LaVega Launching The Nano in February

Next month, LaVega Cigar Co. will release The Nano, a petite gordo of sorts.

Aaron Paoletta, founder of LaVega, says that Tony Bellatto of Bellatto Premium Cigars/Lost&Found played a crucial role in The Nano. The cigar was made at an undisclosed factory in Nicaragua and Bellatto has gotten access to the cigar. He gave one to Paoletta to smoke and that led to Paoletta purchasing the remaining inventory, just 1,100 cigars. Blend-wise, the only thing that is disclosed is that it uses a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper.

The MSRP is set at $9.75 per cigar and they will come packaged in bundles of 13. Paoletta said the decision to use bundles was in an effort to cut down on environmental waste. Retailers that order the cigars will get a wooden display box that he made in the company’s Pennsylvania warehouse.

“Tony handed me a cigar and said, ‘here, I want you to try this. Tell me what you think of it,'” said Paoletta in an email. “I said, ‘it’s a small little bastard’ and he said, ‘but it’s got a big flavor.’ So I put out the other cigar that I was smoking, which doesn’t happen very often, and I lit up the one that he gave me. The entire time I smoked it, I kept telling him that it was a fantastic cigar with tremendous nuttiness and wonderful earth tones.”

LaVega says The Nano will begin shipping on Feb. 4.