Illusione H-Town Lancero Coming in January (Update)

It’s a Steve Jobs moment.

The late Apple founder was known for his ability to present products that you didn’t know you wanted and now there’s a cigar in Houston many didn’t know they wanted. Officially, STOGIES World Class Cigars’ latest private label is Illusione H-Town, a  7 x 40 lancero is a Nicaraguan puro with corojo 98 wrapper, criollo 98 binder and undisclosed fillers. The murmurs? It’s a lancero based on the Illusione Singularé 2010.

Illusione founder Dion Giolito declined to comment on questions about what the blend is based on. Regardless of what it is, it most certainly isn’t a lancero rolled with the same tobacco as the Singularé Phantom. Those tobaccos were described at the time as very limited, hence the limited nature of the original cigar, and they are almost certainly long gone.

Like most of Illusione’s portfolio, the cigar is being produced at Tabacos Valle de Jalapa S.A. (TABSA).

This is the third cigars to carry the Illusione Cigars Privé band, which is used for the store exclusives the company produces. It’s limited to 300 boxes of 15 with pricing set at $9.95 per cigar.

Illusione becomes the eighth company to produce an H-Town Lancero. Jorge Ahued, the store’s co-owner, is a noted fan of the vitola. Two years ago, he set out to have 10 manufacturers produce 10 different lanceros exclusive for the store. RoMa Craft Tobac’s Neanderthal OM has been announced as one of the two remaining releases.

This is the first of the eight released cigars to not carry a special H-Town secondary band.

The Illusione H-Town will go on sale on Jan. 1, 2016.

Update (Dec. 5, 2015) — Apparently not ready for sale. The Illusione H-Town will go on sale on Jan. 1.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.