Limited-Edition Nat Cicco Commemorates 55 Years of the Brand
The Nat Cicco brand celebrated its 55th anniversary last year and parent company Zander-Greg is making a limited-edition cigar to mark the occasion. It will be unveiled at the PCA trade show in Las Vegas next month for a preview, but retailers aren’t expected to see it until this October.
Dubbed the Nat Cicco Fifty Five, the celebratory smoke is a 6 1/4 inch by 60 ring gauge figurado made in the Dominican Republic with a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, Java Indonesian binder and filler from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. When it arrives in the fall, it will come packaged in 10-count boxes and have a suggested retail price of $16 per cigar—an uncharacteristically high price tag for a brand that’s based its reputation on bargain smokes.
Originally known as the National Cigar Company when it was founded in 1965, the name was eventually shortened to Nat Cicco. Its specialty was a budget-friendly, medium-filler brand called “Rejects,” cigars marketed as being factory rejects sold at bargain prices. In 2007, California tobacco distributor Zander-Greg acquired the Nat Cicco brand. Five years later, the company began producing handmade, long-filler cigars under the Nat Cicco name such as the HHB Habano Gold lines which are still available at relatively inexpensive prices.
The Nat Cicco Fifty Five was blended by Rolando Villamil and is produced in the Dominican Republic at Tabacalera Von Eicken, the same factory that produces Epic Cigars, a brand Zander-Greg acquired in 2019.
Although the anniversary was last year, production of the Nat Cicco Fifty Five was delayed due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
