While the blendlab thread said goodbye quite a while ago (
http://www.cigarbid.com/.../645792/Blendlab-Cigars ) there were still a few that were available at CI and, occasionally, here as well.
Well, that is now finally over. EVERY Blendlab cigar is now "out of stock" on the Mothership even the horrible VB by Drew Estate which (for reasons that elude me) was their best seller and one which was, until just recently, still in stock.
Likewise, there have been no Blendlab auctions here for more than a week and the last few that they had were just 2 or 3 singles.
There is always the chance, I guess, that they find a box lying around the warehouse and they decide to get rid of them on here but I hereby declare the party over.
The executioner for the Blendlabs (and the "roll your own" program and soon many other small batch cigars) is that horrible FDA regulation. There is hope however. A couple weeks ago in D.C. I was able to talk to most of my State's delegation and got commitments from several to support the premium cigar bill - even got one to co-sponsor it!
The problem, of course, is that with all the other turmoil going on, this is not a high-priority issue for them. My pitch was that this should be an easy "victory" for all those that oppose over-reaching federal intrusion and that seemed to resonate with a number of them. Very little effort for a good notch in the anti-regulation belt.
So sign up on the cigar rights page ( https://www.cigarrights.org ) , write and call your Senator's and Representatives. There is hope, if not for Blendlabs, then for the other small volume cigars that we will lose soon if nothing is done.
Oh, yes, for the several that asked, since no longer available I shall break my code of silence: The Oliva V Melano prototype was the ZH-6558 and if you had one of them, you could tell. It was (and, with my stockpile, still is for a while) just as good.