Former all-pro NFL Wide Receiver Chad Ochocinco Johnson will be launching his own cigar brand. Johnson will be teaming up with GLB Cigars to make the Eighty5 cigar brand. The first cigar will be called Boa Vida (which translates to “The Good Life) and today the brand announced a pre-sale for the cigar that will run through March 31st.
According to the company, Johnson was involved in the development of this project. He spent time in the Dominican Republic and was involved in tobacco sourcing, blend development, as well as packaging design.
The cigar itself is a 6 x 50 Toro made in the Dominican Republic. The blend features a blend of Brazilian and Nicaraguan tobaccos, and Indonesian binder, and an undisclosed wrapper. The cigars will be packaged in 20 count boxes, but there are other quantities available for the pre-sale. Pricing is set at $16.99 per cigar.
GLB Cigars is better known as Guy and Lady Barrel Cigars. The company was founded by Maurice and Grace Williams. The company’s lead product developer is Jesus Castanon, who was involved with the development with the Eighty5 Boa Vida. Castanon is from Cuba where he was trained and employed by Cohiba. GLB Cigars is best known for its Alcohol Infused Cigars brand.
The first 500 boxes Eighty5 Boa Vida will be numbered and come with a letter of authenticity signed by Johnson and Castanon. The pre-order cigars will be hand-rolled on demand before being sent out to consumers.
Johnson is best known for his career with the Cincinnati Bengals, but in his final NFL full season played for the New England Patriots. He finished his career in the Canadian Football League with the Montreal Alouettes.
hmmmmm interesting…
If anyone follows him on Instagram, he appears to be a pretty regular cigar smoker. This may be an interesting blend, but $16.99 is a steep entry point for price.
I was thinking the same thing….
Ordered these over a year ago…. they got my money and I’ve gotten …………..lots of promises
Ordered and paid for on March 17th, 2016. Emails to eighty5cigars come back as undeliverable. Chad does not respond to tweets asking for updates.
Ordered and paid for in March 2016. Email to customer service came back undeliverable. No responses from DM’s on Twittter….next steps????
I’ve continued to hound Christian Benjamin (@MrCBenjamin on Twitter. He’s the “brand ambassador”) and have slowly gotten some answers.
1) Trans Heritage Tobacco is the company manufacturing the cigars (J. Castañón is part of this company)
2) Eighty5 Cigars was not in possession of the cigars until recently (around June 16th), when they finally passed through customs and were delivered to Eighty5 in Delaware. They weren’t legally allowed to communicate on social media (although I’m not certain as to why)
3) Eighty5 Cigars is now putting new labels on the cigars before making an announcement that they’re ready to ship. I have no idea how long that process is. But they’ve had the cigars for almost 2 weeks now (as of this post).
So hopefully, finally, the cigars are getting close to us. Hopefully it’s been worth the wait.