Alliance Cigar Ships Flor de las Antillas DeSocio

Alliance Cigar has become the latest company to receive an exclusive size of My Father’s Flor de las Antillas. The New York-based distributor has already sold through half of its 500 box allotment of the 5 3/4 x 54-sized Flor de las Antillas. Alliance Cigar’s Tom Sullivan first told halfwheel about the project earlier this year, but it wasn’t until the summer, the cigar finally arrived.

DeSocio is Sullivan’s maternal grandfather’s last name. His mother is the only living DeSocio family member so Sullivan decided to use his cigar business to keep the name alive.

“The stories I’d hear all the time from my aunt and uncle, particularly when I started in the cigar business, ‘oh, he’d be proud of you,'” said Sullivan. Sullivan’s grandfather, an Italian immigrant, was a cigar smoker.

This is the second product to bear the DeSocio name, the company already has the exclusive Alec Bradley Tempus DeSocio, a 6 x 54 parejo.

Pricing for the Flor de las Antillas is set at $172.00 per box of 20, or $8.60 per cigar.

This is the fourth exclusive Flor de las Antillas release in the last two months, but what separates Alliance Cigar from Up In Smoke, Holt’s and Binny’s—the companies to receive the other releases—is Alliance Cigar is a distributor, not a retailer.

Sullivan told halfwheel he wanted to give his retail customers an exclusive size of a cigar, particularly smaller shops in high tax states that wouldn’t be able to otherwise get a project like this.

The Flor de las Antillas DeSocio is available from Sullivan’s own retail operation, Superior Cigars.