Posts Tagged ‘Jose Blanco’

News: Jose Blanco Named Senior Vice President of Joya de Nicaragua

Posted by acigarsmoker on August 31st, 2011
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On August 29, 2011, Joya de Nicaragua, S.A. (JDN) appointed Jose Blanco, formerly a director of La Aurora Cigars, as Senior Vice President. Blanco is bringing his 29 years of marketing, public relations, and tobacco blending experience to this legendary Nicaraguan cigar company. He will be responsible for overall brand and blend development and will be reporting directly to its owner, Dr. Alejandro Martinez Cuenca, and the company’s Board of Directors. Working closely with Drew Estate, their US Distributor, and their worldwide partners, Blanco will also be responsible for interacting with the public. He will be relocating from the Dominican Republic to Nicaragua in order to fulfill his duties.

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Q & A with Jose Blanco

Posted by acigarsmoker on June 28th, 2011
Jose, thank you for taking the time to teach me more and more about tobacco everytime we meet. As a fellow Yankee fan we share a common bond that is only surpassed by our love of cigars. I look toward the time when we can sit back and enjoy a cigar together.

News recently rocked the cigar world that Jose Blanco was stepping down from his position at La Aurora and retiring. Now that the dust has settled we got to catch up with Jose Blanco who is currently enjoying himself on a European vacation. During our brief conversation, one can read between the lines and say he left the door open a bit for a return to the cigar industry and this might not be the end of his career.

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Jose Blanco Retires – The End Of An Era

Posted by acigarsmoker on June 16th, 2011
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I found out a while ago about Jose Blanco retiring but despite that, yesterday’s news still hit hard. I took a while to compose my thoughts before writing this entry as Jose Blanco is more to me then the Director of Sales for La Aurora, he is also a friend in the truest sense of the word.

I first met Jose Blanco at Tobacco Plaza in February of 2010. A short time after that I was in Santiago, Dominican Republic where I began a friendship with him. A friendship that had us discuss everything from baseball to politics. In fact rarely did we discuss cigars unless at an event. Our emails, tweets and texts were the platform for a friendship that has and will continue to mean so much to me even without his position at La Aurora.

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La Aurora 1495 Sumo Robusto – Cigar Review

Posted by acigarsmoker on June 15th, 2011
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Last September I flew down to Miami to hang out with Jason Wood and the Miami Cigar Crew. While there a person was interviewing for a job as a sales representative by the name of Raphael Delgado. The two of us hit it off and became friends. He was assigned the Maryland/West Virginia/Delaware/Washington DC territory and did a lot of his training up in New York. We became good friends, and this past week I got some bad news that he was being shipped to Texas to take over that area. So to all my Texas readers when you see him out there, take good care of him. He is as good as they come.

Another plus is when I left I was given a box of La Aurora Sumo Robusto cigars. These cigars were available in the European market and are now set to be release here in the states. I smoked the box pretty quick and before I knew it they were gone …

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Cigar News: Jose Blanco to Retire from La Aurora

Posted by acigarsmoker on June 15th, 2011
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In the cigar industry, as in life, all good things must come to an end. When it comes to cigars, Jose Blanco is one of the industry’s greatest friends. So naturally, the news that Jose is retiring comes as a surprise to me.

I’ve had the great fortune of attending one of his blending seminars, where I was repeatedly humbled by the intricacies of the cigar blending process. It was easy for those who had attended the seminar to establish a deep respect for Jose’s craft. Jose has had a hand in creating some of the industry’s most prized blends, for example, the

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Para Japon – Cigar Review

Posted by acigarsmoker on May 24th, 2011
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Back in March of 2011 a group of bloggers were invited to the La Aurora cigar factory and while events that surrounded me might live in infamy the best thing to come out of the trip was the birth of Para Japon. One of my esteemed colleagues Mario Takeyama from Cigar Explorer is of Japanese heritage. He was born there, and is still a legal resident of the island nation. With the catastrophic earthquake still fresh in our minds Mario began to seek support for a cigar to raise money for the people of Japan. We all jumped on board and once La Aurora made the cigar an official project we all tossed our weight behind the project.

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La Aurora Cien Anos (100 Anos) – Cigar Review

Posted by acigarsmoker on March 25th, 2011
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This review concludes La Aurora week on acigarsmoker.com. I appreciate the record number of page views and I thank those who took the time to leave a comment. I do have one question though, what causes a person to leave a comment? It seems like at times we go a while without any comment love and I would like to change that so let me know why you choose to leave a comment or why you don’t.

While at the La Aurora Cigar Factory from 3/17/11 to 3/20/11 we took part in a tasting seminar that was held by Jose Blanco in the conference room. After the tasting was complete Señor Blanco handed us each a La Aurora Cien Anos Churchill with 8 years of age on it. Well I decided to light mine up on the spot, and delve into a cigar legend. Sure I thought about reviewing it, but I was worried about the damage it might incur on the way home from the island nation that I have fallen in love with. As luck would have it, upon exiting the conference room I was handed another one, that made it home in great shape. I let it sit in my humidor for 5 days before today’s review.

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La Aurora Trip 2011 Edition, Final Thoughts

Posted by acigarsmoker on March 24th, 2011
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What was scheduled to be a short day in the Dominican Republic became a bit of a journey for those of us on the 12:20pm flight back home. I was joined by Jerry Cruz, David “Doc” Diaz, and Mario Takeyama for our final breakfast the morning of our journey. For one of us that would not end until the following evening due to flight delays and long lines at customs.

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La Aurora Trip 2011 Edition, Day 3

Posted by acigarsmoker on March 23rd, 2011
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The final full day began like any other, with an early wake up call to enjoy the view of Santiago. As a person who has lived in the City of New York for 42 years, having one of these rare moments to enjoy the some quiet need to be taken advantage of. I took the time to explore the grounds of the hotel with my camera and enjoy a cigar. As I did a sense of sadness came over me, that I was soon going to leave and that the time spent with friends was coming to a close. With split departure times, the first one being at 6am this was the last full day together.

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La Aurora Trip 2011 Edition, Day 2

Posted by acigarsmoker on March 22nd, 2011
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As was with my last trip to Santiago in the Dominican Republic I made sure to get up early each morning and be the first one on the deck. The views were just so incredibly scenic, that it was easy to get lost in the moment and bask in the serenity of the mountaintop resort that we would call home for the next couple of days. I sipped my coffee and looked out into the valley before me, for I feel at home in the Dominican Republic.Despite various levels of wealth and poverty everyone has a smile on their face and it is contagious.

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La Aurora Trip 2011 Edition, Day 1

Posted by acigarsmoker on March 21st, 2011
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A funny thing happened in the Dominican Republic, you see I may of or may not of gotten married. But more of that on day 3. For now some back story. In 2010, I was lucky enough to be invited with a group of bloggers to visit the La Aurora Cigar factory in the Dominican Republic. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship on both a personal and professional level with some really amazing people. When I was approached by Miami Cigar & Company for some input on the 2011 trip, never did I imagine I would be lucky enough to go back again.

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Cigar Review: La Aurora Gran 107

Posted by acigarsmoker on February 8th, 2011
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The story on the Gran 107 has the rollers in factory smoking these large sizes and during a recent trip to the factory Guillermo was asked what the rollers were smoking. After some sampling of the product Guillermo gave his blessing for the cigar to go into production. Being that the United States has gotten so much into large ring gauge cigars this 7 x 58 monster should be well received. As you know we tend to be on the fence when it comes to the size, so when Miami Cigar sent us some to sample we hesitantly smoked them to formulate our review.

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News: Pennsylvania Cigar Tax Defeated!

Posted by acigarsmoker on June 30th, 2010
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Early today the senators of Pennsylvania voted against a tax on cigars for the states 2010-2011. It is the second time that Govenor Ed Randall tried to levy a tax on cigars but thankfully the govenernment saw that tobacco is an important part of the stats employment. With Pennsylvania broad-leaf growing in popularity and the numerous tobacco warehouses throughout the state providing a significant amount of jobs to small communities it was important for this tax not to be passed.

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News: Cigar Taxes with Jose Blanco

Posted by acigarsmoker on June 28th, 2010
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This past weekend Tom Johansmeyer from cigarreader.com and myself got to spend some time with various manufacturers at Cigar Expo held at Famous Smoke Shop. During the course of the event the big topic of conversation was tobacco tax. With NYC just raising the OTP tax to 75% and Pennsylvania looking to set there tax at 30% it is not a time good for cigar smokers. What started off with the concept of a joint interview with Jose Blanco from La Aurora Cigar Factory was carried by Tom as one of the Oliva reps called me away to discuss something else.

To hear what has to say read more…

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