HABANOS S.A. UPDATES JOSÉ L. PIEDRA PACKAGING

[El Presidente]

 

https://halfwheel.com/habanos-s-a-updates-jose-l-piedra-packaging-again/411895/

[Hammer Smokin']

gold'ish bands. 

definitely going to see an increase in price. 

[Ford2112]

Improve the tobacco? Just a thought

[El Presidente]

8 hours ago, Ford2112 said:

Improve the tobacco? Just a thought

Spain is the biggest market for JP. 

I suspect this is where they would like all the price disaffected to head. 

Look for some new Quintero packaging soon. 

[garbandz]

1 hour ago, Hammer Smokin' said:

gold'ish bands. 

definitely going to see an increase in price. 

too late, already gone up.

 

maybe one day they will work on quality rather than packaging..........HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA  !!!!

[MattxG]

Interesting, I wonder if the cheaper "volume" brands are gonna see more attention since a lot of the more mainstream stuff has been pushed out of peoples price ranges.  It's funny, a box of JLPs that I debated about binning a few months ago is actually looking like they may be smoked at some point.  

[LordAnubis]

I think i had a seizure trying to read it. Its what they deserve really, being filled with behike and sir winston offcuts.

I had a petite caballero on the weekend at the herf with the boys... one of the fellow brothers had a taste and liked it, he proceeded to place an order for them 😂. Honestly, for the price they are good. I prefer them to quintero for the "yard smoke".

[anacostiakat]

Another one that the wife enjoys.  

[Fugu]

Don’t belittle me my Piedras! While I could easily do without the band pimping (which holds for the chintzy Rafael González one as well)

[NSXCIGAR]

I'm all for sprucing up dull packaging. Hey, it's all some people can afford. And the Spanish love them--give them the gift of having a decent band on a cheapie. 

That said, the only JLP I ever found smokeable was the Petit Cetros. More than smokeable in fact. I had many 88-90 pointers believe it or not. Well, they got cut so I tried the Petit Caballero when it came out and I almost barfed. 

[Fugu]

5 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I'm all for sprucing up dull packaging. Hey, it's all some people can afford. And the Spanish love them--give them the gift of having a decent band on a cheapie. 

 Yup, we may agree on that. The JLP has been ugly before (way uglier than the old ones) and is slightly less ugly now. But granted, it’s close to the original branding now (while, in comparison, they got the alignment of the two halos of “rays” oddly wrong. Why did they do that??! Looking weird).

But the RG or also the Quai hadn’t needed a sprucing up as you call it, in my view. The gloss is somehow wrong on these. The old, simple bands had been classy. Dead horse, I know, but I still can’t, and will never, get over the Quai d’Orsay one... Just looking cheap.

As for tobacco blend, true for the Petit Cetros, absolutely. And the Cremas had been very smokeable, too. Never had a Petit Caballeros. I’m all excited about the current Brevas. I think I’ve mentioned it before. Might just be a lucky „golden“ batch, but current 2021 boxes (12ers) are consistently nice. I’m plowing through them when I am in the field. Urgently need to stock up before any price “adjustments“.

[NSXCIGAR]

59 minutes ago, Fugu said:

But the RG or also the Quai hadn’t needed a sprucing up as you call it

I think they may have gone too far with the QdO but they may have thought what do they have to lose, perhaps almost transforming it into a new brand.

The new RG I think is tasteful. The old bands are really blah. And quite small to boot. I'm fine with the new ones, although maybe I'm just overly excited about the Coronas de Lonsdales. 

In contrast I never liked the new Hoyo bands. Too white. I would have preferred a variation of the gold and red version. And I always liked the DC bands. They should use it for all special releases. 

I assume you wouldn't have objected to having the old brown and white HU bands on all models? I personally think a band should be attractive. I think the Partagas Serie bands are quite attractive and as such haven't changed at all since the 1930s. No need. 

Many of the bands used pre-Rev were very attractive--some far more than today. By any era's standard the RG band was pretty lame. 

[KnightsAnole]

I don’t think it’s hideous, I sort of like it, but it does have that nouveau-vintage, shabby-sheik, hipster kind of feel. I just don’t like them using fancy packaging  as a reason for a price hike, as we’ve seen in at least the last 20 years. If they could revitalize the art of rolling quality cigars in Cuba, consistently put out 25 smokable cigars in a box that aren’t an insult to the incredible tobacco itself, I wonder if they wouldn’t be losing such a massive percentage of the US market right now. It’s not like we can’t afford it, it’s because other “luxury “ items available to us have a better perceived value. But, Corona claros were going for a song before it’s band change and look what they cost now,  So I get where the initiative is coming from.

 

[Fugu]

12 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

By any era's standard the RG band was pretty lame.

You’re calling it lame, I call it understated elegance 😄 (holding even more for QdO!)

Lame I call it, when after revamping with shiny bands and boxes, you’re boosting demands - as intended, and on principle nothing wrong with that - but you then don’t manage to supply that “new” market to a reasonable extent.

 

12 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I assume you wouldn't have objected to having the old brown and white HU bands on all models?

Absolutely! Nothing nicer than the looks of a complete face of brown-banded Swinnies in their cabinet! And that’s not because of the bands! 😁

[NSXCIGAR]

15 hours ago, Fugu said:

Lame I call it, when after revamping with shiny bands and boxes, you’re boosting demands - as intended, and on principle nothing wrong with that - but you then don’t manage to supply that “new” market to a reasonable extent.

No argument that HSA has mastered putting the cart before the horse although they did get the QdOs out pretty quickly, although now it's the Coronas no one can find! That is indeed lame. 

I'm not sure the RG band revamp is really enough to boost demand. It's quite modest and an update that was 20 years coming. Obviously introducing a new model should create demand and yes, I hope they are able to supply it. It's just baffling how long these lag behind the announcement and yet they still can't meet demand. I don't have a marketing degree but maybe just wait to announce? 

[Bijan]

18 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

In contrast I never liked the new Hoyo bands. Too white. I would have preferred a variation of the gold and red version. And I always liked the DC bands. They should use it for all special releases. 

I really like the new Hoyo bands. Very sharp and the gold is nice.

I like the DC band aesthetically but it looks really worn and faded (like what happened with the green warranty seals), they need to remaster it.

Edit: i will say i smoke a lot of depute and the new band was basically the small or medium rg band before, and works better for that, than big rg. So yeah maybe use the DC design for the bigger RG cigars.

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, Bijan said:

I like the DC band aesthetically but it looks really worn and faded (like what happened with the green warranty seals), they need to remaster it.

It looked like they really printed it with high quality for the GR DCs. I thought at first they hadn't revamped it but it looks like they are least used gold foil instead of the embossed gold paper. It really pops on those.