Protocol Eliot Ness Coming this Fall

Cubariqueño Cigar Company has announced the upcoming release of the Protocol Eliot Ness, the second installment in the line’s Lawmen Series that honors notable figures in the history of law enforcement. The series debuted in the summer of 2019 with the Sir Robert Peel.

Like that first cigar, the Eliot Ness will be offered in a natural and maduro version, and will be available in a single 6 x 52 box pressed toro vitola. Both cigars are also Nicaraguan puros.

The Protocol Eliot Ness Natural uses a Nicaraguan habano wrapper over a dual binder of Estelí-grown habano tobacco, while the fillers are Nicaraguan criollo. The maduro version uses a Nicaraguan broadleaf wrapper, the same Estelí-grown habano binder, and corojo fillers from Estelí and Jalapa. Both blends were created under the guidance of Hector Alfonso Sr. of Espinosa Premium Cigars, and are the first in the company’s portfolio not to use any ligero tobacco, which comes from the upper section of a tobacco plant and generally offers the most strength and flavor. The line is being made at AJ Fernandez’s San Lotano factory in Ocotal, Nicaragua, where Erik Espinosa has several of his lines produced and is overseeing production of the new Protocol release.

Shipping is slated to start in the fall, though a more specific date has not been announced. Both cigars are offered in 10-count boxes priced at $119.50, or $11.95 per cigar, and will be regular production offerings.

The Lawmen Series was a notable departure from Protocol’s previous designs and aesthetics, though it kept in line with the overall inspiration of law enforcement. Company co-founders Juan Cancel and Bill Ives both come from law enforcement backgrounds, and the company’s other lines drew on terms from the profession, such as Probable Cause, Official Misconduct, and the John Doe and Jane Doe series.

“The Sir Robert Peel was a total change of direction for the company,” Cancel said via a press release. “We wanted to offer our supporters a more regal product from marketing, packaging, and to the actual tobacco used in the blend. We wanted to stay true to our working class supporters, but wanted to also offer them a higher end product. Sometimes the average working Joe likes to put on a suit and get a little fancy while smoking his cigar,” he added.

Eliot Ness was a Prohibition-era federal law enforcement agent in Chicago who is best known for his efforts to take down Al Capone and enforce Prohibition laws. He headed up a group of agents known as The Untouchables, a group that spawned a book, TV series and a 1989 film of the same name. In 1931 he famously arrested Capone, one of America’s most notorious mobsters, and the company recognized that achievement by including the year on the cigar band.

The company said that the selection of Ness for the new cigar stemmed from the fact that that criminals are so often glorified in Hollywood and in media, while those who work tirelessly to bring these criminal to justice are rarely ever recognized.