José Blanco Guest Blends Invictis Cigars

Source from:  Cigar aficionado 04/28/2015

Tre-J Cigar Company owns it. José Blanco blended it. And Emma Viktorsson designed it. That's the story behind Invictis, the purposely misspelled cigar brand coming to market in May.

If you haven't heard of the Ohio-based Tre-J Cigar Company, it's owned by Jay Clark, John Johnson and Jerry Garrett, hence the three Js. The company is fairly small and is known, primarily throughout the Midwest, for its Vicarias cigar brand.

But Tre-J sought a new vision for the upcoming Invictis, so they turned to Las Cumbres Tabaco and the blending knowledge of José Blanco, who created and oversees the blend at the Tabacalera La Palma factory in the Dominican Republic, which also produces Blanco's Señorial brand.

Invictis consists of an Ecuadoran Habano wrapper, a Dominican binder and a Dominican filler blend of Criollo '98 and Pilot Cubano. It will come in three sizes: Legions, measuring 5 1/2 inches by 50 ring; Centurio, 5 1/4 by 50 and Emperor, 6 by 54. They're set to retail from $6.50 to $8.

The bold packaging was the brainchild of Viktorsson, also of Las Cumbres.

Production began in December, but now that names, sizes and packaging have been finalized, the official launch of Invictis is imminent. A precise release date has yet to be established, but Tre-J anticipates the cigars hitting the market some time in May. Enditem