36 TOBACCO BUSINESS | NOVEMBER / DECEMBER | 22 of the blends and smoke them over the course of around 15 days—one blend in the morning and one at night. He was also not to smoke any of the samples in between filming or shooting; all of them had to be smoked when he was relaxing and not working. With each blend, he had to write down his thoughts and try to point out which blends appealed to him more. Espinosa and his team did the same assignment. By the end of the process, Fieri met with Espinosa again, and they compared notes. In an unexpected twist, they had chosen the same blends through this process. It took nearly 18 months to create the Knuckle Sandwich cigar, and Fieri was involved throughout the entire project. When it was released, it was presented with both an Ecuadorian Habano and Maduro wrapper. The binder and filler for each cigar contains Nicaraguan tobacco grown by A.J. Fernandez’s San Lotano factory. Each blend is presented in a Robusto, Toro and Corona Gorda format, and Espinosa knows it’s a hit with retailers based solely on the number of reorders. “It’s selling like crazy,” Espinosa proclaims. “We’ve sold more of that cigar than probably any cigar we’ve ever made here. It’s gone crazy. He wears the [Knuckle Sandwich] shirts all the time on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” He was at the basketball all-star game, and he had a cigar in his mouth in the arena. Of course, it wasn’t lit, but he was chewing on a cigar. We have meetings once a month with him on how the brand’s doing, howwe can help. Every time we do an event, he does a little video thanking the retailer for supporting Knuckle Sandwich cigars.” Fieri also made an appearance at the 2022 Premium Cigar Association (PCA) trade show in Las Vegas to support the cigar. Fieri took photos with the show’s attendees and signed hats during his appearance and helped make the Espinosa Cigars booth one of the busiest at this year’s show. Although Espinosa didn’t sell a lot during Fieri’s in-booth appearance, his presence had everyone talking about Espinosa Cigars and the company’s big energy. “It was our best show ever,” says Espinosa. “He’s really a genuine guy. He’s a family guy, and he loves the industry. It’s great to have a guy like that with his platform. It’s going to help everybody in this industry.” At PCA 2022, Espinosa introduced a limited-edition release of Knuckle Sandwich called Chef’s Special. This cigar sets itself apart from the rest of the Knuckle Sandwich line because it’s a box-pressed 6 1/2 x 52 Figurado with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan filler and binder. Only 2,500 10-count boxes were produced and sold at the PCA trade show. “We did a limited amount, and we sold them all,” Espinosa says of the Knuckle Sandwich Chef’s Special. “We got half the order in, and I can’t ship it because [if] I do ship it, all hell will break loose. So I’m waiting for the other order to get in to ship it to everybody at the same time. I can sell anything I want to any shop one time. The issue is the reorders—that’s how you know if a brand’s successful.” Knuckle Sandwich is just one example of a recent Espinosa Cigars release that’s captured the attention and excitement of the industry. La Bomba is a Guy Fieri came to Erik Espinosa in search of a partner to help him make a premium cigar. The result was Knuckle Sandwich, a cigar line handcrafted at the San Lotano cigar factory and distributed by Espinosa Premium Cigars.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgzMDM=