Newman And Fuente Expand Julius Caeser Brand With Perfecto
Inspiration comes in many forms. The idea behind the latest cigar from Tampa’s J.C. Newman Cigar Co. came from a poster, and the shape was so tough to roll it was given a sassy name.
“One of my longtime mentors is Rich Dolak, the vice president of operations at both J.C. Newman and Arturo Fuente,” says Drew Newman, fourth-generation owner of J.C. Newman. “Since I was a teenager, I’ve sat in Rich’s office and listened to him teach me about the cigar business. Above Rich’s desk hangs a vintage poster with a unique shape.” That led to Newman asking Dolak: “Why can’t we roll a cigar like that?”
What seemed like a simple question turned out to be not so simple, as the image was a rather non-traditional cigar, a perfecto of sorts. But it doesn’t look like any one of the Arturo Fuente Hemingways, probably the most familiar perfecto on the U.S. market. Nor does it look like the bomb-shaped perfectos you might find in vintage photographs. Instead, the cigar tapers only subtly from head to belly, belly to foot.
Dolak used a knife to carve a wooden dowel to match the shape on the poster. That carving was then used to craft custom cigar molds. Finally, the cigarmakers at Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia. in Santiago, Dominican Republic, rolled the shape into actual cigars. That was a three-year process culminating in the cigar that was named for just how tough it was to make.
“We call it The Troublemaker because it was very difficult to create,” says Newman.
The shape has been added to J.C. Newman’s Diamond Crown Julius Caeser brand. The Troublemaker is 5 3/4 inches long with a 52 ring gauge at its fattest point, and like other sizes in the line, it’s made from a blend of Dominican and Ecuadoran tobaccos. It comes packed in leather boxes of 20 cigars with a suggested retail price of $17 per cigar.
The first boxes of The Troublemaker shipped today, but for the time being the only way to find one is at a Diamond Crown Cigar Lounge, of which there are 36 across the United States. J.C. Newman plans to expand distribution of the size early next year.
And while the Newmans call it The Troublemaker, apparently there are some who use saltier language when talking about the cigar. “The factory has another name for it,” says Newman. “As that name is not appropriate to print, it’s officially called ‘The Troublemaker.’ ”
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