Your Weekly Cigar News Roundup!

Officially unleashed at Midnight with the aim of offering cigar enthusiasts an opportunity to reach into the past, The Wraith Series by Privada Cigar Club is now available! Each year, the series travels back to another era by working with the original factories to source everything necessary to attempt to recreate some of the industry’s most celebrated cigars. This year’s Wraith is a Nicaraguan Habano wrapped 7 x 40 Lancero, which is slightly thicker than the 7 x 38 format of the OG release being summoned. Available in an elegant 5 count box for an MSRP of $75, the Privada Wraith Series 2022 is in stock on the PCC website while supplies last. (Updated 10/10: The Wraith has completely sold out in less than 24 hours)

Where you can still find them, today is the also last day to take advantage of the launch deal that El Septimo is offering with the Limited Cigar Association to celebrate their collaboration. Throughout October’s LCA weekend, the exclusive El Septimo Zaya Nueva Reserva is being offered at half of its $28 MSRP. El Septimo, as a matter of protocol, never discounts their products – so this is not likely to be repeated. CEO Zaya Younan explains that “the tobaccos used in this cigar were aged 7 years before being assembled at our high-altitude mountainous factory & plantation in Costa Rica. The wrapper is from Costa Rica and the binder and fillers are from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. This cigar has 3 fillers and is full of structure and taste.” A limited amount have also been set aside to continue to age over the next 10 years. LCA drops occur on the first Friday of every month.

(Updated 10/10: The 72 hour launch deal has ended and any remaining Zaya Nueva Reserva’s will now be available at full price.)

The storied Illusione OneOff +53 has two new expressions, both available now! Joining the 5.75 x 48 Super Robusto is a 5 x 52 Robusto and 6 x 56 Gordo. The “+53” featured on the cigar’s supplementary band is the country code one must dial when calling Cuba. There are multiple formats of the OneOff line, but this is the first big news surrounding the +53 blend since 2018. Dion Giolito, the respected polymath who dreamed up and founded Illusione, acquired the OneOff brand in 2017 and completely revived it in less than a year’s time. Even if you can’t make the pilgrimage to Giolito’s Fumare shop in Reno, sitting down with one of these new formats from your favorite retailer could be the next best thing.

 

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This week’s episode of Fuente & Meerapfel Present: Meet the Professor features special guest Omar De Frias of Fratello Cigars. Omar famously walked away from a $200,000/year salary and 12 years at NASA – yes, that NASA – to follow his passion for cigars. MTP covers it all, from managing a 5 billion dollar science budget to navigating the complexities of creating and building your own cigar company and everything in between. Hosted by Jeremiah Meerapfel, Jose Blanco, Carlos “Carlito” Fuente Jr., and Melanie Sisco.

 

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This weekend, the industry celebrates the birthday of Néstor Plasencia Sr. The Plasencia story, as it relates to growing tobacco, dates at least as far back as 1865 when Don Eduardo Plasencia left the Canary Islands and made his way to Vuelta Abajo, Cuba. When Nestor got into the cigar business nearly 800 years later in 1986, his operation quickly  grew to manufacturing 1,000,000 cigars for other companies every year. Present day – not even 40 years later – Plasencia is counted among the largest growers of tobacco in the world with more than 6,000 employees, 8 plantations, and 4 factories in spanning Honduras and Nicaragua. 40 million cigars a year now come out of Plasencia’s factories, including the family’s own brand of cigars, introduced by Néstor Andrés, Gustavo, and José Luis Plasencia in 2017.

 

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If you’re near Glenn Dale, Maryland, The Premium Cigar Association invites you to join them for a day of clay shooting, comradery, cigars and more at their 2022 Fall Fundraiser. Tickets are available for both clay shooting and general attendee only. All tickets include a curated selection of 10 premium cigars, delicious BBQ, a specialty cigar raffle/auction, and opportunity to meet and mingle with cigar manufacturers. Perhaps most importantly… cigar smoking is permitted everywhere! All proceeds from this event will go to the PCA’s Industry Defense Fund, helping the Association advocate for premium tobacco retailers and manufacturers! Minimum age requirement is 21+. Click here or on the image below to go to the event’s page where you can learn more and purchase tickets!

With many of those impacted by Hurricane Ian still displaced and unsure of what comes next, Hurricane Julia has many understandably on edge. The latest from the National Hurricane Center highlights that hours after making landfall in Nicaragua, the system has slowed to a tropical storms with warnings issued along the Pacific coasts of Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. Tropical-storm-force winds will likely continue through Monday. Driving home that these aren’t some far away places we have no connection to, Roma Craft Tabac co-founder Skip Martin updated his followers from his location in San Juan del Sur (Nicaragua) earlier today to confirm he is safe, and also shared reports of flooding in low lying areas:

 

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Wishing you another great week ahead full of your favorite cigars and your favorite people. Keep on sending in your favorite cigar related news stories, posts and videos!