Cigar News: Caldwell and Cigar Dojo Collaborate on Far Eastern Standard

Caldwell Cigar Company and Cigar Dojo announced today their first collaboration: Far Eastern Standard. This new cigar is a lancero, another first for Cigar Dojo, and pays homage to the original Eastern Standard release from Caldwell, a long time favorite of the Cigar Dojo.

During the period from 1867 to 1912, Japan was ruled by Emperor Meiji (aka Meiji the Great). During this time, the country made great progress in transforming the country from an isolated and pre-industrial state into a world power. From this the distinction is sometimes made between “old Japan” (pre-Meiji) and “new Japan” (post-Meiji).

This rapid modernization is a metaphore for how Robert Caldwell and Caldwell Cigar Company, rose to prominence in 2014, in no small part to a cigar called ‘Eastern Standard' featuring the likeness of a bearded fisherman named Hans Nielsen Lahkso. This cigar cleared a path for Robert Caldwell and his company in the boutique cigar space. Cigar Dojo also modernized the cigar industry social media space with the launch of their app in 2012.

It's no secret that Cigar Dojo has a love of Asian culture. This love has been combined with Caldwell's progressive character to create this 7″ x 40 lancero known as Far Eastern Standard. The cigar band features the hand-drawn likeness of Emperor Meiji. The blend uses a Colorado-shade Nicaraguan Habano leaf, Indonesian binder, and fillers from both Nicaragua (Habano) and the Dominican Republic (Piloto Cubano)

“I was very excited to take part in this collaboration with Dojo,” said Robert Caldwell, owner of Caldwell Cigar Co. “We wanted to put together a product that would really be top-notch. This cigar is a cigar that I have been smoking almost every day since we first blended it. It really is my perfect cigar. It's medium-bodied, rich, creamy, smooth and balanced.”

As a unique experience, these cigars are being release freshly rolled, meaning they are packaged right off of the rolling floor as opposed to resting for a few months as is typically seen. During the testing process the freshly rolled cigars tasted so good that they decided to let fans have the same experience. The freshly rolled cigars have a slight punch over their rested counterparts with are other wise medium-bodied.

Eric Guttormson, owner of Cigar Dojo, commented, “We have been hoping to do a lancero for a long time and Robert nailed the perfect blend combination with this Far Eastern Standard. This cigar oozes tons of flavor and has instant-classic written all over it.”

Far Eastern Standard will be sold exclusively at Smoke Inn Cigars. This starts off with a pre-release party at Smoke Inn's flagship Boynton Beach location on November 6th at 7pm. Both Robert Caldwell and the Cigar Dojo team will be in attendance. After the event, the remaining allocation of Far Eastern Standard cigars—300 bundles of 10 cigars total—will be sold on Smoke Inn's online store on November 8th at 12pm (Eastern Time). Far Eastern Standard will be sold for $89.95 (MSRP) a come in 10- count bundles.