New "Make your own" in this magazine issue

roland_7707

kuzi16

ejgorman

Being new myself, I was curious what others would think of this. I kind of expected rave reviews. Personally, I think it would be beneficial to just be able to try the puritos and get a sense of flavor components individually.

Martel

ejgorman:

Being new myself, I was curious what others would think of this. I kind of expected rave reviews. Personally, I think it would be beneficial to just be able to try the puritos and get a sense of flavor components individually.

Yeah, that was the most appealing aspect of it. Maybe they can sell the puritos with no blending commitment? Otherwise the $ prices me out. It would be a one-time thing unless I happened to get really lucky on the blend. You're limited in what tobacco you choose from, and I'd have to think the blends are therefore quite limited. This is probably done intentionally to keep the cost to a somewhat manageable range for an "experience".

kuzi16

Andrew Dzikoski

Well I am the one in charge of the project for right now so I can answer any questions for you guys. I'm no expert blender but mine came out awesome and the whole process is pretty simple. Yea it's $10 a stick but you can make a blend exactly the way you want it which is other wise impossible sure you can find something that you may be close to what your lookin for but this is dead on. Atleast for me the blend I made is the best thing I ever smoked maybe I'm partial since it's sort of my baby but I'm sure if any of you guys do this project you'll probably feel the same way. Now we don't have enough of the kits in so you can just purchase them but once we do I will let you all know.

customblends@cigar.com

Just to give you guys some more information...

The blends are made at G.R. Tabacaleras Co. in Miami. It is a new factory on 8th Street "Calle Ocho" that was opened just over a year ago by George Rico the owner of Gran Habano. The only cigars made there now are George Rico American Puro and Barracuda. The standard production Gran Habano blends such as #1 Connecticut, #3 Habano, and #5 Corojo are made at thier original factory in Honduras. George refers to this new factory in Miami as G.A.R. Deli because he started it with the concept of creating a deli type enviorment where you can walk in off the street and order a cigar exactly to your liking. Only issue was you needed to be in Miami to try this, we partnered up to bring this to the whole country. Currently we have a menu of 17 types of tobacco and they are all very good, and we plan to add more and remove in future as inventory permits. Since all the cigars he is selling out of the factory are in the $10 range he can afford to buy the best tobacco and pick up smaller lots of unique leaves that would never make it to standard production. We are very excited about offering this service and we believe we are the first to do so. Obvisously, at this price it's not going to be an everyday cigar, but I can tell you from first hand experience that the process is extremely fun and rewarding. On top of that, the cigars are excellent in construction and materials, flavor-wise, well that is up to you quite literally. As you smoke through each tobacco you'll start to pick up flavors you've tasted before, and also some you haven't. I'm sure I've missed answering some questions, but please email us at customblends@cigar.com if you are looking for specifc info. We already backordered some of our kits and we think this will be quite popular. If you want to do it, now would be the time.

Martel

dr_frankenstein56