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La Sirena Adds New Merlion Line
The La Sirena brand, from Miami Cigar & Co., is releasing a new line called Merlion, named for the mythical creature whose body is half mermaid and half lion.
Assistant director of marketing for Miami Cigar Barry Stein says that Merlion is meant to balance out the portfolio, and will give an option to those who may have shied from the more full-bodied La Sirena line.
While La Sirena is made at the My Father Cigars factory in Nicaragua, Merlion is being rolled at the La Aurora S.A. cigar factory in the Dominican Republic, owned by Guillermo León. León is Spanish for lion, and sirena is a mermaid, so the mythical merlion is a combination of the symbols of each company.
The cigars are made with Ecuadoran Corojo wrapper, a Brazilian Sumatra binder and a filler blend of Dominican Corojo, Dominican Criollo, Nicaraguan ligero and Brazilian Mata Fina. Three sizes—Robusto (5 inches by 50 ring), Toro (5 1/2 by 54) and thick Toro (6 inches by 58 ring)—will come in boxes of 20 with suggested retail prices from $9 to $10.50.
Miami Cigar expects the cigars to start shipping in late June of this year.
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New Illusione Has A New Factory
If you’re wondering why you didn’t see a Singulare release from Illusione last year, it isn’t because you missed the cigars—they never came out. But brand owner Dion Giolito is almost ready to simultaneously release two vintages of Illusione Singulare. The new cigars will come in the same package as previous ones, but these new cigars are being rolled in Nicaragua, rather than Honduras.
“Last year we were back-ordered by about a half million Illusione cigars,” said Giolito. “It doesn’t make sense for me to release a limited edition when I can’t get my regular product out to my customers. But now we’ve caught up.” Each box of 15 cigars will contain two different vintages, the 2011, which has a Corojo wrapper, and the 2012, which comes wrapped in a Mexican San Andrés cover leaf. Both measure 6 inches by 52 ring, a size that Giolito has dubbed Vimana (Sanskrit for U.F.O.), and will retail for $11 each.
“The blends on these cigars are both completely different,” said Giolito. “But they do share common leaves from a Nicaraguan farm called Chilamate, which grows very distinct tobacco.”
The cigars will be easy to tell apart as the 2012 San Andrés will come wrapped in tissue paper, the 2011 Corojo without.
Unlike all other Illusione cigars, this year’s Singulares are made in the TABSA factory (Tabacos Valle de Jalapa S.A.) in Nicaragua, which is owned by Eduardo Fernández, the principal in tobacco conglomerate Aganorsa S.A. All other Illusiones are made in Honduras, at the Fabrica de Tabacos Raices Cubanas S. de R.L. (Despite being rolled in Honduras, most Illusiones are made entirely of Nicaraguan tobacco.)
“This factory is much closer to the source,” explains Giolito. “It’s right up the street from the preindustry tobacco. If we need to make a last-minute change, logistics are much easier.”
Around 1,200 boxes of these Illusione Singulare cigars have been produced. Expect to see some of them in retail shops by the end of the month.
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Inching Up: Thicker Smoke From Ernesto Perez-Carrillo
Ernesto Perez-Carrillo is working on a new cigar, and it’s going to be one of the thickest he’s ever produced.
Inch by E.P. Carrillo, a three-size line of cigars with ring gauges of 60 and up, should be on sale by July. The cigar release is in direct response to retailers and consumers asking for ever-thicker cigars.
“All the reps are asking me for a large ring gauge cigar,” Perez-Carrillo told Cigar Aficionado this morning. “We have big ring gauges in the E.P. Carrillo line,” said his son, Ernesto Perez-Carrillo III, but we still get that question–when are you going to come out with a big ring gauge? We wanted to do something different.”
That meant pushing the E.P. Carrillo name to the back, and leading with the word Inch. The brand will have three sizes: a cigar measuring 5 7/8 by 60 ring gauge, one that is 5 inches by 62, and the whopper, a 6 1/8 inch long, 64 ring gauge cigar.
Ring gauges are measured in 64ths of an inch, so the 64 will be one inch across in diameter. The thickness of the smoke will be evident in the band that is being designed to go around it–it’s fashioned after an antique ruler.
Perez-Carrillo is unsure if this is the thickest cigar he’s ever made. When he was making La Gloria Cubanas, there were some limited-production smokes that were considerably girthy. There are other cigars on the U.S. market that exceed 64 ring, including some 70s, but even by today’s standards a 64 ring gauge cigar is considerably fat.
The cigars are being rolled at Perez-Carrillo’s Tabacalera la Alianza factory in Santiago, Dominican Republic, alongside several varieties of E.P. Carrillo cigars and Four Kicks, which Perez-Carrillo makes under contact for Crowned Heads LLC.
Inch will come in two wrapper varieties. The natural will have an Ecuadoran Sumatra wrapper, while the maduro will be made with Connecticut Broadleaf. Perez-Carrillo is particularly enamored with the filler blend, which has three leaves from the Dominican Republic (a mix of Dominican Piloto Cubano, Corojo and Criollo ’98), plus some Nicaraguan viso. The binder is also Nicaraguan.
“People have a conception that Dominican tobaccos are mild,” said Perez-Carrillo. “When they try this, they’re going to see the difference.” He said the Dominican Piloto Cubano and Corojo were grown in small quantities. “Some of the tobacco there’s only 100, 200 tareas grown, enough for 200 or so bales,” he said.
If all goes according to plan, the cigars will reach shops in July, before the summer trade show. They are expected to retail for around $9 to $11 per cigar.
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