Cibao Brand Relaunched Through Smoke Miami

The Cibao brand, a reference to the Dominican area which produces a lot of tobacco, is heading back to the U.S. market through a new company called Smoke Miami.

Cibao was launched in 1985 by Jose “Jochy” Blanco of Tabacalera Palma and now returns to the U.S. starting with four sizes in three different blends. Internally, the cigars use Dominican tobaccos grown by Blanco, but they are offered with either a Connecticut shade wrapper, an Ecuadorian habano wrapper or a Mexican San Andrés maduro wrapper. Blanco is also producing the cigars.

• Cibao Selección Especial Corona (5 5/8 x 46) — $7 (Boxes of 20, $140)
• Cibao Selección Especial Robusto (5 x 50) — $7.50 (Boxes of 20, $150)
• Cibao Selección Especial Toro (6 x 52) — $8 (Boxes of 20, $160)
• Cibao Selección Especial Gordo (6 x 60) — $8.50 (Boxes of 20, $170)

The company says the Connecticut and Habano versions are medium-bodied, while it describes the Maduro as medium-to-full. All boxes are shipped with a Boveda pack.

Smoke Miami is meant to be a multi-faceted company with services ranging from a local distributor to international logistics provider to brand development. A trio of industry veterans are behind the company: Martina De Moya, of Ciguayo Imports; Vinicio Cuello, who worked with Blanco at Tabacalera Palma; and Alexander Berezowski, who most recently was serving as the director of strategic development for Procigar.

It has offices in Miami, Punta Cana and Santiago, Dominican Republic.

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.