Arturo Fuente Don Carlos The Man Lancero Scheduled for Holiday 2024

In 2017, during an event at Holt’s in Philadelphia, Arturo Fuente showed off a tweaked version of its classic Don Carlos blend, The Man. A year later, retailers nationwide were offered the cigar, a 5 1/4 x 50 robusto, and it has occasionally been included in subsequent shipments, always limited. Later this year, there will be a Don Carlos The Man Lancero.

At this past week’s 2024 PCA Convention & Trade Show, Arturo Fuente showed off a 13-count box of lanceros that featured cigars using the Don Carlos The Man packaging, albeit with red or black foot bands. Few details were provided and orders were not taken, but company officials told halfwheel the cigars will be sent to stores for the holiday season 2024, meaning they should arrive in November.

Arturo Fuente uses a 7 1/2 x 41 vitola for its lanceros. What’s unknown is what blend these cigars are.

Fuente makes—though has rarely sold—a Don Carlos Lancero, using the standard Don Carlos blend. While the company has not said much about the blend of the original Don Carlos The Man, Carlos “Carlito” Fuente Jr. previously told halfwheel that it was based on the regular Don Carlos blend, but used some filler tobaccos grown at Chateau de la Fuente in the Dominican Republic, the company’s prized farm that produces tobacco for Fuente Fuente OpusX.

When asked about if this was the regular Don Carlos Lancero in different packaging or The Man blend, Fuente Jr.—who, these days, rarely discloses blends—declined to say.

Arturo Fuente oftentimes will send special cigars to retailers ahead of the holiday season as a way to help with sales. While it’s unclear for this release, some of those cigars have been one-time releases, while others have returned periodically from time to time.

Both Don Carlos and the special “The Man” version are named after the late Carlos Fuente Sr., who passed away in 2016. Fuente Sr. smoked both the regular Don Carlos and a modified version, known as “Senior Blend,” though The Man was released as one of many tributes to Fuente Sr., who is credited with guiding the family company from near bankruptcy into the powerhouse that it has become in modern times.