Last Thursday, Lake Country Cigars of Delafield, Wis. hosted the launch event for the Powstanie Wojtek 2023. Now, that cigar is beginning to arrive at stores nationwide.
The Powstanie Wojtek 2023 is a 5 1/2 x 46 box-pressed corona gorda. Like previous Wojtek releases it features two wrappers—Ecuadorian habano and Mexican San Andrés—in an unbalanced barber pole design. While most barber pole cigars aim to mimic the appearance of a classic barber’s pole, where the alternating wrappers occupy roughly the same amount of surface area, the Wojtek has the habano wrapper shown for most of the cigar, while the San Andrés is visible in thin stripes.
Underneath is an Indonesian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, a modified version of the Powstanie Habano blend.
The MSRP is set at $13.40 per cigar and production is limited to 500 boxes of 21 cigars.
Wojtek is a referiere to a Syrian brown bear that was purchased by the Polish soldiers at a railway station in Hamadan, Iran. The bear was trained to help move crates of ammunition during World War II, and even enlisted as a soldier to arrange for his food and transportation. The bear was eventually promoted to the rank of corporal, and after the war, became a bit of a celebrity.
Note: The following shows the various Powstanie Wojtek vitolas. Some of these cigars may have been released after this post was originally published. The list was last updated on Nov. 29, 2023.
This is the fourth release of Wojtek, also known as War Bear. Like the rest of the Powstanie portfolio, it is made at Fábrica de Tabacos Nica Sueño S.A. in Estelí, Nicaragua.
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.
