El Güegüense (pronounced: L – Wha –When-say) , the long awaited debut launch by Nicholas Melillo’s Foundation Cigar Company is set to arrive in stores. Earlier today, the company issued a press release announcing shipments have now begun to hit retailers. An official launch of the cigar will be held at Mickey Blake’s Tobacconist located in Milford, Connecticut on Saturday September 26th, 2015.

The cigar is being made at Casa Fernandez’s Tobacos Valle de Jalapa (TABSA) factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. The cigar consists of a Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 wrapper from Finca Puntalito in Jalapa, a Nicaraguan Corojo 99 binder from Finca San Jose in Jalapa. The filler consists of Nicaraguan Criollo and Corojo from Esteli and Jalapa taken from vintage year crops in 2011 and 2012.

The capa and capote are Nicaraguan Corojo 99 with the former coming from Finca Puntalito in Jalapa and the latter from Finca San Jose in Jalapa. The tripa in El Güegüense is Nicaraguan criollo and corojo from Esteli and Jalapa from vintage crop year tobaccos 2011 and 2012. The cigar is being launched in five sizes: Robusto (5 1/2 x 50), Corona Gorda (5 5/8 x 46), Toro Huaco (6 x 56), Torpedo (6 1/4 x 52), and Churchill (7 x 48). Each size will be packaged in 25 count boxes. Pricing is $9 to $13.00 SRP.

The name El Güegüense means “the wise man”, but it is also the name of a drama that is considered one of the oldest literary works in Nicaragua.

Melillo was a special guest on Episode 153 of Stogie Geeks and discussed the project in depth: