Phillips & King, a large B2B tobacco distributor, has announced a new project that contains six different blends from some of the most famous cigar brands. Its new Reserve Collection is launching with 12 cigars, two each from H. Upmann, La Gloria Cubana, Macanudo, Montecristo, Punch and Romeo y Julieta.

All six blends are offered in the same two sizes: Robusto (5 x 50) and Toro (6 x 50), packaged in boxes of 20. In addition, Phillips & King is offering the Toro size in a humidified three-pack that will be sold to retailers in a countertop display that contains five three-packs of each the six blends, a total of 90 cigars.

The six blends are listed as follows:

  • H. Upmann Reserve Collection (Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper; broadleaf binder; Honduran fillers)
  • La Gloria Cubana Reserve Collection (Ecuadorian habano wrapper; Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers)
  • Macanudo Reserve Collection (Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper; Honduran, Mexican and Nicaraguan fillers)
  • Montecristo Reserve Collection (Habano wrapper; Nicaraguan binder; Dominican piloto and Nicaraguan fillers)
  • Punch Reserve Collection (Honduran OSA oscuro wrapper; Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers)
  • Romeo y Julieta Reserve Collection (habano wrapper; Honduran binder; Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers)

The three Altadis U.S.A. blends (H. Upmann, Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta) are made at Flor de Copan S.A. in Honduras, while STG Danlí is making the three brands from General Cigar Co. (La Gloria Cubana, Macanudo and Punch).

Pricing for the Macanudo and Montecristo Reserve Collections is higher than the other four blends. In those two blends, the Robusto has an MSRP of $12, the Toro is priced at $13 per cigar and the three-pack of Toros is priced at $34.99.

For the other four blends, the MSRP is $9 for the Robusto, $10 for the Toro and $29.99 for a three-pack of Toros.

“We developed the Reserve Collection to help our customers stand out from their competitors with a line of proprietary cigars from the best-selling heritage brands,” said Jim Charnley, senior director of marketing for Phillips & King, in a press release. “We leveraged our longstanding factory relationships to create a series of cigars that offer a range of flavor and strength profiles. And the Reserve Collection is available in two distinct packaging formats designed to fit a variety of retail footprints.”

The Reserve Collection will debut at TPE 2023, which takes place next week in Las Vegas. It is expected to begin shipping to stores in April.

Overall Score

Avatar photo

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.