We are five days away from the initial prerelease of Jonathan Drew’s newest collaboration with Joya de Nicaragua, My Uzi Weighs a Ton. What was once just a test blend floating around for Drew’s personal enjoyment last year has turned into one of this year’s best kept secrets of the upcoming IPCPR trade show. — el niño diablo.

Updated (June 17, 2011): Packaging details added, as per Saka.

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The story a la Jonathan Drew:

Received some great news today from Nicholas Melillo in Nicaragua that the UZIs were getting packed in 10 Count bundles on Friday, which means that we are definitely going to have some for the Pre-release party at Burning Leaf on June 20th.
Last night, at my friend Robbie Morton’s store in Pensacola I had a half a bundle that I shared with his staff and a few military guys. The Bundles read “MUWT by Subculture Studios and JDN” and some of the guys asked me what this means – so let me clarify.
UZI is manufactured at the JDN Factory by their torcedors in three sizes (5×60, 6×60, and 7×60), BUT the materials for the cigars are mostly DE, including the Maduro Capa, Connecticut Capote, and half of the filler – which is Brazilian Mata Fina. The other half of the filler is Joya de Nicaragua’s Nicaraguan strong filler. Sooner or later, I will get more specific on leaf variety for the blend. Subculture Studios is the Grafiti & Art factory run by Jessi Flores (Some of you know him as Fatboy, Victims, or Dectown) and is the home for a lot of the creativity that you have seen from DE throughout the years. I believe that MUWT is going to be a really creative project, with a lot of experimental and interesting uses of heavy leaf and artwork to match – so this is why I have decided to mark it as Subculture Studios.
I am looking forward to the pre-release party and cant wait to see some of you guys there, both in person and virtually. It should be a good time.

And then this:

Subculture Studios has decided to go with the 60 Rings for now, but I am hoping that this is just the beginning of an extremely creative project.
Typically, when Drew Estate releases a new brand there is a lot of company cooperation and excessive time that goes into planning, process, blending, PR, etc – and this has been really successful to date. We work well together and I enjoy the team very very much. I wouldn’t change a thing! I can also add that I enjoy working with the guys at the Subculture Art Studio in Nicaragua just as much as I do on the tobacco side.
Jessi, Dog, Mez, and the crew (about 30 in total) are all graffiti and tattoo artists who are considered the leaders in Nicaragua, and in some cases, all of Central America. It all started when Jessi and I opened a Tattoo shop in Managua about 7 years ago. While the shop did well for the first half a year, they (Strip Mall Owner) soon thereafter opened a “pay your bills” place in our strip mall and there simply wasn’t anywhere to park. Our business quickly failed, but I promised the guys (two tattoo guys and a piercing guy) that I wouldn’t let them down, so we opened Subculture Art Studios as a side project at the Drew Estate factory. It was here that we developed many forms of art for P.O.S for DE, brand concepts, graphics, IPCPR Booths, and even the logo for the company. Of course, each of these items would get filtered in the U.S. by the U.S. team, including Marvin, Mike Cellucci, Joey R. and later, Saka, when he came on board as company Prez.
Subculture Studios has always been a personal outlet for me to step away from the business side of Drew Estate, chill out, blow up some sneakers, paint a cardboard carton, bomb a wall, or whatever. As the years progressed we had a lot of fun incorporating “The Time Honored Traditions into the Modern Surreal”, almost parallel to the way DE looks at cigar making. The guys at Subculture took to studying period art such as Art Deco, Art Neuvo, Primitive, Classical, Victorian, etc., – incorporating a multidemensional texture to their art.
This project, “My UZI Weighs a Ton” falls more into line with that hard-core Nicaraguan Subcult that we created, kinda raw and niche-like. The beginning of the project actually started during the B.O.T.L tour because this was the very first time that we did a Blending Session at the Joya de Nicaragua factory during the Cigar Safari Tours. I was all amped up because I would get to enjoy the session like all the other guys instead of leading it at the DE camp. I remember that it began with a 5×54, but soon thereafter morphed into a 6×60. Just to make matters more complicated, (my signature) I brought a whole bunch of different leaves from DE over to JDN to use for my personal blend.

About 8 months later or so, the blend was finally right to drop on the market. I believe that it is medium to full, with a special sweetness that is distinctly found in the Brazilian Mata Fina filler. Needless to say, I’m pretty pumped about it, and I hope to release other interesting Series to the concept, including other sizes and blends – but only if it stays raw and local. For now, we need to focus on these large rings and make sure that JDN keeps the blend SteadyFreddy.
And just to conclude, let me quote Saka ” If you try to make a blend that everyone likes, you won’t make a blend that anyone will love.” So with that in mind, fuck the system.

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The 6 x 60 will be available for pre-sale in 10 ct bundles for $99.50. Jonathan will be at Burning Leaf for the launch party on June 20th. You can call Tim Podwika at 815-230-5192 to pre-order. There are roughly three-hundred bundle of ten available, just in the 6 x 60 format. The cigars will come in cello, but without band.

The cigars will be formally introduced at the IPCPR trade show in July, three sizes 5 x 60 ($8.95), 6 x 60 ($9.95) and 7 x 60 ($10.95). More details to come about the packaging, but it’s unique and there are bands. (Update June 17, 2011) The cigars will have bands and be packaged in paper bundles of twenty. Drew Estate President Steve Saka describes the material like a “paper bag” with silk screen artwork on the front done by Subculture Studios. In addition, there will be retail trays holding sixty cigars (twenty of each size) offered.

  • Name: My Uzi Weighs A Ton
  • Size: 5 x 60, 6 x 60, 7 x 60
  • Wrapper: San Andreas Negro
  • Binder: Connecticut Capote (Broadleaf
  • Filler: Brazilian Mata Fina Oscuro & Nicaraguan Ligero Estelí, Viso Condega and Seco Jalapa
  • Country: Nicaragua
  • Factory: Fabrica de Tabacos Joya de Nicaragua S.A.
  • MSRP: 5 x 60 ($8.95), 6 x 60 ($9.95) and 7 x 60 ($10.95)
  • Release Date: Pre-release June 20th (6 x 60). Launch in July (IPCPR)

And for your viewing pleasure, the world premiere…

Content originally published June 15, 2011; updated June 17, 2011.

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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.