Crowned Heads Introducing La Vereda, Most Expensive Line to Date

At this week’s 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show, Crowned Heads will show off its most premium offering to date.

La Vereda is a new four-vitola line that the company says has been in development for more than a year. The regular production blend uses a shade-grown wrapper from Jalapa, Nicaragua over a binder also from Jalapa and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. Crowned Heads says that the filler tobaccos are all aged for at least three years.

It will debut in four regular production sizes:

• La Vereda No. 50 (5 3/8 x 50) — $18.40 (Box of 20, $368)
• La Vereda No. 52 (6 1/2 x 52) — $19.60 (Box of 20, $392)
• La Vereda No. 54 (5 5/8 x 54) — $20.60 (Box of 20, $412)
• La Vereda No. 56 (6 1/4 x 56) — $21.80 (Box of 20, $436)

La Vereda is being made at Erenesto Perez-Carrillo Jr.’s Tabacalera La Alianza S.A. in the Dominican Republic. The company says that just seven pairs are making the cigars, and in order to focus on quality, they were asked to slow down the speed at which they make cigars to just 60 percent.

“La Vereda is a blend I’m truly proud of and would have loved to have had as a brand in our EPC Cigar portfolio, but I’m happy that Crowned Heads has it as they are part of our extended family,” said Perez-Carrillo Jr. in a press release.

The line will debut this week in Las Vegas at PCA 2023 before shipping to retailers in August.

“La Vereda is clearly a case of the tobaccos and required aging periods dictating the production timeline,” said Jon Huber, co-founder of Crowned Heads, in a press release. “Ernesto and I had a vision of what we wanted the final blend expression to be, and ultimately, it came down to not onlv the tobaccos selected, but also having the patience to get the tobaccos where they needed to be even before the cigars were rolled. A lot of brand owners think of themselves as being the conductor of an orchestra, when in reality, the tobaccos are conducting and evervone else in the process is simply a player in the orchestra.”