Stepping into General Cigar Co.’s booth at this year’s IPCPR Convention and Trade Show, there was a good bit of mystery would be in the Foundry Tobacco Co. section, the offshoot headed by Michael Giannini and known for releasing literally dozens of small batch, limited edition and limited production cigars in the past few years. But this year was different; instead of taking cigar smokers to other planets as he did last year, Giannini took them back in time to revisit a pair of lines in the General portfolio that had fallen out of the limelight in recent years, Bolivar and Ramon Allones. Both were getting the Foundry treatment, as he put it; time travel in a different way, using heritage brands with a reimagined presentation that attempts to be more modern while still keeping a look that references each brands’ storied past. For Bolivar, the brand traces its roots back to 1901 or 1902 in what is believed to be Great Britain and José Fernández Rocha. The mark did not get registered in Cuba until 1921 by Rocha via his company, J.F. Rocha y Cia. The company became known for producing what was considered the world’s smallest cigar, the Delgado, which ...
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