Tabacalera El Artista announced today, two new line extensions for existing brands and one full rebrand. The company noted that the Fugly Cheroots and Buffalo TEN will get a new line and the eight-year-old Puro Ambar will get a whole new look and blend.
Puro Ambar
With regard to the Puro Ambar line, the company was not able to obtain the original materials and made the decision to create a new medium-bodied blend along with new vitolas and updated packaging.
According to Ram Rodriguez, President of El Artista Cigars:
“Puro Ambar has been part of our original line-up since 2011, however recently we have had a difficult time getting the original materials. So, we had to make a decision about the future of the brand.”
Kevin Newman head of Marketing & Sales at El Artista Cigars added:
“Early in 2020 we asked our Sales staff about the brand and we were surprised when our all-female sales staff pointed out many female shop owners as well as female cigar consumers are the primary purchasers of Puro Ambar. After some careful consideration we discovered the majority of the brand’s smokers were in fact women. We began a research project to identify flavor profiles, cigar shapes, and packaging that appeal to today’s female smokers. What we settled on is a medium-bodied blend with a sweet, smooth, and clean finish with hints of exotic spice and nuances of charred oak.”
The re-blended Puro Ambar features El Artista’s own premium Habano wrapper with a proprietary blend of Artista-grown Criollo tobaccos and Dominican Olor leaf. In addition to an updated blend, the band and box have been redesigned for a retro-modern style.
Puro Ambar is being offered in three sizes:
- Corona – MSRP $6.00
- Robusto – MSRP $6.80
- Toro– MSRP $7.00 SRP
Each vitola will be packaged in an attractive white 20-count box with gold and bronze accents. El Artista plans to ship these to US retailers on September 23, 2020.
Buffalo TEN Natural
The short history of the El Artista Buffalo TEN has been nothing short of spectacular for the company and as a result of the wide acceptance, the company has made the choice to add an additional Habano blend to the line.
Ram Rodriguez, President of El Artista Cigars explains:
“The outstanding sales performance and consumer response of the original Buffalo TEN Maduro meant we had to do a strong follow up. The process was complicated because we wanted a cigar that felt like a Buffalo TEN but was a new smoking experience and not just a clone in a different wrapper.”
Kevin Newman added:
“Buffalo TEN is a study in the strengths of the Factory. El Artista produces great quality cigars at a very good price, and the B10 follow-up project needed to live up to that brand promise.”
The new Buffalo TEN Natural features El Artista’s own Ecuadorian-grown Habano wrapper. The full blend is described as:
- Wrapper – Ecuadorian-grown Habano
- Binder – Indonesian Sumatra binder
- Filler – Nicaraguan, Dominican, and USA
The Buffalo TEN Natural will be expressed in a single (6 x 50) Soft-Box-Pressed Toro. They will come packaged in 5-Packs with an MSRP of $22.50/Pack. Retailers can also order 40-count display trays that offer for sale single cigars with an MSRP of $5.00/cigar. The company plans to ship the new Buffalo TEN Natural to North American, European, and South American retailers on September 23, 2020.
Fugly Cheroots
Cheroots, a freehand, non-binder, cowboy-style cigar may not be the most beautiful cigar to look at, but they are still filled with flavor, while offering a shorter smoking time than an ultra premium cigar. The company released their first run of a cheroot, known as the Fugly in 2019. It was a dark and flavorful maduro. Now they have decided to expand the line with a Domincan Corojo Claro wrapper.
Kevin Newman noted in the press release today:
“The break-out success of Fugly Cheroots caught everyone by surprise in 2019 when the brand exceeded sales forecasts and 2020 same-store sales were utterly impressive. We had no clue this strong and frankly ugly hand-rolled cheroot would take the US by storm, but here we are! For the follow-up Fugly we wanted to keep the cowboy-style theme but offer it in a whole new way.”
Dubbed the Fugly Claro, the new blend stays true to the Fugly concept of the freehand cowboy-style cigar and features El Artista’s own Dominican Corojo Claro wrapper, no binder, and a combination of strong long-leaf ligero tobaccos from the USA and Dominican Republic.
Priced at just $3.00 MSRP per cigar, Fugly Claro comes in a 100-CT chest style rough-hewn box. Since Fugly is freehand rolled sizes range from 37-40 ring gauge and are generally 5” long. Available to US retailers on September 23, 2020.
ABOUT EL ARTISTA CIGARS
Tabacalera El Artista S.R.L. started operations in Tamboril, Dominican Republic in 1956. Today TEA is one of the nation’s largest producers of premium cigars. TEA produces millions of cigars each year and distributes throughout Europe, Canada, United States, and Asia. Additionally, TEA manages farms in the Caribbean and South America where it grows premium tobacco leaf which it utilizes in its proprietary blends as well as sells to top cigar manufacturers in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Dominican Republic.