La Verdad Cigar Co. Releases Serafines Habano

A new brand has entered the cigar market, as La Verdad Cigar Co. has released its debut stick, the La Verdad Serafines Habano via its online store and a handful of retailers.

The company was founded in June 2015 by Doug Owen of Round Rock, Texas, who worked with Luis Sanchez of La Tradicion Cubana in creating the cigar, which is a blend of an Ecuadorian habano wrapper with Dominican-grown piloto cubano and Brazilian tobaccos underneath, with production happening in the Dominican Republic at La Tradicion Cubana’s factory. For the debut, Owen is releasing it in a single 6 x 52 vitola that he calls the Corazones, which features a soft box press and pigtail cap. He told halfwheel that he found the size delivered good parity between the filler and the wrapper, adding that the goal with the release of the Serafines Habano was “to create a cigar that I could smoke and never get tired of,” with two years between idea to fruition.

The cigar is being offered primarily through the brand’s website, though Owen is offering it to cigar shops and expects to announce a full list of retailers carrying the cigar early in 2016. Each stick comes with an MSRP of $8.25, or $82.50 for a box of ten. Owen is producing 1,000 boxes as part of the initial run, though he plans on it being a regular production release.

He has also announced that while this will be the only size for the Serafines line, he will be releasing the Serafines Maduro at the 2016 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show in the same vitola but with a San Andres Negro wrapper.

Owen began dabbling in tobacco early in 2013 by rolling cigars for friends out of his home, and cited the time he spent at Bobalu Cigars in Austin, Texas as key to nurturing his love of cigars, as he would spend much of his free time watching and learning from the Cuban rollers at the store. He said that the inspiration to launch a cigar company came with the birth of his son, saying that “I realized how one event can profoundly change our lives, and that those moments should be cherished and truly enjoyed.”

Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, the G-League's Valley Suns, and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.