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Dr. Luis Antonio Sorinas Gonzalez, the initiator of Cambodia’s first longfiller cigars, Grandlead and Padrino. Photo credit: Power Cigar Tobacco Co. Ltd.
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Cambodian torcedores at work. Photo credit: Power Cigar Tobacco Co. Ltd.
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Power Cigar Tobacco’s marketing manager, Adrian Lee. Photo credit: Thomas Schmid
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Besuki Raya Cigars’ booth at InterTabac 2024 was always thronged with visitors. Photo Credit: Thomas Schmid
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BRC’s Mee Ling Njoo presents a tin box of Chiquitos. Photo credit: Thomas Schmid
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Dominium Cigars’ co-founder (and former opera singer) Ivan Gancedo. Photo credit: Thomas Schmid
Tobacco Asia looks at new cigar products that made their debut at InterTabac 2024.
One of the most exciting aspects for visitors to large international exhibitions is that the halls are brimming with new products in every imaginable category, making their global debuts there. InterTabac is no different, with almost every other booth showcasing something that hasn’t been seen before anywhere. For this article, Tobacco Asia scouted out some remarkable new premium cigar offerings that should delight even the most discerning aficionado.
Power Cigar Tobacco
(Cambodia)
Brands: Padrino and Grandlead
Cambodia is home to many things unique in the world, among them the magnificent ancient temple complex of Angkor, the majestic Tonle Sap (Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake), and tropical dream beaches, but sadly also one of the worst social transformation experiments in human history under the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. But, premium-class cigars?
Enter Power Tobacco Co. Ltd., which in 2014 set up a huge 10-hectare tobacco processing and cigarette manufacturing complex near the southern city of Sihanoukville with an investment of close to US$60 million. However, a few years hence, the premium cigar idea emerged when the company hired Cuban sommelier and master blender Dr. Luis Antonio Sorinas Gonzalez as its technical director, who eventually created two whole lines of Cambodia-made longfiller cigars. “What we’re trying to do [with these brands] is blending two cultural realms together: the ancient culture of Angkor and the ancient cultures of Central America, where tobacco originated and the cigar was born,” said Adrian Lee, Power Tobacco’s marketing manager.
Gonzalez meticulously started training local workers under strict guidance to eventually become expert torcedores while simultaneously developing the company’s first cigar line, Padrino, in 2018. The range, which was specifically created for the Spanish market, but “also any other connoisseur who enjoys the aroma, taste, and creamy smoke of old-style Cuban cigars,” according to Adrian Lee. The range exclusively uses carefully selected Caribbean tobaccos in its blend and comes in Half Corona, Short Robusto, Robusto, and Cañonazo formats.
Power Tobacco’s subsequent premium line, Grandlead, was only launched in 2022 and, again, exclusively uses Dominican longfiller, Indonesian Besuki (binder), as well as Ecuadorian Habano Maduro and Honduran Habano as wrappers. Grandlead is produced in Mareva, Corona Gorda, Dalia, Cañonazo, Robusto, and Toro formats. Rivaling anything originating from the Dominican Republic, Grandlead also proves once again that excellent cigars can be made anywhere in the world as long as the leaf quality is right and the torcedores are up to par. “That is why our slogan is ‘Inspired by Tradition, Made in Cambodia’,” pointed out Adrian Lee. Presently, Grandlead is available in Cambodia and some other ASEAN markets as well as in China. But the company also is “in the process of introducing it in other Asian markets,” Lee said.
Adrian Lee insisted that Power Tobacco, or rather its specifically established subsidiary Power Cigar Tobacco Co. Ltd., at this moment is Cambodia’s only premium cigar manufacturing company. “There are no others.” It was a challenge getting there, too, and derive a product that could actually prevail in such an enormously competitive – and discerning! – market environment. “Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the entire operation was to train our first batch of local torcedores, which took a couple of years,” divulged Lee. “It wasn’t easy. It takes time to acquire the skills and perfect them. At the moment, we employ around 40-plus on our rolling floor, but continue training more.” Lee also disclosed that the company was looking for more distributors and marketing partners “in Europe but also more in Asia and Africa as well.” Interested parties, please note.
Besuki Raya Cigars
(Indonesia)
Brand: El Gaucho Chiquitos
It was at InterTabac 2023 that well-known Indonesian leaf merchant Mangli Djaya Raya internationally introduced its brand new cigar manufacturing subsidiary, Besuki Raya Cigars (BRC), instantaneously garnering phenomenal buyer interest. And it was the following year, at the 2024 installment of the world’s largest tobacco show, that BRC launched its latest offering within its flagship El Gaucho line. The newly created, cigarillo-sized El Gaucho Chiquitos come in Premium and Fantástico variants.
El Gaucho Chiquitos are the direct result of a life experience; in this case something that happened to BRC’s company president, Christian Njoto Njoo, while on a business trip to Japan… and which left him quite frustrated. Christian’s sister and BRC’s marketing manager Mee Ling Njoo retold the story to Tobacco Asia, tongue in cheek, of course. “Christian just loves enjoying his usual Robusto, or even a Toro, wherever he’s traveling. But it was winter in Japan on that particular trip, so he was forced to smoke his cigars outside in the icy cold, with the result that he always was unable to finish any of them. He found that such a waste as he kept discarding the half-smoked cigars. That’s when the thought that, maybe, he should develop a product small enough to last only about 15 to 20 minutes. But a product, of course, that still imparts the same fullness and richness of taste as his beloved premium Robustos and Toros. Just smaller and less wasteful.”
In essence, the Chuiquitos idea was sparked by a gloomy Japanese winter. Now that’s a new one. But according to Mee Ling it still took a few years of development to get the new product market-ready. Amazingly, Chiquitos are actually longfiller cigarillos and invariably hand-rolled. “Don’t be fooled by their small size, as they’re still a premium, quite full-bodied product that comfortably lives up to our other formats within the El Gaucho range,” confirmed Mee Ling. “Each cigarillo has the right kick and we are convinced the product will be a winner with all cigar connoisseurs that are looking for a smoking session that doesn’t necessarily extend over one and a half hours.”
Both the Chiquitos Premium and the Chiquitos Fantástico use Dominican longfiller and Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. “There is no Indonesian tobacco in them at all, which tend to be rather too mild,” said Mee Ling. Both variants have only been rolled out in Indonesia in June 2024 so far, but proved an instant success. “They are very popular. We underestimated the market, actually,” admitted Mee Ling. “We are hoping on export opportunities and are confident that they have the potential to becoming just as popular elsewhere as they are in Indonesia now.” Needless to say that they also can be enjoyed when the weather is not ice cold…
Dominium Cigars of Nicaragua LLC
(Nicaragua)
Brand: Dominium
What do you get when an opera singer from Argentina partners with a tobacco expert from Jalapa in northern Nicaragua? That’s right, you get a new premium cigar line like no other. After opera tenor Ivan Gancedo bought a 150-hectare tobacco plantation in Jalapa, it was initially with a view that local long-term friend and factory owner Donaldo Gonzalez would use the harvest to produce for him a steady supply of cigars for fueling his own consumption. “You know, the kind of cigar that only tobacco growers and factory owners smoke themselves, but which are not available for anybody else out there,” Gancedo grinned. A couple of years went by, visiting friends regularly complimenting Gancedo for the outstanding quality of his essentially no-name product. It didn’t take long thereafter before Gonzalez floated to his close friend the idea of going commercial – and importantly – without compromising one iota on the quality. Gancedo was thrilled.
A brand name was needed, of course. “We initially came up with ‘Dominion’,” Gancedo told Tobacco Asia. “It’s a strong word in the sense of having power over someone or something; or in our case dominating the tobacco… if that is possible at all.” In the end, and after many discussions with Gonzalez, the partners settled for Dominium. Going to market only a bit over one year ago, Gancedo’s global social connections helped kick off the neonatal brand with “the rich and powerful” set from Qatar to Buenos Aires, from New York to Delhi, from Zurich to Dubai. So, for all intends and purposes Dominium was already well established in certain circles before Gancedo showcased its brand to the broader public at InterTabac 2024.
In line with Ivan Gancedo’s own multi-faceted personality, Dominium cigars are available in an eclectic spread of formats. All of them use Nicaraguan longfiller, much (if not all) of it presumably from Gancedo’s own plantation, and Indonesian Besuki as binder leafs. Depending on the format, the wrappers range from Mexican Maduro San Andres to Ecuadorian Habano or Connecticut. One more aspect makes Dominium a very intriguing choice for any cigar lover seeking out the unusual: while Estelí may be Nicaragua’s undisputed “cigar capital,” Dominium hails from Jalapa. That fact alone should be reason enough to give this excellent and versatile cigar a try. Being a man with an imbued sense for the dramatic, as we left Ivan Gancedo’s InterTabac booth, he sent us on our way with a deeply philosophical observation: “Once you get into the cigar world, it grips you with a passion, you become obsessed. It’s like a burning fire within that will never extinguish,” he mused. Perhaps only an opera singer could have said it so beautifully.