Great News. I talked to the bean counters over here we are going to be able to turn this forum blending concept into a full time, ongoing activity. This first one was a great experiment. Here is how it is going to work. Bear with me as we probably wont get started on the next blend until January but after that we should be able to do about 4 a year.

We are going to band and box the first blend in a size of your choosing. However, the goal for the forum blending project will be to do several every year. I need input from the group though on how you want it to be set up since this is being made just for you guys.

Here is what I was thinking to get us started:

A. Fist order of business decide on a name. While printing bands did not make sense when we did not know if this would be an ongoing thing, printing them up now makes sense since I can just print a bunch and we can use them on all of the blends going into the future. That said, to differentiate each blend we will order these in boxes only and have the main logo done in Cliche on the lid and have the generation number but on it in screen print. For example, if we call the brand Catadores, the first one we make in January will have the Catadores band and be in a box of 20 that has the logo on the lid. Below the logo it would say "First Edition" or "First Generation". The second blend we do in the spring would have the same exact band and same box but say "Second Generation". We will bring in a set number of boxes for each generation and add them to the brands page. When they sell out, they are gone forever. Most likely I will only bring in 100 boxes of each generation until it grows and justifies more buying. Also, the cigars will only be purchasable in boxes as I need to keep them in tact since it will be hard for my warehouse crew to tell them apart once I open boxes since the bands are all the same. That said, boxes will relatively cheap at $89.95 ($4.50 per cigar) for a box of 20. If guys want to do splits etc, that is up to you.

B. For the next round, I will create a special sub section of the forum dedicated to discussing the blend and will create a special part of cigar.com dedicated to the project. Here there will be a a copy of the thread on the current blend (similar to the thread on the daily cigar deal site), an area to vote on the poll for that week: IE: wrapper, body, size, filler, binder, etc. It will also show results from the prior weeks votes so everyone can follow along. The polls and voting areas will be set up much more professionally with check lists etc and I will have my IT team dedicate some time to getting it set up.

C. We will need to limit each blend to just one size.

With that lets discuss what you guys think. Do these terms sound good? Did I miss anything? What about factory? Do you want to stay with just one factory or do we want to move it around each time to different factories? Perhaps that is the first poll each time we start a blend, which factory. Lets start discussing. In the mean time, we really need to finalize the name for this thing and I need an answer of size for the first generation blend so I can get them ordered and in house by Jan 1 which is when I hope we can start working on the Second Generation blend and have the site set up.

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Alex Svenson
Chief Merchant
Cigar.com

One word: AWESOME!

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Rob

When in doubt; logic shall prevail.

Agreed. This sounds pretty awesome - are you planning on limiting it to 1 box per member though, or anything like that? Cuz I'd love to snag a box, but a lot of the fellas on here I know will probably be more than happy to grab multiple and I don't want to miss out lol...

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There are two kinds of people in this world that go around beardless — boys and women — and I am neither one.

I like the terms Alex...I don't know that any of us were thinking it would be as often as 4 times per year, but that's probably because we didn't think you'd be onboard with that number. I like the idea of one size only and the simple banding/boxing idea. As far as the factory goes, I think AJ's factory does an excellent job on their cigars, the quality level of this first round was incredible as is the quality level of just about everything coming out of there. My vote right now would be to keep with the same factory.

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"Beliefs are neat. Cherish them, but don't share them like they're the truth" Bill Hicks

This sounds awesome!!! And the price is right too!

This is a great forum!

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Who Farted?

I love the idea about moving the factories around but I also agree with what Joe is saying about AJ's factory. Perhaps the factory could change each year and we'll see 4 different blends come out of each factory. Or we could move each time for the first year and then decide which one we like best. As much as I agree about the quality of AJ's work, the concept of a tour of reknowned cigar factories would only add fuel to the average consumer who does not spend 40 hours a week on the message boards!

So when do we close the current polls about name and size? If you are kind enough to comment on the double meaning of Catadores - the decision will be simple - its gonna be either Catadores or Comunidad Premio. I will provide you with the EXCEL sheets with all raw data to verify for yourself the votes... As for size it seems Torpedo is the most desired size... Cheers! This is an awesome idea btw! I am sorry my "polls" were not very professional, but I just wanted to quickly help and organize the stuff a bit. I hope it all helps at the end to move the first batch quick enough...

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www.WBFiller.Com

Follow us on Twitter! @wbfiller

I agree with Joe about using AJ's factory for now. Love the box concept as laid out. I think the name Cumunidad Premio is the leading name choice for now. I would like to see a couple blends a year but would 4 blends take away some of the "special of it" ???

"I agree with Joe about using AJ's factory for now. Love the box concept as laid out. I think the name Cumunidad Premio is the leading name choice for now. I would like to see a couple blends a year but would 4 blends take away some of the "special of it" ??? "

I think the cap of 100 boxes would still keep it special. I'm fairly new here, but I think this is a great idea and I'm looking forward to it.

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“A good cigar is like a beautiful chick with a great body who also knows the American League box scores.” – M*A*S*H, Klinger

How about a secondary foot band saying 1^st / 2^nd generation/ edition or whatever, If it didn’t add too much to the cost. That way it would be possible to sell non boxed after a few edition. This way more people would be able to buy every edition, as I would imagine most won’t be able to get a box every time but would still like to keep up with things and try them all. Maybe as a 3 or 5 pack, a 3 would be good as you could smoke one age one for a year or two and keep the last one forever sort of thing.

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MoW badge - Ranger tab - 09/17/2010

Fantastic! We are all very fortunate to have this opportunity, thanks Alex. This forum blending is the envy of any enthusiast out there, and being able to do it again and again...man, that's just sweet!

I've cast my vote for size and and name for this original blend on Renaissance Man's thread. As for the new process I'd be up for trying a new factory each time and putting that in the mix as well. We could change the size up each time, too, all up for voting. I like sol's idea of a second band that doesn't have to be production quality to so people can get these in quantities less than 20. 4 boxes a year might be hard for some. Looking forward to the next step.

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Favorites are in my bio

I agree with Joe, the construction on both are excellent...I say stay at AJ and go with Communidad. If I could only pick one size, I'd probably go robusto or toro.

I'd go for a couple boxes. I think 4 blends/year sounds about right with only 100 boxes of each going into production.

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Ken Light:

Now what we have is a president who is a limp d!ck worthless piece of slow-acting, overly-analytical nonsense wrapped in a fast-melting candy-coating made of hope... Get him the hell out of there.

I really don't care about moving factories or keeping them at AJs. He did a great job the first time so keeping them there is fine with me. I do think that 4 blends per year might be a little much though. I think 2 blends a year would be about right. I also think the idea of adding a small second band below the main band would be a great idea because a lot of guys would probably want to try these before buying a whole box and it would allow the sales of singles or 5-packs.

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Ron

I agree with adding the foot band. And if only one size/blend is going to be produced, I think we should keep any future blends limited to one wrapper type. Overall though, I am stoked, this is such an awesome site. As far as moving factories, maybe move factories once a year like someone said above, that way there would be four blends a year from a single factory, then next year's four would be from a different factory.

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AlienMisprint.com

skweekz:

It's like the world's most amazing game of Tetris in my humidor.