Industry News

The 2025–26 harvest in Pinar del Río came in roughly two weeks behind schedule after a wetter-than-average close to the season. The growers I spoke with were measured about it: the delay is not a crisis, and the cooler nights may even have helped the wrapper color.

The early read is a slightly lighter, more delicate leaf than the dense 2024 crop. Whether that reads as a virtue or a disappointment will depend entirely on the blender — and on the year of patience that follows the rolling.

The FDA's tobacco user fees for 2026 are set, and they are up again. The fees are assessed against manufacturers by volume, but the cost moves down the line — to importers, to shops, and finally to the shelf.

It is not a dramatic jump, and it is not a surprise. It is the latest in a long, steady climb worth knowing about rather than worth panicking over. The cigars worth smoking are still worth smoking.

Year-end lists are starting to land, and they are useful for exactly one thing: surfacing cigars you may have missed. They are less useful as a ranking, and least useful as a reason to chase a limited release across three states.

My own shortlist is shorter, and slower, than most of them. I will share it when I am sure of it — which is to say, after I have smoked the candidates more than once.

The Habanos Festival is set for late February 2027. For the uninitiated: it is part trade show, part celebration, and part excuse to smoke things you cannot find at home.

If you go, pace yourself. The week is long, the dinners run later than the schedule says, and the best conversations happen in the courtyards, not the conference rooms.

A factory in Estelí has begun an expansion that will roughly double its rolling floor. It is not a headline that travels far outside the trade, but it is a signal: the people closest to the demand are betting on more of it.

Nicaragua has been the quiet engine of the premium market for a decade now. This is another brick in that wall, laid by people who know the ground.

A brokerage that has supplied wrapper and binder leaf to several well-known brands for decades was acquired last month. These moves rarely make the news, but they matter: they decide which tobacco a blender can get, and at what price.

Whether the new ownership keeps the old relationships intact is the real question, and the only honest answer is to ask again in a year.