In 1970, the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli—the Italian state monopoly responsible for tobacco and other things—decided to stop the production of handmade Italian cigars. Some rollers at the factory in Lucca opted to keep rolling the cigars, though they were designated as diritto di cernita—sampling right—and as such were sold only in the factory.

By 1985, the decision was made to sell those cigars outside of the factory and the Toscano Originale was introduced across Italy.

This July, the cigar will come to the U.S. for the first time.

The Toscano Originale uses a Kentucky fire-cured wrapper over a mixture of Kentucky and Italian tobaccos. The filler is cut rougher, which is said to make for a bolder taste.

It measures 6 2/3 inches (170mm) x 25/41.

Pricing is set at $5.99 per cigar and it will be sold in leather-wrapped boxes of 30.

The cigars will be shown off at the 2018 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show, which begins July 13 in Las Vegas, Nev. Miami Cigar & Co. is the U.S. distributor for Toscano.

Davidoff is the official sponsor of halfwheel's coverage of the 2018 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show.
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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.