "new Cameroon."
 
Re: We don't know enough to predict the next trend.

Airborne RU said:
(woodchuck hard cider for example can also be lumped into this group)
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I gotta contend this point. Cider is an American tradition. Johnny Appleseed wasn't planting apples for people's health, or so that a nation full of second grade teachers could have something on their desk. At one point in the United States, cider was king. I love my ciders and hate to have them lumped in with that other stuff :(

Excellent points throughout, though. Have to admit I didn't make the Patel/Sam Adams comparison on my own, but now that you've pointed it out it seems obvious.

Sorry, continue. :pp
 
This was a really interesting read, thanks for bumping it since I wasn't around here when it was originally discussed.

fwiw I think lancero's are on the rise.
 
Airborne RU said:
>>snip<<

Magic 8 ball sez.
I'll stick to my guns and say that something will still be added to cigars to make it different enough to attract newbies. The main hurdle for newbs is the knowledge gap, same as in wine. Easier flavors = more accessible. So, i think that the next trend will look like a mild version of pipe tobacco. Oriental tobacco and herbs to give it more flavor but less kiddieness (moon mango splash is a turn off to most smokers). Call this possible trend the "new Cameroon."
Click to expand...

Good, points! Actually coming over to cigars, from pipe smoking, I always wondered why there was a distinct lack of some of the other tobacco varieties in cigars. Orientals, Latakia, Perique play a pretty good part of pipe tobacco, but seem to be non-existent in cigar blends. I know I have heard that the oriental leave are not of an optimal size, but I would imagine you could pair them up with "standard" leaves, in a "sandwich" type stick, and come up with some very innovative, and tasty sticks. For all intents Perique, and Latakia are just ways to prepare tobacco, and I would think similar process (I don't think you can compare Maduro leaf to Perique) could be applied to any tobacco leaf.

That said, I don't really expect that to be an industry trend, as both of these things have existed for some time, and combining them hasn't happened so far (to my knowledge).
 
More companies moving away from the Cuban copy cat.
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This is wise. The Cuban market will sooner or later be open to US customers, and buying a cigar that mimics one that is available in the open market wouldn't make any sense - unless there is a marked price discrepancy.

I just wonder what will happen to the cigar makers who have made Cuban marques in other countries once the namesake cigars are US-legal.
I don't think that the re-introduction of cubans to the American market will have a large long term impact.
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This makes sense as well. While there will probably be a momentary rush to Cubans when the market first opens - mainly due to curiosity and the novelty factor - the long-term effect is that people's buying habits will not change that much. I will buy my share of Cohibas once it happens, but that doesn't mean I will push everything else aside. There are a lot of very good non-Cuban sticks out there, and if there has been one positive impact of the embargo it has been to allow a number of cigar makers to establish themselves in the US market. It has also pushed them to improve taste and quality to the point that they won't be decimated once Cubans are widely available.
 
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