Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Soft Launching Next Month Ahead of Summer Release

RoMa Craft Tobac is nearing the release of its newest regular production line, Intemperance Volstead VO 1920.

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On April 21, Skip Martin and Mike Rosales, RoMa Craft Tobac’s co-founders, will be at an event at Two Guys Smoke Shop in Nashua, N.H. With them will be 100 12-count bundles of the Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Senator Volstead, the 5 x 50 robusto vitola for the line.

Blend-wise, the line uses an Ecuadorian Sumatra hybrid wrapper, a varietal sometimes referred to as Cameroon grown in Ecuador, over a Mexican San Andrés binder. Fillers include corojo grown in La Canela, Dominican Republic and tobacco from the Condega, Jalapa and Pueblo Nuevo regions of Nicaragua. Previously, Martin told halfwheel he wanted to make this blend on “the lighter side” compared to most RoMa Craft Tobac blends.

RoMa Craft Tobac plans on releasing most of the Volstead’s 11 vitolas this summer, likely around the 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show in July. There are five regular production sizes and six limited production vitolas.

The regular production vitolas are:

• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Izzy Einstein (4 x 46) — $6.75 (Box of 30, $202.50)
• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Belle Livingstone (4 1/2 x 52) — $7.75 (box of 24, $186)
• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Bill McCoy (5 x 50) — $7.95 (Box of 24, $190.80)
• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 George Remus (5 x 56) — $9 (Box of 24, $216)
• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Roy Olmstead (5 1/2 x 54) — $9.25 (Box of 24, $220)

The Bill McCoy size is a short perfecto and the Roy Olmstead size is a belicoso; the other vitolas are parejos.

Each cigar is named after a Prohibition Era figure. McCoy, Olmstead and Remus were all bootleggers in different parts of the country; Livingstone operated famous speakeasies in Manhattan; and Einstein and his partner, Moe Smith, were credited with making nearly 5,000 arrests during prohibition, the most of the U.S. Prohibition Unit.

The six limited production vitolas are:

• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Blind Pig (4 1/2 x 60) — $8.25 (Box of 24, $198)
• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Senator Volstead (5 x 50) — $8.50 (Box of 12, $102)
• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Noble Experiment (5 x 56) — $9.75 (Box of 12, $117)
• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Revenuer (5 3/4 x 46) — $8.50 (Box of 24, $204)
• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Gran Perfecto (5 5/8 x 60) — $13 (Box of 12, $156)
• Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 Judas Hole (6 1/2 x 44) — $8.75 (Box of 12, $105)

The Noble Experiment size is pressed.

Like most of RoMa Craft Tobac’s limited items, the intent is to make each of the sizes in limited batches as opposed to a true one-and-done limited edition.

RoMa Craft Tobac plans to release all five regular production sizes plus four limited production sizes this summer. Release dates for the Gran Perfecto and Judas Hole vitolas have not been announced.

Keeping with the Intemperance theme, the name refers to prohibition, specifically the Volstead Act, the law created to enforce prohibition. While the law was passed in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the law, which delayed its implementation. The Volstead Act went into effect on Jan. 17, 1920.

The other Intemperance brands have historical tie-ins, the EC VIII refers to the 18th Amendment, which enacted prohibition; the BA XXI refers to the 21st Amendment, which revoked prohibition; and Whiskey Rebellion refers to an 18th-century tax protest against a whiskey tax.