George Rico El Enemigo Soft Launches at Select Stores

The George Rico El Enemigo is arriving in select stores.

On March 17, Gran Habano began shipping the new line to 30 stores before its national launch scheduled for the first week of May. The new line is notable for the company as it is made in the Dominican Republic and not at the company’s factory in Honduras.

The George Rico El Enemigo is a three-size line that uses an Ecuadorian habano wrapper over an Ecuadorian habano binder and fillers from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. Gran Habano previewed this cigar at the PCA 2022 Convention & Trade Show last July, albeit without announcing most of the details and without packaging, and originally hoped to ship the cigar in October but then delayed the release until 2023. It was shown off in its complete form to retailers in February at TPE 2023.

• George Rico El Enemigo El Insulto (5 x 52) — $15 (Box of 20, $300)
• George Rico El Enemigo El Duelo (6 x 54) — $16 (Box of 20, $320)
• George Rico El Enemigo El Triunfo (6 x 60) — $17 (Box of 20, $340)

“After many years of creating projects at my Gran Habano factory, I have decided to enter my Rōnin stage in my blending journey. I hope to continue to learn from others and elevate my craft of blending cigars,” said George A. Rico, president of Gran Habano, in a press release. “This process has led me to my first project ‘El Enemigo’ outside of my factory at one of the most established cigar factories in the Dominican Republic. I am truly in love with the final blend. It is something totally different than what I have smoked from the factory and gives a completely different perspective on how the same tobaccos can smoke when blended differently. I look forward to more collaborations in the years to come and I hope that you can enjoy my blend utilizing unique tobaccos and rolling techniques.”

Gran Habano has declined to name which factory the cigar is made at, but says that it is being produced by TabaDom in the Dominican Republic. TabaDom is the Dominican subsidiary of Oettinger Davidoff AG and includes two factories: Cigars Davidoff and O.K. Cigars. Historically, Davidoff has not produced cigars for clients at Cigars Davidoff, meaning this cigar is likely made at O.K. Cigars, the factory best known for producing AVO.

El Enemigo is limited to 1,000 boxes per vitola annually and will only be offered to 200 retailers.