Yesterday I received an email from Lisa M. Figueredo, Founder & President of Cigar City magazine and I'd like to share excerpts of it with our members so you all know that our concerns do not go into deaf ears.

“I saw your comment on the event at King Corona and thanks for the plug. Unfortunately I was not able to attend for very long because my Abuela had passed away and that was the day of her services. I was not aware that Don was making people pay first for a cigar in order to get the free cigar. If I would have known this I would have pulled him aside and called him on this because the agreement is with Cigar City Smokers is that the cigar is always FREE … I will make it up to all my guest on our next smoker and will make clear to my cigar people that....you’re right...Free should be just that Free”

And today she reaffirmed her concern in her follow-up email. “If I would have known I would have paid for the cigars myself. It is important to me to keep Cigar City Magazine and its events true to what we say and I would like possibly a mention of that on your blog. We are a very small staffed company and strive to the best of our ability to stay on the straight and narrow path. Like I said below, I will make this right at our next event and will also mention this in our next issue in my letter from the Publisher,” Lisa confirms.

I am sure after hearing what Ms. Figueredo has to say we can all agree that Cigar City do care about their reputation, their commitments, and the way they are perceived throughout the cigar community. So next time you go to an event sponsored by Cigar City magazine, feel free to approach them and let them know how you feel about the event and about their magazine. I am sure they'll be more than willing to answer your questions and address your concerns, as they've shown they care enough to do the right thing.

Yesterday I went to King Corona's Puro Placer event, sponsored by Cigar City magazine and was impressed by the number of people that actually showed up, since the last event I went there (for Oliva Series V) people were trickling in, mainy because Bert put the word out to a lucky few plus regulars that happened to show up. For this event Cigar City magazine made sure to use their media muscle to reach in all directions, through the magazine and their website as well as emails that I was happy to pass on to our members. Their ad proclaimed that "Each guest will receive a Puro Placer Cigar, your choice of a select beer or wine along with appetizers." However, they failed to mention you will only receive the Puro Placer Cigar if you bought another Puro Placer Cigar, which defeats the main purpose of tasting a new cigar you know nothing about. A minor blemish on an otherwise great event, boasting the biggest number of Caliente Girls I have ever seen at any one time (Nine!) and they were all first rate, friendly and not photo-shy at all - kudos to George! I'm looking forward to share some of the pictures David and Daryl took last night.