Blackbird Schedules GLITCH for Next Month

As the story goes, Papo El Caballo—the nickname of Blackbird’s blender—returned from a trip last year and checked on a blend and was surprised by what he was smoking.

The blend was not what he expected. A meeting at the factory was called to determine why the blend was not correct. As it turns out, a new employee had written the wrong codes on two different types of tobacco. When the blend was being put together, one tobacco was mistakenly used for the other, and the end result was a cigar that was not what El Caballo—Spanish for the horse—had created.

So another meeting was called, this time with the owners of Blackbird Cigar Co. The question was what to do about the mistake. After smoking the cigars, one of the owners asked El Caballo if he had smoked the cigar. He said he had. He was then asked if he enjoyed the cigar. He said he hadn’t thought about it—he was just trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

The end result is now known as GLITCH, the next release from Blackbird Cigar Co. It’s actually three different blends; each will use American and Dominican tobaccos in the filler. However, the wrappers will vary:

• GLITCH Claro — Ecuador (Connecticut)
• GLITCH Habano — Ecuador (Habano)
• GLITCH Oscuro — Mexico (San Andrés)

The binder for the Claro and Habano is Mexican, whereas the Oscuro’s binder is from the Dominican Republic.

Blackbird is targeting this as a value line with a 5 x 50 robusto priced at $6.10 and a 6 x 52 toro priced at $6.60. Both sizes will be offered in all three blends, each packaged in boxes of 20 cigars.

“On behalf of the Blackbird Team, we are more than happy to announce this new product,” said Jonás Santana, Blackbird’s co-founder, in a press release. “For us, the feeling of a new creation is always a great motivation to keep growing in the cigar industry. This is an example of… listen to what the team has to say!! We can’t wait for you to enjoy this affordable but great cigar.”

The company says it expects to begin shipping GLITCH in late March or early April.