We have arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana for the 2025 Premium Cigar Association Trade Show and Convention. We will be bringing you all of the insights on the newest releases, collaborations, news updates and everything else the come out of the show. One of the things I will list in this article is my predictions in general but mostly who I expect will have a great show.
One of the things that I wanted to point out is that going into the show, most of the announcements were made less than a week before we begin. First of all, this made it hard to gauge the velocity of this trade show sooner, which as of today is much different that the view I had two weeks or even a week ago. Moreover, if a company wanted to make some noise heading into a trade show, they should have had their marketing teams make these announcements sooner and not during the two days when most of us are traveling and getting settled in for the week ahead.
There are many more releases expected for the 2025 show versus the 2024 show. In 2024, we saw the first year of the schedule change and having the show in March versus July. This was expected to cause a smaller release window with manufactures and while it was a good show, it wasn’t the most robust release year. This year however there are many things to be cited about. I wont get into a lot the specific releases by company here as we have already been covering this extensively. But you can follow all of that coverage on our PCA 2025 coverage page.
Here is a list of manufacturers or brands that based on their announcements and other small factors related to historical data that I expect to be the biggest winners of the show:
- Altadis U.S.A.
- Arturo Fuente
- Drew Estate
- Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust
- Espinosa Premium Cigars
- General Cigar Company/Forged Cigar Co.
- Gurkha Cigar Company
- J.C. Newman Cigar Company
- J.R.E. Tobacco
- My Father Cigars
- Perdomo
- Plasencia
- Quality Importers Trading Company
- Rocky Patel
- Selected Tobacco
- S.T. Dupont
- Tatuaje
As I mentioned before I wouldn’t not go into a full specific list. However, I do have a top five cigars that I expect to be the “hottest” if you will of the trade show:
- Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust 10th Jubilee
- My Father Cigars Blue
- Perdomo Cigars Legacy
- Rocky Patel 30th Anniversary
- Romeo y Julieta 150th Anniversary
The last few years it seems have been the year of the anniversary. This year is no exception and the brands celebrating those anniversaries are the ones who also know A. how to releases a limited edition product and B. are the ones celebrating the more celebrated anniversaries. I expect these cigars will all either sell out or sell to a point where there will barely be enough left for the folks who missed out at the show and are looking for a second chance. Suffice to say, the brands in the top five cigars list will be going home with a wallet full of money.
Anyone not mentioned this list isn’t seen as not potentially having a good show, however these are the brands that seem to be bringing the most anticipated products that also generate the most excitement from the consumer based on what we have seen in the past and what we have already seen regarding the reaction to this years announcements. There are plenty of brands destined to have a good show, but these are the ones that sit at the top. Why do I stress this point? Because most people understand how to read and will understand what I am saying and others will skim and become angry they weren’t mentioned.
Following the show, we will revisit this list and see how accurate we were with our predictions once these products are fully unveiled and we get a sense from these manufacturers on how well they have actually sold during the trade show. We also talk to retailers to get a sense on what they like and how they are buying at this trade show.
Outside of the releases and the brands themselves, I thing that this so far will be a good trade show. I do know that most if not all of the trade show floor was sold and is full. Attendance is up from last year and more people have made the trip to the industry’s biggest event of the year. Provided that there are not any external interruptions, I think this is on par to be a successful show overall. How successful it will be for each company is to be determined by themselves and how they execute these next few days.
The beginning of our full show coverage begins tomorrow with both video and written coverage to check back in for more as the show progresses.
