Limited Santo Salomon From Roberto Duran

Source from:  Cigar Aficionado 11/11/2015

A box of cigars is typically the work of a team. In most cigar factories, bunching and rolling are separate tasks. Even when both jobs are done by one person, cigars from many workers are brought together, sorted for color and often end up in various boxes. One package may contain the work of several people.

Not so with the new Roberto P. Duran Limited Edition Salomon. The smoke is bunched and rolled in Nicaragua by one man, Crisanto Cardenas, known as Santo.

If you have ever traveled to Havana and stopped at the cigar shop at the Comodoro Hotel, you no doubt noticed the older gentleman in a tie carefully rolling cigars. He is Santo, who has been making cigars in Cuba for more than 50 years. Retired from his former job of working in various Havana cigar factories, Santo is allowed to travel (something off limits to the typical Cuban) and one of his recent trips brought him to Nicaragua, where he did a very special project for Duran.

Duran, who once worked for Cuba's tobacco monopoly, says he met Santo back in 1994. The two have remained friends over the years, and Duran convinced him to make this figurado. Santo rolled 3,000 of the cigars, which come in individual coffins and are packed five to a box. Duran said it took Santo two trips to his factory in Estelí, Nicaragua to complete the cigars.

The 7 1/4 inch long, 57 ring gauge cigars have torpedo-style tips, a fat bulb near the foot and a perfecto-style bottom. They are made with a combination of Nicaraguan fillers, two Nicaraguan binder leaves and a wrapper grown in Ecuador by Duran's company.

The cigars retail for $25 each and are on sale now. Enditem