Antillian To Ship Reblended Santa Julia This Month

Source from:  Cigar Aficionado 01/14/2016

Antillian Cigar Corp., also known as Sosa Cigars, is preparing to relaunch its Santa Julia cigar line for national distribution. The cigar was once commercially available across the United States but is now only available at Sosa retail stores in Florida, where the company is headquartered. "Santa Julia had national distribution in the '70s till the early '80s," Arby Sosa of Antillian Cigar told Cigar Insider. "From 1995 until now it's just been sold in our retail shops."

According to the company, Santa Julia was the name of the Sosa family tobacco farm in Taguasco, Cuba, purchased by Don Juan Sosa and his son Arturo in the 1920s. The farm was ultimately lost to the Castro regime and the Sosa family left Cuba in 1962. Two years later, the Sosas opened their first U.S. store in Miami, Florida. "Antillian Cigars was founded in 1964," Sosa said.

Unlike the current Santa Julia cigar that is made in Nicaragua and only available at Sosa-branded retail shops in Florida, the new Santa Julia cigar launching this month is made in the United States, at La Vega Cubana in Clearwater, Florida. Referred to as chinchalles in Spanish cigar parlance, La Vega Cubana is a small rolling gallery, smoking lounge and retail space that sells its own cigars. Many other Sosa brands are made in the Dominican Republic at Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia.

"Santa Julia is being made at La Vega Cubana in Clearwater, Florida," Sosa confirmed. "Sosa Classic, Sosa Super Selection, Sosa Half Century and Sosa 50th Anniversary are all made at Fuente Factory Plant Number 4 by my dad, Juan Sosa. He's been with Fuente since 1997."

The new Santa Julia also boasts a different blend than the Nicaraguan variety, and is draped in an Ecuadoran Habano Oscuro wrapper, with a Honduran binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The first batch of the new Santa Julia will begin shipping near the end of the month.

"We will be shipping around 2,000 Santa Julia cigars in January," Sosa said.

The total production run for Santa Julia will be 20,000 cigars, with the remaining 18,000 cigars to be shipped over the course of 2016.

Santa Julia will ship nationally in two sizes: Torpedo, at 6 1/2 inches by 52 ring; and Toro, 6 by 50. The Torpedo will retail for $9.90, the Toro for $9.60. Enditem