The market for pipes, pipe tobaccos and cigars is small so those in the trade try to stand out. In Singapore, a few of these clowns try their utmost to be known as world-class assholes and douche bags and precisely because this is such a small place, everyone knows who they are.
Cigar makers on the other hand use more subtle methods to be remembered. Didier replaces the bands with strings, Oscar Valladares and Island Jim Robinson wrap each of their cigars in an entire tobacco leaf, and CAO cigars replace some of the bands on their cigars with a thin rope fashioned out of cigar leaves.
Not only is this cigar visually interesting, it was also made with a very unique type of tobacco.
The filler blend contains 40% Bragança tobacco, a rare Amazonian variety harvested only triennially. CAO reports that after its single harvest, the leaves are hand-rolled into carottes and undergo a six-month natural fermentation. This tobacco’s transport to the Nicaraguan factory is a lengthy, four-to-six-week process, involving manual portage to the river, canoe transport to the mainland, land transport to the port, and finally, shipment to Nicaragua.
And the smoke? Rich, a tad spicy, super satisfying. (I was gifted a few sticks by a cigar merchant I visited in Taipei last Sunday.)