New Jersey retailer Sanj Patel, owner of Sanj’s Smoke Shop in Bloomfield, New Jersey, has announced the launch of his own cigar brand known as SP1014. It’s a project that has been two years in the works with Master Blender Francisco “Chico” Rivas and will be sold nationwide to appointed U.S. brick and mortar shops.

Rivas was born in Tamboril in Santiago, Dominican Republic. He is a fourth-generation person in the cigar industry who started working at age 8. When he turned 14, he started working in a cigar factory, and at age 16 he started his own cigar factory. In 1993, his father sent him to Cuba to learn more about the cigar industry. He is known for his expertise in planting and fermenting. He also worked at Quesada Cigars from 2009 to 2016, which was a period of great growth for that company.

SP1014 is a Dominican puro featuring all-Corojo tobaccos aged three to five years. The wrapper comes from the Peñuela region and has been aged for three years. The binder is also aged three years and comes from the Navarette region. The fillers consist of Seco tobaccos from Santuario in San Jose de las Matas (aged three years),  Viso from La Travesada in Navarate (aged four years), and Medio Tiempo Piloto from the Mao region (aged five years)

It will be offered in three sizes, each presented in 25-count cardboard boxes or five-pack cardboard boxes offered in the following sizes: Love n’ Passion 5 x 52, (SRP $5.50); Love n’ Passion 5 x 52, (SRP $8.40), and Love n’ Passion 7 x 40 (SRP $9.00).

Annual production of the SP1014 will be capped at 250,000 cigars annually per size. They will be available at 50 U.S. appointed merchants where the cigars are expected to arrive this month.

Image Credit: Sanj Patel