La Gloria Cubana Releases Rival Twin (Update)

This week, a new limited release from General Cigar’s La Gloria Cubana began arriving at retail stores, the La Gloria Cubana Rival Twin. West Coast Cigars in San Jose, Calif. announced their arrival on Monday night.

The release is comprised of two 10-count boxes, for a total of 20 cigars per box. Ten of the cigars, called Lady La Gloria,  feature an Ecuadoran Sumatra wrapper, while the other ten, dubbed Rival Twin, use a Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper. They are both described as “tweaked” La Gloria Cubana blends and come in a 7 x 58 vitola with a suggested retail price of $8.49. They are being limited exclusively to brick and mortar stores in the west region of the United States.

Michael Giannini of La Gloria Cubana explained the backstory of these cigars and what makes them unique. “The idea is that Lady La Gloria has a twin who was born a minute later; she is a little more feisty, hence the name Rival Twin.” He indicated that this is only the beginning of the story, saying that “the sisters are immersed in a blending duel; the story will continue next year, in a bigger way, as this is Chapter 1 in the series.”

Giannini also described the blends, saying that Lady La Gloria users fillers not found in regular production La Gloria Cubanas, while the maduro wrapper found on the Rival Twin isn’t used on any regular production La Gloria Cubana cigars.

Production on the La Gloria Cubana is limited to 1,900 boxes, for 19,000 cigars in each blend and 38,000 cigars as part of the overall release.

 

Image via West Coast Cigars.

Update (October 22, 2013) — Michael Giannini’s comments about this project were added to this story, as well as clarification on the wrapper on the Rival Twin.