Alec Bradley Cigars has brought a new experience to market. The makers of the Tempus and Maxx cigars have released its Select Cabinet Reserve series. It should be on cigar shop shelves this month and promises to be quite a treat. The series consists of Corona, Robusto, Churchill, Torpedo and Gran Robusto cigars with Honduran Trojes wrappers. The sticks will be released in boxes of 20.

This line of cigars was born from a conversation that Alec Bradley president Alan Rubin had while back on the family farm in Trojes. Over the past five years, the Rubin family had accumulated a large amount of aged, mid-priming Trojes wrapper.

"We talked about the natural sweetness of the wrapper and the chance to develop a blend around its unique flavor profile," Rubin says. "When we got back to the factory, we went to where we store all the wrapper tobacco and opened a few bales for inspection. I grabbed a hand of tobacco containing 25 leaves, plucked two of them, de-stemmed them, and rolled a sample. These caramel colored leaves were glorious to the touch and looked fantastic. Even better, they smoked every bit as good as I expected."

A year later, Alec Bradley's latest creation has been completed and is missing only a cutter, a lighter and someone to enjoy it. Expectations are high, particularly given Rubin's assessment of the product. "The SCR line is built around a mid-priming Trojes wrapper that allowed us to focus on the natural sweetness of the leaf," says Alec Bradley president, Alan Rubin. "The blend is buttery smooth, and possesses an abundance of complex flavors and aromas that will hold your attention from start to finish."

Swiss cigar manufacturer Oettinger Davidoff has announced their latest creation, a cigar named after the famous Sir Winston Churchill. The Churchill Millenium Blend is set apart from many of Davidoff's other cigars in a couple of ways, including the fact that it's quite a bit stronger in flavor and is wrapped in a rare variety of tobacco leaf that leaves it with a darker than average appearance. The Churchill range of cigars will be made of tobacco grown in the Dominican Republic, Peru, Nicaragua and Ecuador.

Make your way down to Havana on February 27th for the VIII Festival del Habano. The 5 day event offers a variety of activities to celebrate and promote cigars. Visits of tobacco plantations and even a tour of the factory which was once home to Davidoff, Cohiba and Trinidad will take place.  There will also be special cigar and spirit matching sessions.  The whole cigar fest will set you back about 1,260 Cuban Convertible Pesos. Perhaps we should convert to a more useful currency, like US dollars.  So if we multiply by the number of US dollars per convertible peso, that comes out to ... 1,260 US dollars.