NEWS: POWSTANIE FROM CIGAR HUSTLER DETAILED

http://www.cigarmemoir.com/cigar-news-powstanie-from-cigar-huslter-detailed/

Last week, we wrote about a new cigar coming from Fabrica de Tabacos NicaSueño S.A. in Estelí, Nicaragua where RomaCraft cigars are manufactured. The cigar, called Powstanie, comes from the brothers Mike and Greg Szczepankewicz. The brothers own Cigar Hustler, which consists of a retail location in Daltona, FL and cigarhustler.com. At the time of the story last week, all we had were snippets of information and a few pictures from social media. Since that time Mike Szczepankewicz has provided CM with some details.

Powstanie. Pronounced (Poh Stahn Yah) is the Polish word for “uprising” The symbols’ origin is from the Polish Resistance that fought against the Nazi’s in World War 2. Utilizing the magic of modern graphics we’ve made this symbol uniquely our own. – Mike Szczepankewicz

The idea to create their own cigar came up because they were tired of being met with suppression from other manufacturers and felt they could create something even better.

As our retail location flourished, competitors took notice. Some went so far as to strong arm our suppliers in order to marginalize our market influence. Normally, this would be an affront. For us, it was a compliment. Cigar Hustler was doing something right! All of this commotion revealed one crystalline truth: we were ready to create our own brand. – Mike Szczepankewicz

The brothers went to Esteban Disla and Skip Martin of the Nica Sueño factory to create their cigars. Fierce sibling rivalry between the brothers produced two distinct blends: one an Ecuadorian Habano and the other a Broadleaf Maduro. The duo provided sampler packs to valued customers to be critiqued. The plan was that the winning cigar would be the first release. Mike’s cigar, wrapped in an Ecuadorian Habano won but the feedback they got was that both blends were good. They decided to release both blends. The Habano will be due in this May with the Broadleaf to follow in August.

The Habano will initially come in two sizes, a Toro (6 x 52) and Belicoso (5.25 x 54), with plans for a perfecto in both blends by November. The first release is limited batch but the cigar will be in regular production. The Habano blend consists of an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper and Indonesian binder. Dominican criollo, Nicaraguan Estelí ligero, Nicaraguan Condega and Nicaraguan Jalapa make up the filler. The Broadleaf features a broadleaf Maduro wrapper, Indonesian binder. Filler-wise it uses Estelí ligero, and tobacco from Jalapa and Pueblo Nuevo, located near Condega in Nicaragua. Both will come in 21-count boxes.

The cigars will MSRP for $9-11 depending the size and will be sold to other retailers.