Rocky Patel Premium Cigars is preparing to reveal Tabaquero Hamlet Paredes at the IPCPR trade show this month.
If the name Hamlet Paredes sounds familiar, it's because he was a former Habanos S.A. ambassador who became famous among Cuban cigar smokers through his in-store rolling demonstrations and Cuban tobacco seminars held at tobacconists around the world. Rocky Patel met Paredes through one such tobacconist and offered him a job.
“Robert Fox from the JJ Fox tobacconist in London introduced me to Hamlet,” Patel told Cigar Aficionado. “I was very impressed with his knowledge.”
Paredes now works for Patel and created the blend that is now known as Tabaquero Hamlet Paredes. Although the cigars are manufactured in Nicaragua, the cigar was first developed at Burn, Rocky Patel's high-end cigar lounge in Florida.
“They're made in Nicaragua at the TaviCusa factory, but were blended by Hamlet in Naples, Florida at Burn,” Patel confirmed. “His visa doesn't allow him to go to Nicaragua, so we spent months developing this blend. Because he can't go to Nicaragua, Hamlet does not physically roll these cigars, nor does he oversee them, but the blend is his.”
Danny DeVito portrait.
Tabaquero features a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, filler from Nicaragua, and Brazilian Mata Fina and San Andrés binders. The cigar will launch in five sizes: Robusto, 5 inches by 50 ring ($8.60); Toro, 6 by 52 ($8.80); Salomon 7 1/2 by 58 ($9.80); Corona, 5 1/2 by 42 ($8); and Robusto Grande, 5 by 54 ($8.80).
Tabaquero will ship to retailers in September.
This article first appeared in the July 7, 2015 issue of Cigar Insider.