40 TOBACCO BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER | 22 Refreshing theBrand TabacaleraElArtistahas theadvantageofhavingoneof the largest rawtobacco operations in the Dominican Republic, which is reflected in the cigar blends it produces. “There is always something new to try: hybrid seeds, tobacco grown in nontraditional regions and imported tobaccos from around the world. I love the challenge of using uncommon tobaccos,” says Rodriguez. The downside to having access to somuch tobacco is that it takes a bit longer to settle on a blend, but the extra work is worth it to Rodriguez, who always enjoys a challenge. To date, Tabacalera El Artista has produced some great blends—such as the Puro Ambar, Pulita, Buffalo TEN and the new Artista Harvest—using uncommon tobaccos. These cigars and others are all put through a smoking panel that includes executives and cigar rollers from the factory. If everyone agrees that what they’re smoking is something special, Rodriguez will give the blend to his father to get his blessing before it’s released to everyone. The blending process begins with a lot of questions, especially if it’s a blend for someone outside of Tabacalera El Artista. Before any blending begins, the main questions asked relate to the taste profile and transitions that are being looked for from the cigar. After enough questions have been asked and Rodriguez and his team feel as if they have a good framework to work from, blends are created and smoked and graded on what was gathered during the question phase. Feedback is gathered throughout the blending process, and tweaks to the blend are made to get as close to the type of cigar the client came to Tabacalera El Artista in search of. This is the same process Tabacalera El Artista took with its own products released through what was known as El Artista and is now known simply as ArtistaCigars. Earlier this summer, Rodriguez’s company revealed an updated name and newbranding. ToRodriguez, the transition fromEl ArtistaCigars to Artista was a natural progression of the company. With this rebranding effort, the aimwas to simplify andmodernize the visual aesthetic of the company and its products. “We are known in the industry as TabacaleraEl Artista, which is the factory’s name, but we never had a commercial product named after the factory,” says Rodriguez. “We had the idea of releasing a line branded with our name about five years ago, but we were not 100 percent ready at that time. Nowwe feel that we have enough knowledge of the market and some brand recognition to take this step. “The new logo is an adaptation of the factory logo, which incorporates the three tobacco leaves, representing the three generations since my grandfather started the factory in 1956. For my family, and for all of us who work at Tabacalera El Artista, the name Artista is so ingrained in our company culture we had to make it the prominent feature. As our flagship line, we wanted to make sure that this new brand had the quality and consistency our company is known for in a package that stands out on the shelf and in the mind.” “For the Artista lines, we challenged ourselves to make something different,” says Kevin Newman, vice president of Artista Cigars. “We spoke with our factory team and worked with our agronomist and asked them to seek new materials, source often overlooked tobaccos and asked our best artisans to help us develop something wholly different.” Artista Harvest is a medium-bodied blend that features a top-grade Sumatra wrapper, flavorful Habano Seco binder and proprietary Dominican filler. Sporting a yellow and gold color scheme, the Artista Harvest’s flavor profile consists of rich honey, spice, elderberry, and cashew and almond notes. The ArtistaMidnight, presented in a dark blue box, is a full-bodied cigar with a dark Ecuadorian Habano wrapper. The cigar’s Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade binder gives the cigar a sweet edge, while the Nicaraguan, Dominican and U.S.-grown filler tobaccos give it deep, rich, earthy notes of coffee, spice and chestnuts. The ArtistaMidnight is topped off by a citrus finish. Both cigars are available in 20-count boxes and come in two different box-pressed sizes: a 5 x 54 Robusto and a 6 x 50 Toro. The MSRP per cigar is $10.20 for the Robusto and $10.40 for the Toro vitola. For the already established brands in Artista’s portfolio, Rodriguez and As part of its new rebranding and brand strategy, Artista Cigars introduced several new cigar lines at this year’s Premium Cigar Association trade show: a new master brand, Artista, that represents the factory’s premium and future super-premium blends, and Paperboy, which is a more fun and experimental brand.
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