This year marks Paul Joyal’s 35th anniversary in the cigar business and as such, he’s using his J. Grotto brand to help celebrate. As such, he’s teaming up with industry veteran Phil Zanghi of Debbonaire Cigars to create the J. Grotto Anniversary.

“Time and time again, smokers have said they smoke full-bodied cigars, and then buy medium-bodied ones,” said Joyal in a press release. “Many smokers mistake body for flavor, not realizing a powerful smoke can be short on flavor, and vice versa with a mild cigar. Anniversary is flavorful to the point it can be described as succulent. It is a departure from all our three previous J. Grotto cigars, which are medium-full to full-bodied.”

J Grotto Anniversary

The J. Grotto Anniversary uses a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, Dominican habano binder and a proprietary filler disclosed as “Dominican and ‘other Central American.’” The company claims all tobaccos are aged at least three years and that a large part of the Dominican tobaccos used are from the Reyes family.

It will be offered in four sizes: L458 (4 x 58), T650 (6 x 60), P555 (5 x 55) and E660 (6 x 60). Each cigar is double-capped with pricing set between $7.99 and $9.99 per cigar. 

The J. Grotto Anniversary is expected to debut at the 2014 IPCPR trade show and convention in July and ship to retailers in August. News of the cigar was first reported on Stogie Geeks.

Joyal is also the owner of Mr. J’s Havana Shop in Warwick, R.I.

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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.