New La Perla Habana Cigar for Summer, 2008 Commemorate Landmark Watershed
Event
Doug Wood, founder and chairman of The Burlwood Group, introduced two new
premium cigars for this summer. One is named "Andiamo" (Italian for
"Let's go!"), while the other is the new Black Pearl "Perla," which is
identified by its white band.
Wood states, "Andiamo captures the spotlight as the inaugural release
in our new line of seven annual releases, named 'Serie 500,' which honors
perhaps the most significant events in the cigar world. Andiamo celebrates the
1509 discovery by European explorers, of what became the city of Havana in 1515.
The remaining six cigars will be released each year over the time span between
the two dates. The parade of releases will culminate in a new La Perla Habana
in 2015, the 500-year anniversary of the official establishment of Havana as a
city. It derived it name from 'savannah,' a flat grassland in tropical regions.
Thus was born what would become the world capital of cigar making."
The full name of the cigar is Andiamo SRO, for "Select Retailers
Only." It will be available to brick-and-mortar tobacco shops only ... Wood
is carefully screening his customers to make certain he rewards tobacconists
with physical, not virtual, retail facilities. "Full-service tobacconists are
the backbone of our business," he contends, "and I feel they deserve market
protection from catalog and online sales outlets. This cigar should help build
traffic in their stores, not only for our products, but for others as well."
Andiamo is offered in three popular shapes: Robusto (4-3/4" x 52), Toro (6" x
50), and Torpedo (6-1/4 x 52). The blend evolved from Wood's several months of
evaluating and finalizing new Burlwood blends. This effort yielded fourteen new
blends, three of which have been released to date. Andiamo is one such, having
been fine-tuned with the addition of a filler leaf grown in Italy. Wood
describes the flavor profile as having a "rich spiciness, but still retaining
its medium body." Andiamo is presented in a 50-cigar cedar cabinet, with
manufacturer's suggested retail pricing in the $6.50-7.50 bracket.
Black Pearl Perla, the other new cigar for this Summer, is the most
full-bodied cigar the company has produced to date. The white-banded Perla,
according to Wood, is "blended to capture the flavor and aroma of the Havanas of
the 1940s and 1950s." It is available in four shapes: Robusto (4-3/4" x 52) Toro
(6" x 52), Torpedo (6-1/4" x 52), and "A" (8-1/2" x 52). The Torpedo size
emulates the Cuban Montecristo #2 Torpedo, the benchmark for torpedos since
World War II." The wrapper is Criollo Habano, and the unusually flavorful
binder is Cuban seed. Packaged in striking white cedar boxes of 20 cigars,
Perla's suggested retail price falls between $8.00 and $9. Both cigars are now
available at better tobacco retailers nationwide.
The new Black Pearl Perla commemorates the five-century anniversary of
Europeans' discovery (1509) and subsequent establishment of Havana (1515)
