Raices Cubanas Creates New Cigar Brands Bearing Its Name
If you’ve smoked cigars for a long time and study the names of the factories behind the brands you’ve likely come across the name Raices Cubanas. It’s the Honduran operation that rolls some Illusione cigars, many Alec Bradley lines and a variety of private labels. Now, the company wants to be better known to the end consumer, and has launched four new cigars bearing its name, all of which debuted this month.
Each one is made with Honduran tobaccos (some are Honduran puros), they range in intended power from somewhat mild to somewhat strong, and they are relatively inexpensive, priced from $7.25 to $12.95 per cigar. All the cigars are rolled with two binders and wrappers grown in Trojes, Honduras.
To work on this expansion and transformation, Raices brought on Ralph Montero, who used to be Alan Rubin’s right-hand man at Alec Bradley Cigars.
Raices Cubanas had a line before, called Raices Cubanas 1941, which was distributed by Alec Bradley when it was owned by the Rubin family. But that brand was only sold for a year or so, and was never a main focus of the business.
“This is Raices Cubanas’ true introduction,” says Montero.
Raices Cubanas Clasico is blended to be the mildest of the new cigars, made from an all-Honduran blend. It comes in five sizes: Robusto (5 inches long by 50 ring gauge, with a suggested retail price of $7.25); Toro (6 by 52, $8); Figurado (5 3/16 by 54, $8.40); Churchill (7 by 50, $8.50) and Gordo (6 by 60, $8.75).
The GRD3 blend, which the company calls medium in body, is also entirely Honduran. There are three sizes, each of them considerably fat and named for their ring gauges: 460 (4 by 60, $9); 660 (6 by 60, $9.75) and 770 (7 by 70, $12.25).
On the stronger side are the Raices Cubanas Liga de Reyes and C5 Black. Liga de Reyes is made with mostly Honduran tobaccos, but one of the binder leaves is from Estelí, Nicaragua. It comes in five sizes: Robusto (5 by 52, $9.75); Belicoso (5 1/2 by 52, $10.50); Toro (6 by 54, $10.65); Churchill (7 by 50, $10.95) and Gordo (6 by 60, $11.35).
Raices Cubanas C5 Black, which the company says is the strongest of its new cigars, also has an Estelí, Nicaragua leaf in the binder. Some of its power comes from the Honduran wrapper grown in Trojes, using the fifth priming leaves from high atop a tobacco plant. It comes in five sizes as well: Robusto (5 by 52, $10.50); Belicoso (5 1/2 by 52, $11.50); Toro (6 by 52, $11.50); Gordo (6 by 60, $12.50) and Double Toro (6 1/2 by 56, $12.95).
All of the brands come packaged in 21-count boxes.
The cigars began shipping this month, and are slowly making their way to retailers. The company intends to make a big push in the spring during the PCA trade show.
Raices Cubanas was founded in 2003 by Romay Endemaño, his wife Maria (Lipa), and their son Hugo. Today, Hugo is president of the company and Montero is executive vice president.
