Cigar Rights of America Releases Winter 2025 Freedom Sampler

As the year comes to a close, Cigar Rights of America has released its newest Freedom Sampler, which it uses to help fund its operations, specifically protecting premium cigar freedoms at the local, state, federal, and international levels.

The CRA Winter 2025 Freedom Sampler contains 10 cigars, which come from 10 different cigar companies, most of which serve on the CRA’s board. The companies donate the cigars to CRA, which are then placed into a custom Boveda bag and sold to stores. While a little money is spent for the logistics of these samplers, the vast majority of the revenue from the wholesale sales of the packs goes to the CRA’s budget, which funds the organization’s lobbying and outreach efforts.

While many of the cigars are available outside of the sampler, there are a couple of new additions:

Tatuaje is continuing its year of featuring Nicaraguan-grown corojo wrappers by including a new variant of its Smashed Pumpkin in the sampler, which was also included in the company’s Saints & Sinners member package this year. The Smashed Pumpkin has made several appearances in CRA Freedom Samplers in recent years, including the Smashed Pumpkin Capa Especial, a version that was part of the Fall 2024 Freedom Sampler and which used an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. Previous versions of the Pumpkin have used a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, although the Tatuaje Shaggy Pumpkin that was released in 2021 used a Nicaraguan corojo wrapper and had an unfinished foot. Earlier this year, Tatuaje released corojo-wrapped versions of its T110, Cohete, 7th, and Avión 13 lines.

While not a new line, Oliva’s Serie V comes in a new 6 x 60 box-pressed figurado, a spin on the regular production Special V Figurado shape.

Finally, while the Padrón Black No. 600 was part of CRA’s Fall 2024 Freedom Sampler, it didn’t use the term maduro, which suggests the cigar featured a lighter-colored, natural wrapper. That would mean that this is the debut of the Padrón Black No. 600 Maduro, however the company has not clarified if that’s the case. As for the blend, Jorge Padrón has previously stated that the profile falls between the Serie 1926 and the Family Reserve, adding that it’s likely considered closer to the Family Reserve in terms of fullness.

Pricing is set at $250 per sampler, with a total of 5,000 samplers produced. They have just begun shipping to retailers.

Image courtesy of Cigar Rights of America.

Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and the G-League’s Valley Suns. I was previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League, and Goodyear Ballpark, spring training home of the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I’m a voiceover artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.