Roberto Duran To Launch First Connecticut-Wrapped Cigar

Source from:  Cigar Aficionado 06/15/2016

Roberto Duran Premium Cigars is preparing to launch its first Connecticut-wrapped cigar at the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers trade show this summer. The cigar is called Azan Blue Connecticut, and it wears the first crop of Connecticut-seed leaf to be grown at the company's Fincas Azan S.A. tobacco farm in Ecuador.

Company owner Roberto Pelayo Duran says he grew the Connecticut-seed tobacco to interest some of his farm's clients, but was so impressed with the quality of the leaf that he decided to keep some for himself.

"Some of our wrapper customers had expressed interest in Connecticut," Duran told Cigar Aficionado. "But now that we are rolling cigars with the Connecticut wrapper, we will go further. We are already planting different varieties in the present crop and will continue to produce it, not just as wrapper supplier but for our own consumption as well."

Azan Blue Connecticut will debut in three sizes: Robusto, at 5 inches by 50 ring gauge; Campana at 6 by 52; and Toro de Luxe at 6 1⁄2 by 54. Besides the Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, all the tobacco is from Nicaragua.

The Azan Blue Connecticut line is set to retail from $7 to $8 and ship in 20-count boxes. Though the wrappers for the cigars are grown at the company's Fincas Azan S.A. farm in Ecuador, the cigars are rolled at Nicatabaco, S.A., located in Estelí, Nicaragua. The cigars are expected to ship to retailers immediately after the IPCPR trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"We will be shipping in early August," Duran confirmed. Enditem