I Never Planned to Go to TPE 2026 -- Then One Product Forced My Hand
- The Cigar Profit
- Mar 23
- 9 min read
A premium cigar consultant, an industry disruptor and what it revealed about where this industry -- and my business -- are actually headed.
March 24, 2026 | Jonathan Lipson | The Cigar Profit Consulting
I know.
It's been a while.
That's not great for consistency.
Not great for visibility.
Not great for engagement.
But it's been very good for my clients.
And that matters more.
Because posting isn't the job.
The work is.
For the last several months, the work came first. The kind that doesn't show up as content but shows up in numbers, decisions and direction. Client projects. Strategy. Pressure testing brands that were stuck in sameness and forcing them to make real choices.
TPE 2026 was nowhere on my calendar.
I had no plans to go, no booth circled, no "see you in Vegas" posts drafted.
Until one product landed on my desk.
Forced me to rethink my own rules.
And made it impossible not to show up.
So if you've been wondering where I've been, there's your answer.
I haven't been hiding.
I haven't been coasting.
And I haven't been short on opinions.
I've been working.
And now you're going to see what that work built.
Because I'm going to TPE 2026.
Not just as an attendee.
Not just to walk the floor and collect impressions.
I'm going with a new client.
A product that's going to make a lot of people in this category uncomfortable.
And a clearer view of where my business is headed next.
What PCA 2025 Confirmed
PCA came first.
I walked into that show with my eyes open and my hands in my pockets. No booth. No agenda. Just an honest read on where the premium cigar world actually is. Not where it tells itself it is.
What I saw matched what I'd been feeling for a long time. (I wrote all about it in The Audit: What PCA 2025 Really Revealed About the Cigar Industry)
Too much sameness.
Too much safe.
Too much product built to disappear.
I wasn't staring at the biggest names. I wanted to see the newcomers. The "fresh blood."
Some looked sharp.
Some clearly had their act together.
But outside of that handful, line after line could have passed for off-brand satellites of companies the market already knows. Different bands, same posture. No sharpened point of view. No real answer to the question every buyer, retailer and smoker ends up asking:
Why should I care about this instead of everything else in front of me?
That's the part that keeps getting skipped.
People confuse participation with position.
They think showing up is enough.
It isn't.
They think having a good cigar is enough.
It isn't.
They think the blend will "speak for itself."
It won't.
The premium cigar business isn't a forgiving market. If your name isn't recognizable, good luck getting on the shelf. And even if you get there, you don't stay there without a story and a strategy that cut through the noise.
PCA just sharpened the lesson:
Good product isn't enough.
Hard work isn't enough.
Passion, by itself, sure as hell isn't enough.
The market has to understand who you are, why you matter and why your product belongs in the conversation. And the people closest to the brand are usually the least qualified to see where that story breaks.
That's where I come in.
I've carried the bag.
I know retail.
I know sales.
I know brand.
And I know what happens when decent ideas get smothered by weak messaging and founders who are too close to the thing to see their own blind spots.
Some people want validation.
Some want a cheerleader.
The people I work best with want something else.
Pressure testing.
Honesty.
Decisions.
That's the work.
And that work led directly to the next chapter.
The Newest Client. And Yes, I Was Skeptical.
Let's get the uncomfortable part out of the way first.
My newest client isn't a premium cigar brand.
They do carry a small premium cigar accessory portfolio.
But outside of that, in our world, they're known as "the alternative guys."
VPR Brands. My newest client.
South Florida company.
Known for Honeystick.
Known for Elf.
Home to Dissim. My favorite lighter brand.
Premium cigar smoker and VPR COO - Dan Hoff.
I've worked with him for years.
In earlier chapters, I did business with him on Dissim. Since going independent, I've stayed a supporter. But from the outside.
If you're already thinking, "Why is a premium cigar consultant walking into that portfolio?"
I asked myself the same question.
The answer starts with one product: Grandfadda Premium Electronic Cigars.
Skepticism.
Resistance.
Eye roll.
Products like this get thrown into a specific box instantly.
Alternative.
Outsider.
Fake cigar.
Category threat.
And if I'm being honest, before I spent any real time with it, I probably would've nodded along with that verdict.
Then I did what this industry keeps saying it values but rarely practices:
I actually tried it.
And that changed the conversation.
This isn't a project I took because someone waved a check and said, "figure it out."That's not how I work.
I took it because once I tried the product. And really thought through what it is, what it isn't and where it could fit. There was a real assignment here:
Make this legible to a market wired to resist it.
Tobacconists.
Wholesalers.
Consumers.
The exact people most likely to cross their arms first and ask questions later.
Good.
That's what makes it worth doing.
The Real Problem Isn't Premium Cigars. It's The Environment.
Let's be clear about something up front.
The problem Grandfadda is solving is not premium cigars.
Premium cigars aren't broken.
The environment is.
A premium cigar isn't a six-minute habit.
It isn't a quick hit.
It isn't something you casually light between obligations and then forget about.
A premium cigar asks something of you.
Time.
Attention.
A setting that cooperates.
Once you light it, you're in it.
That's part of the beauty.
And part of the problem.
Because the world around that moment keeps tightening.
Cities and states keep redrawing where you can smoke.
Hotels, venues, casinos and properties layer on their own restrictions.
Partners don't want smoke in the car or in the house.
Work and life compress the windows where a real premium cigar session actually fits.
The smoker didn't create that environment.
But he has to live in it.
And in the middle of all that, the broader nicotine world has spent years sprinting in other directions. vape, heat-not-burn, pouches and "alternatives" of every shape and size.
Premium cigars don't get to pretend that context doesn't exist.
None of that means cigar smokers are looking for a nicotine replacement.
Most aren't.
That's where people are going to get Grandfadda wrong if they approach it lazily.
Grandfadda isn't trying to replace a handmade premium cigar.
It isn't trying to trick anyone into thinking the two are the same thing.
They aren't.
The argument here is simpler and more honest:
Sometimes you want the ritual.
The shape.
The draw.
The cue your brain associates with "this is my moment."
But you don't have the time, the freedom or the environment to light the real thing.
That's the gap.
That's where this product steps in. Not as a stand-in for premium cigars but as an adjacent tool for the moments the real thing can't occupy.
A complement, not a replacement.
And definitely not an "alternative."
What Told Me This Deserved a Real Look
There were a few specific details that told me this wasn't a stunt.
First was the mouthfeel.
The tip has some give to it.
Not hard plastic.
Not the cheap rigid feel that breaks the illusion before you even take a pull.
Premium cigar smokers are creatures of habit.
We know what it feels like to have a cigar in our mouth.
We know when something respects that muscle memory and when it ignores it.
Then the formats.
One roughly five inches by around a 48 ring.
The other - four inches by around a 58 ring.
Not "exactly robusto" or "exactly gordito" in the strictest catalog sense.
But close enough that when you pick it up, the cue lands immediately.
It doesn't feel accidental.
It feels intentional.
Same thing with the visual ritual.
On the pull, the foot glows red.
On paper, that sounds like a gimmick.
In practice, it mimics a cue your brain already associates with "lit cigar in motion."
We don't just experience cigars through flavor.
We experience them through signals.
The glow doesn't make this a cigar.
But it does tell you someone was actually thinking about the experience, not just the silhouette.
Then there's the flavor work.
What impressed me was what it didn't try to be.
This isn't a candy shop "rainbow razz" fog machine wearing a cigar costume.The profiles were built to evoke premium cigar character.
Not a fruit stand.
Not a nightclub.
If you're going to argue that something belongs adjacent to this category, it can't just steal the shape and hope nobody notices.
It has to respect the occasion it's stepping into.
That was the tell.
It wasn't the novelty.
It wasn't the controversy.
It was the intentionality.
Why Traditionalists Will Hate It First
Let's not sugarcoat this.
A product like this is going to make some people angry before they ever touch it.
Not after.
Before.
The word electronic does a lot of damage in premium cigar circles all by itself.
For some, that's the end of the conversation.
No trial.
No questions.
Just a verdict.
I understand why.
Premium cigars are not just product.
They're ritual.
Craft.
Identity.
Memory.
So when something shows up adjacent to that world with a battery and a charger, wearing a label people associate with disposable habits and cheap behavior, the reaction is predictable.
But predictable and informed are not the same thing.
A lot of the resistance isn't really about the product's actual merit.
It's about what people think it represents.
In the mind of the traditionalist, something like this can look like:
A shortcut.
An insult.
An intruder trying to borrow premium cigar cues without paying the dues.
If that's your first instinct, I get it.
Mine was nearby.
But first instincts aren't always informed instincts.
And in a category that claims to care about discernment, that difference should matter.
Because if your entire position is just reflex dressed up as principle, let's call it what it is:
Prejudice with a premium wrapper on it.
This world loves to talk about innovation.
About wanting new consumers.
New energy.
A category that stays relevant.
But too often what it really wants is familiarity wearing different clothes.
Innovation as long as it looks safe.
Progress as long as it flatters the existing hierarchy.
New ideas as long as they arrive in old packaging.
That isn't innovation.
That's comfort.
Comfort has its place.
But comfort doesn't build the future.
Why TPE Is the Right Battleground
That's why TPE matters here.
This is exactly the kind of show where this conversation should happen:
Not in whispers.
Not in back rooms.
Not with people pretending they're too pure to acknowledge that the environment has changed.
Out in the open.
TPE is where categories move.
Where products get tested.
Where people who are actually paying attention can see where things might be headed before everyone else catches up.
I know how traditional premium cigar smokers think.
I know how tobacconists protect their shelves.
I know wholesalers must have products that move.
I know how quickly a product like this can get written off just to preserve someone's comfort.
Good.
That gives me a realistic starting point.
The assignment isn't to lie about what this is.
It isn't to pretend it's something it's not.
It isn't to insult premium cigar smokers with a cartoon version of what they value.
The assignment is to frame it honestly, position it intelligently and make the case that there is room around the premium cigar experience for a product that solves a different kind of problem.
That's the work I'm showing up to do at TPE 2026 with VPR Brands.
Why The Cigar Profit Is Expanding
Now zoom out.
Everything I just described. The context, the friction, the constraints, the resistance. It's not unique to cigars.
It's the story of regulated categories.
Where you can't say whatever you want.
Where the rules are tight.
Where marketing "as usual" doesn't work.
Where the environment shapes behavior as much as the product does.
That's why this next move isn't a departure.
It's a logical extension.
I'm launching JRL Marketing. Just Regulated Lines.
Not as a replacement for The Cigar Profit but as a second lane.
The Cigar Profit stays focused on premium cigars.
JRL focuses on regulated categories more broadly:
Tobacco.
Nicotine.
Alcohol.
Cannabis.
Other age-restricted heavily constrained products where communication can't be lazy and strategy can't be generic.
Because the strategic problems rhyme.
Different product.
Same friction.
Different regulations.
Same communication challenge.
Different customer.
Same question:
How do we get attention, keep it and move people when the rules, the norms and the environment keep tightening around us?
Generic agencies don't solve that.
Cute copy doesn't solve that.
"Spray and pray" marketing definitely doesn't solve that.
Clear positioning does.
Relentless focus does.
An outside perspective that understands both the category and the constraint does.
That's what JRL is for.
The site is in production.
The public-facing pieces are coming.
But the thinking is already in motion. And TPE is the first public proof.
If This Sounds Like Your Problem
If you're in premium cigars and your brand, line or retail operation is stuck in sameness, stuck in noise or stuck inside its own internal blind spots, that's where The Cigar Profit does its best work. Schedule An Exploratory Call
If you're operating in a regulated category outside premium cigars. And you've outgrown generic marketing language and advisors who don't understand what restriction does to strategy. That's why JRL Marketing exists. Schedule An Exploratory Call (the form is currently on the Cigar Profit website, but don't worry)
Different lanes.
Same standard.
I've been quiet.
Now you know why.
And now you know what's next.
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