As expected, the newly-expanded Le Pâtissier line from Crowned Heads will now be made at a different factory, specifically Nicaragua American Cigars S.A. (NACSA) in Estelí.
Crowned Heads is moving production of Le Pâtissier from Tabacalera Pichardo to NACSA. Jon Huber, co-founder of Crowned Heads, told halfwheel that the blends, sizes and prices will remain the same. Le Pâtissier uses a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper over a binder from Jalapa, Nicaragua and fillers from Costa Rica and the Ometepe and Pueblo Nuevo regions of Nicaragua.
The line debuted last year in a limited edition lonsdale size; this summer, Crowned Heads made Le Pâtissier a regular production line with four sizes, though the lonsdale is not one of them.
Note: The following shows the various Le Pâtissier releases over the years. Some of these cigars may have been released after this review was originally published. The list was last updated on Sept. 24, 2022.
- Le Pâtissier (6 1/2 x 44) — December 2021 — Limited Edition
- Le Pâtissier No. 50 (4 3/8 x 50) — August 2022 — Regular Production
- Le Pâtissier No. 54 (5 3/8 x 54) — August 2022 — Regular Production
- Le Pâtissier Canonazo (5 7/8 x 52) — August 2022 — Regular Production
- Le Pâtissier Senadores (6 1/8 x 48) — August 2022 — Regular Production
While the packaging is largely not changing, the Tabacalera Pichardo-made cigars have markings on them indicating the cigars were made at Tabacalera Pichardo. The NACSA-made cigars will not have those markings, meaning consumers should be able to tell which versions they are purchasing. The NACSA-made production is expected to arrive by the end of the year.
It’s incredibly rare for the production of a cigar line to move from one factory shortly after it debuts, but Crowned Heads is in a larger dispute with Luciano Cigars, formerly known as ACE Prime, meaning this news is hardly surprising.
Last month, the two companies separately announced the distribution agreement that saw Crowned Heads distribute ACE Prime would come to an end in October. Shortly thereafter, ACE Prime announced it was rebranding as Luciano Cigars and that it would take over its distribution. More recently, the companies have put out statements claiming they have sent cease and desists to one another—the public statements would be another rarity in the cigar business—and there appears to be a dispute about the factory, which Luciano Cigars says is now known as the Luciano Cigars Factory.
Huber told halfwheel that he is unsure of whether the three other Crowned Heads lines produced at the factory—CHC Serie E, Juárez and Mil Días—will remain at the factory or also move to a different production facility.
Update — The original version of this story misspelled the acronym “NACSA” in the headline.
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.
