The first event-only Foundation cigar, Menelik, became a national release earlier this year. Now, to replace that comes The Grasshopper. Like the original Menelik, The Grasshopper comes in packs of 5 cigars. However, the cigars in the pack are different blends, two with a San Andres Mexican wrapper, two with Candela wrapper, and one cigar with a barber pole of San Andres and Candela. The internals of the cigars is all the same using a Corojo binder from Jalapa, Nicaragua fillers from Esteli, Condega, and Jalapa Nicaragua. Each cigar measure 5 1/4 x 52.
Foundation Cigar Company’s has announced two new sizes in the Tabernacle line: David and Goliath. Tabernacle was Nick Melillio's second traditional premium cigar line, coming the year after El Güegüense. Tabernacle was his first Foundation cigar to use Connecticut broadleaf and out of reverence for the tobacco leaf, and tobacco tradition came the name, from Hebrew scripture: The Tabernacle - which housed the Ark of the Covenant before the building of the Temple of Solomon.
Windsor, CT – July 5 th , 2017 - Foundation Cigar Company announces the release of The Wise Man (El Güegüense) Maduro, for IPCPR 2017 in Las Vegas, NV. The release provides for a line extension to Foundation’s premier brand released during IPCPR 2015, where the Nicaraguan puro enjoyed a highly successful launch, going on to find inclusion in Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list for 2016.
Foundation Cigar has partnered with The Owl Shop in New Haven, Connecticut to create a special cigar to celebrate their 85th anniversary. The Owl Shop opened in 1934 and offers cigars, coffee, cocktails, food, and even live blues and jazz. The cigar shop is located next to Yale University. The special cigar will be released at an event at the cigar shop September 19th from 7-9pm.
This year, Foundation Cigars showed off three new products at IPCPR, all extensions of existing products. These included the Menelink, a previously event-only cigar, Tabernacle Havana Seed #142 lancero, a new size in the line, and the Highclere Victorian, a maduro followup to the previously Connecticut-shade wrapped Highclere Castle. All three of these products are now shipping to retailers.
Foundation Cigar Company released the original Highclere Castle in 2017. Now they are adding a line extension in the form of a maduro wrapper called Highclere Castle Victorian. This new blend will be shown off at IPCPR 2019 and will ship August 2019.
Foundation Cigar Company has announced an extension to their Tabernacle Havana Seed CT 142 line, a Lancero. In keeping with the tradition of releasing a lancero extension to his new lines the following year, Nick Melillo is bringing this lancero to the 2019 IPCPR trade show and convention.
June 12, 2017 Windsor, CT – Experiment Station: There is no question that Foundation Cigar Company is intimately tied to the Connecticut River Valley, but their newest offering has taken this love to the next level. To commemorate and honor the great state of Connecticut and its tobacco tradition Foundation Cigar Company has created for release, a very limited number of Chest Collector “Humidor” Boxes that will be available in stores. “We wanted to honor those predecessors who brought the leaf to the state, worked with different varieties and really put Connecticut on the map with regards to tobacco. We’re talking about hundreds of years of experimentation to arrive at the incredible point where we are today,” said Nick Melillo, President of Foundation Cigar Company.
Foundation Cigars has announced that ATOL will become Foundation's new creative team and will debut their work at their year's IPCPR trade show in Las Vegas 2018.