New El Pulpo Culebra On Its Way To Retailers This Week
The El Pulpo line from Artesano del Tobacco has a new size, and it’s something we don’t often see in the cigar world—a culebra.
Called Octo Ocho, the culebra is a trio of long, thin cigars twisted together in a braid like intertwined snakes, or in this case, tentacles (El Pulpo translates to “the octopus” in Spanish). Each cigar measures 7 inches by 37 ring gauge and every entwined trio is sold in an individual slide-lid coffin that has a suggested retail price of $40, which works out to $13.33 per cigar. An entire box holds three coffins.
Like the rest of the sizes in the El Pulpo line, Octo Ocho is made in Nicaragua by A.J. Fernandez and consists of a Mexican wrapper around an all-Nicaraguan blend.
El Pulpo is a fairly new brand, launched in May by Artesano del Tobacco, which is owned by Gus, Billy and Bass Fakih, former New York City cigar-shop owners who left retail in 2015 and became brand owners. The strong cigars impressed our tasting panel with a particularly high-scoring vertical brand tasting in a June issue of Cigar Insider. Each of the three cigars reviewed scored 91 points or higher, with the top scorer earning 94 points.
The El Pulpo Octo Ocho will begin shipping Friday.
