Just sayin', as of the last 24 months, Pete's line is becoming quite large. Not that it's a bad thing, just hoping he doesn't go overboard as Mr. Patel did.
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Did you enjoy Rocky Patel cigars before he went overboard?
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When I first started smoking I enjoyed the Vintage series, still will have a sungrown if one falls in my lap, but I won't buy them. So basically, no, not for many years have I enjoyed RP stuff.
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So was that an evolution of your own tastes or his production quality?
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Right on brother! As long as Pete out does himself with each release and has a loyal following who cares how many lines he has out there. :-)


:-)


Chris.....
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Evolution of taste for sure, my liking of his products wained well before he started his "new line of the week" theory.

Don't get me wrong, I know Pete, love the guy, hell, I have his cell number in my phone and we talk/text from time to time. I respect the hell out of the guy and love his products, it just worries me sometimes that things are getting stretched a bit thin.
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NSFW - "Jizzed in my pants" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLnWf1sQkjY

:-)

Some love. Some hate.

M
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LOL, love it here, got it on my iPod.
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I have not heard of this one either, but I have not had a bad stick from Tat!
I am certainly curious.
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For the record, anyone with the cash can get a personally blended special release for their B&M. As I recall, the minimum order is either 200 box25 or 250 box20 (5000 cigars either way).

We passed when it was brought up by our rep, mostly because it's a purely cash up front deal, and the owner wasn't quite sure he could sell them all.
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This is Tatuaje or diff. company?

M
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That's still roughly $50,000 - $75,000. The whole thing is a crapshoot anyways all it's going to do is give you 150-200 online orders you'll have to fill and ship. Less than 50 of those boxes will be going locally. Unless you only sell them locally and then they'll be sitting on the shelf unless people buy them and ship them for their friends. Doesn't get you any more exposure then you had before.
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damn...how did i miss this...i want some!!
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I don't know, I still remember the name Puff and Stuff.
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I work at Deadwood Tobacco in SD during the motorcycle rally. They have a cigar, "Sweet Jane" that's made for them by Drew Estate, they order 300 boxes a year and sell out during the rally. Of course this is a different situation simply because of the amount of people in that area for a 3 week period, but I'll tell ya, it is an amazing thing watching these boxes fly out the door.
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Really looking forward to trying these cigars. As to the single store release deal, I can't see it being a bad thing to get your name out nationally. A lot of the people who buy these releases, buy huge amounts of cigars a year and purchase many by mail. I buy from B&M's all over the country and some of them only came to my attention because of something like this. The glowing comments people have made about Smoke Inn's service and their handling of the Anarchy release has to have been a positive thing. I think it is a good thing for Pete and the store owner. It's a little more questionable if it is a good thing for the customer.
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I'll chime in on the RP thing since I used to really like what RP had to offer but I think his consistency is just non existent lately. Again just my opinion but I think he has too many lines going on at once and the consistency of his lines suffer from it. What I usually tell guys is if you find a Rocky stick you like load up on as many boxes as your budget allows as it may be very likely that it will be a different animal in a few months. There is no need to introduce so many lines in a short period of time to stay relevent. I think to stay on top in the industry you need to find a happy medium. Too few new lines/blends people will lose interest. Introduce too many in a short span and some people will get pissed. I think a manufacturer needs to find a middle ground to keep both sides happy.
At least when talking about Pete he always offers a high quality stick that most of the masses enjoy and being limited on most the consistency is a moot point because it's a short run and so far the staple lines have not seemed to be effected. Let's hope he or Pepin don't allow things to get to a RP point which I doubt as Pete seems to passionate about his craft to let the staple lines go to hell. It does get frustrating always being in the hunt but it is what it is and rather than let it get you annoyed too much you can just do what I have done with his stuff and stop going nuts trying to hunt down every new LE. I recently decided I would pick and choose what I would hunt down. For example the SODO sparked zero interest from me as it was said to be a shorter OR El Triundafor. Got plenty of those so no need to hunt down a shorter stick priced almost the same as the full size. At one point I got kind of annoyed at the constant release of LEs but life is too short to let the small stuff in life bug you. Just pick and choose what you want to get. Yes it would be nice to have them all but sometimes you just have to draw the line and that line will be different for everyone dependent on budget.
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You're missing an important distinction with your list of Tats. Looking at the sticks you've mentioned, about half are LE's, either single-store, regional (Eastie and Westie), or a "seasonal", in the case of the Monster/Actor series. There are also several line extension sticks (the two Tubos, the RC's, and the Black Label PL) on your list as well. Do those really qualify as a new, seperate blend or brand?

I agree that even in the fairly recent past, the consistency level and, at times, the construction of Tatuaje has not been up to snuff. However, I'd submit that within the last year, this seems to have been addressed and the box-to-box consistency over that period has made a marked improvement, especially within the core lines.

Pricing will always be a debatable issue. The Monsters have always been MSRP'd at $13. Depending on what state they are located in (taxes, etc) and their individual value system, some retailers do charge more per stick. Prior to The Face, this was probably more of a problem because there were a lot less made. Pete had more of The Face produced, so availability was better and you saw fewer gougers.

As far as price gouging for Tat LE's on the secondary market, I'm not sure what to tell you. This happens all the time (give the cult wine scene a look-see) and I can't see how that should be a reflection on the producer.
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I'm not sure that the B&M's (or even their owners) are necessarily looking for publicity or exposure when they commission an LE, although I'd imagine it's a welcome by-product. Being associated with a "one and done" LE cigar has a lot of appeal and if that is something from Tatuaje, so much the better IMO. Using Tatuaje as the example, I'd bet that most shop owners like the odds of selling the entire run of any Tat LE.
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That would be Tatuaje, via the family that reps for them in our area.


Yes, it's anywhere between a $25,000-50,000 undertaking for that cigar, but if it were publicized on forums such as these, I doubt seriously if it would take more than 6 months to sell all 200 or 250 boxes :-) The first 20-50 boxes would piece out 2-3 or 5 at a time and the other boxes would be a rush to get one before they sold out.
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