By Cigar Chronicles Staff
Matt Urbano, founder and owner of Urbano Cigars, describes his company’s just-released, second boutique premium cigar: "Urbano Sumatra has a sweet, earthy flavor that settles into a creamy, ‘chocolaty’ smoke. It has a light, leathery finish and a luxurious white ash. Sumatra’s medium body complements our first introduction this summer, the medium-to-full-bodied Urbano Corojo, and is perfectly suited to mid-morning or early-afternoon relaxation."

The Urbano Sumatra has a sleek, satiny Sumatran wrapper, with an Indonesian binder and Dominican filler blend. Sumatra’s wrapper, like the Urbano Corojo, is triple-fermented, without scalding or other artificial means. This process yields a refined smoke, significantly reducing the tobacco’s nicotine and natural starches and sugars. Combine that with a full two years of aging of the tobaccos, and the result is a flavor-filled but smooth smoke.

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By Cigar Chronicles Staff
Ares Contreras, founder and president of Pride Cigars, Inc., offers his new 809 value-priced premium cigar line, in time for holiday gift-giving. Contreras, a third-generation Cuban-American tabacalero, is in his fourth year of operation, specializing in boutique premium cigars.

The 809 line consists of one of the broadest choices of cigars in the industry, including multiple shapes, wrapper shades, and blends. A rarity in the industry, Contreras created the 809 as both a hand-made long filler cigar (Black band), and the hand-rolled medium-filler Red band. Both fall into the value-priced category … suggested retail pricing for the long-filler Black band tops out at $2.50, while the medium-filler Red band retails for up to $1.60.

Four 809 wrappers are available in both Black and Red labels: A mild and silky Connecticut-seed leaf, which is "shade-grown" under Ecuador’s prevailing high, thin overcast skies; a mild-to-medium Sumatran; a medium-to-full, red-hued Corojo; and, a naturally-fermented full-power, but mellow, Maduro.

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By Cigar Chronicles Staff
Paul Joyal, founder and president of Ocean State Cigars, Inc., describes his new J. Grotto Series Reserve boutique premium cigar line: "Above all, it’s an intriguing, memorable smoke. Unlike many one-dimensional cigars, it displays a complexity and depth, with a unique spectrum of flavor and body profiles."

"For the first inch," he continues, "J. Grotto Reserve gives the impression of a mild-to-medium smoke. But then, the powerful, flavor-loaded nature of the cigar announces itself, augmenting its complexity, thanks to the J. Grotto Reserve’s five-leaf recipe. In addition to the tobacco’s three-year aging, we rest the finished cigars for three to four more months, to allow their tobaccos to meld and mellow. It rewards the connoisseur with pure opulence … rich and full-bodied, but refined."

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