How About a Word From Our Sponsor...

The Tiki Bar started publishing online almost two years ago, but I have to admit it was more of just a personal deal until last December, when I decided to try taking it to a different level. I tried out some new regular features, got help from a good friend on marketing this whole thing, and then finally got him to start writing for the blog, fulfilling a goal that the Tiki Bar not always be just about my voice...from the time the of the first Tiki Bar meetings it was always more about community. Along the way we have picked up some more regular readers and made some new friends...now we're ready to expand the experience even more.

About two months ago, we welcomed Burns Tobacconist in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as our first sponsor. Today, we welcome our first cigar manufacturer sponsor: CAO Cigars. Over the past few years, Keith and I have had the pleasure of meeting several of the CAO family. Their west coast rep, Budz, frequently hangs out at the same store Keith is practically a fixture at (and I used to visit when I lived there). I've met the Tennessee rep, Jeff, on several occasions. We met Tim Ozgener in Las Vegas at the Big Smoke and I got to meet him again last summer at an LX2 event at Burns. When we had our Tiki Bar "On The Open Road" trip a few weeks ago, we met director of lifestyle marketing, Jon Huber, at CAO Headquarters and then a few days later at CigarFest, where I first asked him if he would consider sponsoring the Tiki Bar. The answer, to our delight, was "Yes." (While I'm on the subject of CAO HQ, Susie, the Brand Ambassador, is one of the nicest people I have ever met; she does her job so well and with such enthusiasm that when I left I wanted to smoke nothing but CAO cigars.) I am proud to have CAO headquartered in the state where I was born, and where I now reside after escaping Southern California.

So...on to the part that will interest most (hopefully all!) of you. As part of sponsoring the Tiki Bar, CAO has provided a boatload of prizes that we are proud to be able to award in our first-ever Contest! (The crowd went wild!) A few lucky people (8, to be exact) will be able to win the following prizes:

3rd Prize: CAO Combat Cap (in Olive or Black, your choice while both colors are available) - 4 of these will be given away.

2nd Prize: CAO Gray Fedora - 2 of these.

1st Prize: La Traviata Crystal Ashtray - 1 of these.

and, finally, one lucky person will win the
Grand Prize:

A Box of La Traviata Radiante cigars

La Traviata Crystal Ashtray

Black Lotus triple-flame table-top lighter with CAO logo

Palio Cutter with CAO logo

CAO Gray Fedora or CAO Combat Cap (your choice)

That Grand Prize is pretty darn Grand if I do say so myself...all the cigar enthusiast needs to properly represent for the CAO Team! "What do I have to do to win?" you ask...well, we didn't want to make it too complicated, but...it is anyway! Hey, nothing worth having is ever that easy, is it?

First: You need to follow both me (@dmjones1009) and Keith (@Keith1911) on Twitter. If you already do, you can skip this step. This is important as it's the way we'll be contacting the winners.

Second: Spread the word. Send out this message on Twitter:

The Tiki Bar's First Contest is On! Win CAO cigars & swag! http://tinyurl.com/23w7nlk (@dmjones1009)

(This counts as one entry equal to leaving a comment, so you could win just by doing this!)

Third: To increase your chance of winning, leave comments here on the blog. This contest will run from today, June 28, through Sunday, July 4. Every time you leave a comment on one of the posts that runs during those days (there will be at least 6, maybe more), you will get an entry into the contest. Only one comment per blog post per person will count and the comment needs to be relevant to the blog post in some way. The comments section on the Tiki Bar is set up to use several methods of logging in and posting comments, including anonymously, but if you want us to be able to contact you, we need you to include your Twitter name in one of your posts. If you don't, we may be able to figure it out, we may not...if we can't figure out who to award the prize to we'll have to award it to someone else.

All Blog Comments and Tweets posted by midnight (Pacific Time) on Sunday, July 4, will be eligible. On Monday, July 5, I will put all the names of eligible entrants into one of those CAO Gray Fedoras and randomly choose winners. I will post the names on the blog and contact the winners via Twitter Direct Message. Because of the cost of shipping and customs considerations, only U.S. residents are eligible and all prizes must ship to a U.S. address.