There is perhaps no cigar retailer with more brand recognition than JR Cigar. And that’s what Lew Rothman would want.

The store’s former owner has moved on and the company has undergone a massive transition in the last couple years, but this year is a special one, the 45th anniversary.

To celebrate, JR Cigar has a few different anniversary exclusives planned, the first of which will come from Davidoff. JR has opted to take part in Davidoff’s retailer exclusive program that allows appointed merchants to receive a special cigar in honor of a major anniversary, i.e. one that ends in a -0 or -5.

Davidoff JR Cigar 45th Anniversary Exclusive

Davidoff chooses a specific size, this year a 6 x 52 belicoso, and creates five blends that are not normally offered in the size. It allows its appointed merchants celebrating major anniversaries to select one of the blends to become their own exclusive.

JR chose a cigar with an Ecuadorian rojiza wrapper over a Dominican binder and Dominican fillers. Davidoff requires the stores to take 300 boxes of 10, but JR Cigar opted for 500.

Those boxes will go on sale in April at the three JR Cigar stores and online. It won’t be available at the Cigar Inn locations in New York City, even though Cigar Inn and JR Cigar are both owned by Imperial Tobacco Group.

Suggested retail pricing is $20 per cigar.

The company told halfwheel the next JR Cigar 45th anniversary cigar will come from Altadis U.S.A., which is also owned by Imperial Tobacco Group.

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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.