Note that even the "Premium Cigar Rescue" bill that has been submitted leaves out any cigar with any "flavor additive." That could be a pretty broad target. Yeah, I don't smoke what most of us around here call flavored cigars, but what about all the barrel-aged smokes? The ones exposed to wine and brandy fumes? The fire-cured cigars? "flavor additive" could be a dangerous foothold for the regulators, new legislation or no.
"According to the new House bill, a traditional large and premium cigar is defined as any roll of tobacco that is wrapped in 100 percent leaf tobacco, bunched with 100 percent tobacco filler, contains no filter, tip, flavor additive or nontobacco mouthpiece and weighs at least six pounds per 1,000 count. The bill also specifies that a large or premium cigar must be hand rolled with 100 percent leaf tobacco binder."
"There is a provision, however, allowing for some machine-made cigars produced in the U.S. to evade FDA regulation, so long as a pure tobacco-leaf wrapper is hand-applied before the cigar enters a bunching-capping machine. Little cigars are excluded from this provision, but J.C. Newman makes larger cigars that qualify in its 126-year-old factory in Tampa. Those cigars differ greatly from the billions of mass-produced smokes made on high-tech, automated machinery such as Swisher Sweets, Backwoods and Black & Mild, which the bill would not exempt."
-First they came after the While Owl Grapes, but I did not speak out, as I did not smoke White Owls
-Next they came after the Kuba-Kuba's, but I did not speak out, as I did not smoke Kuba-Kuba's
-Then they came after the sweetened-tipped La Glorias, and I gave the Feds a high-five!