Privada Cigar Club Expands Wholesale Division, Moves Six Lines to Regular Production

Privada Cigar Club has announced that it is expanding its wholesale distribution operation, and in doing so, moving six of its previously limited edition lines into regular production offerings.

Privada will still operate the Limited Cigar Association (LCA), which was launched in June 2020 as a group of brick-and-mortar retailers that could carry Privada’s offerings, cigars that largely been limited to its monthly cigar subscription club, as well as other limited edition cigars released on a monthly basis. However, Clark Thornton, director of the LCA, told halfwheel that the LCA is approaching its capacity and will likely be closing to new accounts, or at least severely limiting how many new accounts can be added.

“Our focus has always been on providing the most interesting and highest quality cigars possible,” Thornton said in a press release. “For some time now, we have wanted to offer shops the consistent portfolio that they have been asking for. The challenge has been that we are consistently dealing with experimental tobaccos or tobaccos that are extremely limited in supply, and while this makes for great limited-edition material, it has been difficult to find blends that could be produced over and over again that live up to our standards of quality and uniqueness.”

As such, a new tier is being added to Privada’s wholesale operation, one that will not have access to the limited edition LCA releases, but will have access to a new group of regular production cigars from Privada’s archives: The Good Life, 1491, Kings County, Mad Monkey, Blue Cheese, and Cigar1. All six of the cigars are being offered in a single vitola, which the company feels best expresses what each blend has to offer.

The Good Life is a 6 x 54 toro that uses a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, Brazilian mata fina binder, and fillers from Nicaragua’s Jalapa, Condege and Estelí regions. Released in 2019, it was Privada’s first ever collaboration with J.C. Newman Cigar Co. It is priced at $13 and offered in 25-count boxes.

1491 is a Dominican puro using corojo tobacco for the wrapper, binder and filler, and which comes in a 6 x 50 toro vitola. It was blended by Chico Rivas as an opportunity to experience native Dominican tobacco in its purest form, and gets its name from the year before Columbus arrived in the Americas. “To smoke 1491 is to share an experience with peoples who lived centuries and millennia ago, the peoples who were the first ever to cultivate tobacco from the Earth and to whom we are indebted for the pleasure and joy we al share in smoking cigars today,” the company wrote. It is price at $11 per cigar and offered in 20-count boxes.

Kings County is a reference to Brooklyn, New York and created by the rapper AZ in collaboration with several former executives from Bad Boy Records as an homage to The Notorious B.I.G. It is a 6 x 60 gordo that uses an Ecuadorian habano maduro wrapper, Dominican binder, and fillers from Nicaragua and Peru. Its band is notable for featuring the “Jesus Piece,” a recognizable piece of jewelry from the world of hip-hop. Pricing is set at $13 per cigar, and it is offered in 20-count boxes.

Mad Monkey is a 6 x 48 Nicaraguan puro that uses a habano maduro wrapper and a double binder, which the company says gives it a spicy and bold profile. It was created by Tony Barrios of Stallone Cigars and produced by Tabacalera Perla in Nicaragua. It is priced at $12 and offered in 20-count boxes.

Blue Cheese references the name for a $100 bill, or more specifically the blue security strip on the bill. It is also a Nicaraguan puro, highlighted by a habano wrapper, and produced by AJ Fernandez. It is offered in a 6 x 52 toro vitola, priced at $11 and presented in 25-count boxes.

Finally, Cigar1 is another collaboration with J.C. Newman Cigar Co., having debuted in February 2022. It is the only cigar of the six to be released in individual sealed foil-lined pouches for freshness. It is offered in two blends: Rose, which uses an Ecuadorian sungrown habano rosado wrapper; and Cream, which uses a Brazilian mata fina wrapper. Both use a Nicaraguan binder and filler, and are priced at $10.95 per cigar.

“These are the blends we have found that can continue to be reproduced but still offer customers a smoking experience as special as the experience they have come to expect from LCA releases,” Thornton said.

Images courtesy of Privada Cigar Club.

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 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.