“I wanted to tour the shops because, to me, this is a very personal business,” Lorenzo says. “I like going shop to shop, and I spend most of my time visiting accounts and traveling state by state. The people who sell my cigars are very important to me, and I love to talk to them and tell the stories about the cigars. So far, it’s been quite rewarding, and the company is moving in the right direction.”
At about the same time that Lorenzo left his job at the genetics company to devote all of his time to the cigar industry, he introduced another new cigar line at that year’s International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) trade show and convention—HVC Edicion Especial 2015. This cigar, along with Cerro, has proven to be one of the company’s best-sellers.
Edicion Especial 2015 features a filler and binder blend of Nicaraguan tobaccos that are grown on just two farms—one in Jalapa and the other in Esteli—and utilizes a Mexican San Andres maduro wrapper. All of the tobaccos in the Edicion Especial 2015 are aged for at least four years, and the cigars are packaged in 20-count boxes and are available in three sizes: Toro Gordo (6 x 56), Toro (6 x 52) and Corona (5 x 46).
In 2018, Lorenzo released Edicion Especial 2018 under the same concept—four-year-old aged tobacco from two farms—and with the same three sizes that are available in the Edicion Especial 2015. The only difference between Edicion Especial 2015 and Edicion Especial 2018 is the aged Corojo ’99 wrapper that envelopes the Edicion Especial 2018 instead of the Mexican San Andres maduro wrapper that is found on the 2015 Edicion Especial.
“People sometimes get confused thinking that Edicion Especial is a limited-edition cigar, but it’s not,” Lorenzo says. “It is a special edition because that cigar is made using tobaccos from two farms—one in Esteli and the other in Jalapa—and uses tobaccos that are aged at least four years. I think the flavor profiles for these cigars are quite original in the market. The cigars have been on the market for quite a long time, and people just like them. They hit the sweet spot for most consumers’ palates. The Edicion Especial 2015 is not really full-bodied.
It’s a medium-to full-bodied [cigar], and people really like it.”
In 2016, Lorenzo released the HVC San Isidro, named for the Havana street where the famous Cuban gangster, Alberto Yarini, got his start. Packaged in 20-count boxes, San Isidro is a medium- to full-bodied cigar made from the very finest Aganorsa Leaf Nicaraguan filler and binder tobaccos and an Ecuadorean Habano wrapper. San Isidro is available in three sizes—Geniales (6 x 52), Hermosos (4 1/4 x 54) and Divinos (6 1/4 x 48).
A medium-bodied Nicaraguan puro, HVC Serie A was introduced by Lorenzo at the 2019 IPCPR show. HVC Serie A is made entirely of Aganorsa Leaf tobacco, and it includes a Corojo ’99 wrapper, which is grown on an Aganorsa Leaf farm in Jalapa. HVC Serie A cigars are available in 10-count boxes in two sizes: Canones (5 1/2 x 54) and Perlas (5 5/8 x 46).
In addition to the regular production First Selection Broadleaf, Serie A, Pan Caliente, Cerro Corojo and Cerro Maduro, Edicion Especial 2015, Edicion Especial 2018 and San Isidro, Lorenzo has also released a number of limited-edition cigars. One such limited edition is La Rosa 520, named for the Havana address of the home in which Lorenzo grew up. The cigar is a Nicaraguan puro that is limited to 500 20-count boxes of each of the two sizes that the cigar comes in—Exquisitos (5 3/4 x 46) and Magicos (5 1/2 x 54). HVC Black Friday has been a yearly November release since 2015. The limited-edition Vieja Consecha No. 2 (Doble Corona 6 1/2 x 56) is an unusual cigar in the HVC portfolio because it is made in Honduras by Raices Cubanas. While it is made in a different country, Vieja Consecha No. 2 features the Nicaraguan-forward tobacco blend profile for which HVC has become known. The most recent HVC limited-edition cigar is the HVC 500 Years Anniversary, which Lorenzo launched to celebrate his home city’s 500th birthday on Nov. 16, 2019. HVC 500 Years Anniversary is a Nicaraguan puro made using only the very best Aganorsa Leaf tobaccos. Just 1,333 15-count boxes have been made available, and the cigars are made in just one size, Tesoro (5 7/8 x 52).
“We are a small, boutique company that produces around 200,000 cigars a year,” Lorenzo explains. “Our whole production could be considered limited from that standpoint, but we make these limited-edition cigars to showcase the tobaccos available to us from Aganorsa Leaf and our own blending capabilities. The quality of the tobacco that we work with is unparalleled. Arsenio Ramos [Aganorsa Leaf’s late master blender who passed away in 2018] used to say, ‘When you blend with good tobacco, good things happen.’ That’s the blessing of working with Aganorsa Leaf—they have great tobacco, and they have an incredible team of people who have a great deal of knowledge about tobacco. The human being in this business is the most important thing—people with knowledge and the ability to learn and to work. You can have the best soil and the best tobacco seed, but if you don’t have the people who know what to do with it, nothing can happen.”
This story first appeared in the January/February 2020 issue of Tobacco Business magazine. Members of the tobacco industry are eligible for a complimentary subscription to our magazine. Click here for details.
– Story by Stephen A. Ross, editor-in-chief of Tobacco Business Magazine.
