Alec & Bradley Gatekeeper Now Produced in Honduras

The Alec & Bradley Gatekeeper has a new home for its production, as it has been moved out of Ernesto Perez-Carrillo’s Tabacalera La Alianza in the Dominican Republic and into Tabacos de Oriente, the Plasencia-owned facility in Danlí, Honduras.

The reason was due to strained capacity at La Alianza, according to a report by Cigar Aficionado. Perez-Carrillo told the publication that juggling the needs of his company with Alec & Bradley’s needs was a challenge, and that the shift will alleviate a number of headaches for everybody. Perez-Carrillo has worked with Alec and Bradley Rubin on developing and producing the cigar, which debuted in 2019.

While some might speculate that the change will result in a different cigar, the Rubin brothers said that nothing will be changing about the cigar.

Both sides added that their relationship is strong, with Alec Rubin noting that Perez-Carrillo will still be involved in the cigar making process despite the change in facility.

An email sent to Alec Bradley seeking confirmation about the story’s accuracy has not yet been returned, and the company has not indicated if it will be possible to tell where the cigars are produced, or when the Honduran-made version of Gatekeeper will begin arriving on store shelves.

Update: A representative from Alec Bradley that the shift in production will happen in stages as it pertains to the cigars arriving at retailers. Both E.P. Carrillo and Plasencia will be producing cigars that go in 20-count boxes until that supply is depleted, and there won’t be any distinguishing marks to indicate the origin of the particular box. However, once the Gatekeeper fully moves to 24-count boxes, those will all be coming from Plasencia, and stamped with “Made in Honduras” on the bottom of the box.