Today is the first Friday of the month, which always means that its Limited Cigar Association Day at hundreds of brick and mortar shops across the country. This month’s selections at the Year of The Wabbit blended by A.J. Fernandez and Blood Orange by Erik Espinosa of Espinosa Premium Cigars. Potential legal issues left many wondering if the Chinese Zodiac inspired selection – crafted at Tabacalera Annex in Esteli – would actually be made available or not ahead of Easter weekend.
While it’s debut might be less controversial, the story behind the Blood Orange is the stuff cigar dreams are made of. At a time when he was having issues sourcing it, Espinosa was looking for a suitable replacement for the Laranja’s wrapper. This small batch of just a couple thousand cigars is the closest he got before he was able to secure more stable and consistent supplies of the existing tobacco. Use their store locator to find your nearest LCA partner retailer, and happy hunting!
The first of three blends being released as part of a limited series from Wildfire Cigars, the new The Intro is expected to appear on shelves and sites over the next few days. Initially made available through Luxury Cigar Club, the cigar shipped out to more retailers earlier in the week. One of a growing number of recently released cigars crafted at Fábrica Centroamericana de Tabaco S.A. – the Cavalier Genève factory – this is the first time Wildfire has worked with the FCT Honduras team.
Only 700 boxes of The Intro, the full production run, have been let out into the wild. Each box contains 10 cigars, which will each be available for a suggested $12. Featuring an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapped ,Corojo binder, and filler tobaccos from Jalapa, Esteli, and Pennsylvania, Wildfire promises that the intro is not what you’d expect from a Connecticut. Also look out for The Wanderer, which went out alongside The Intro, and showcases Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper leaf, Nicaraguan Habano binder, and a combination of four filler tobaccos from the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Jalapa, and Pennsylvania. The Wanderer was crafted at FCT.HN as well.
Commemorating a decade of crafting premium cigars DBL Cigars just opened two brand new sprawling facilities in the Dominican Republic. Spanning more than 30,000 square feet, these two factories – one for cigars and one for cigar boxes – are just the first pieces of the founder’s larger vision. Francisco Almonte sees the complex evolving over time to include a daycare center for employees, a warehouse, and a rolling school. Almonte grew up rolling cigars and absorbed everything he could from teachers and mentors like Carlos Fuente Sr. and Litto Gomez. The new cigar factory can facilitate the fermentation of hundreds of thousands of pounds at one time, with the box factory capable of producing over 16,000 boxes a month. Given that this new space is 10 times larger than his last it’s safe to assume that DBL won’t be slowing down any time soon.
While there’s almost no information about this new blend at all, what is known so far is worth sharing. Nick Melillo of Foundation Cigars let the cigar loving public behind the scenes for a moment to see something he’s working on for July’s Premium Cigar Association trade show in Las Vegas. Melillo posted an image of a cigar with no band and challenged his followers to guess the wrapper leaf. The only clue, other than the image itself, is that that no other Foundation offerings utilize the the tobacco being experimented with. The winning guess? Ecuadorian Sumatra!
Crafted at Fabrica de Puros Aladino S.A. – the Eiroa Family’s JRE factory in Honduras – a new regular production collaboration has been announced by Scandanavian Tobacco Group. The new Punch Golden Era will launch in three formats: Robusto, Toro, and Churchill. Expected to ship out to shops the first week of May, the suggested retail price ranges from $9.99 to $10.99 depending on which size you add to your cart or bring up to the register. Punch Brand Manager John Hakim said that “The Eiroa family has perfected Corojo tobacco and we are excited to bring it to life with Punch Golden Era. This tobacco delivers a silky, golden wrapper, a binder with ideal combustibility and a filler that produces unique spicy notes and a spectrum of nuances.”
Wishing you all another great week full of your favorite cigars and your favorite people. Keep on sending in your favorite cigar related news stories, posts and video. If anything from this roundup catches your attention, let everyone know in the comments below!