9. Montecristo Pilotico Pepe Mendez (2016 Packaging Awards)

For the latest extension to the Montecristo line, Altadis U.S.A. chose to honor tobacco grower José “Pepe” Mendez, who left Cuba in the 1960s on a two-year journey to find the ideal place to grow high-quality tobacco, a journey that eventually led him to the Dominican Republic. Building on the theme of that journey, the company packaged the cigars in boxes designed to look like suitcases, complete with leather straps, suitcase style hinges, a leather handle and even a bag tag tacked on to complete the look.

montecristo-pilotico-robusto-box-1 The cigars were adorned with two bands; the traditional Montecristo band done in the line’s dark brown and orange-red color scheme, and a second band that featured Mendez in profile wearing a Panama-style hat and with a cigar in his mouth. While many cigar smokers might not know who Pepe Mendez is, the packaging of the cigars that bear his name hopefully inspired several of them to do a bit of digging into the story of a man who has established more than 20 different grades of tobacco, pushed the feasibility of Dominican tobacco forward and enhanced the curing and aging processes by introducing strict controls over environmental factors. It’s packaging that is not only well-thought out and worthy of display, but that cracks open the door into the world of an underappreciated tobacco man.

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Read the review here.