Cigar News: La Gloria Cubana Eighth Street Corona Grande Launched at PCA 2023

At the 2023 Premium Cigar Association Trade Show, Forged Cigar Company showcased a new size of its limited edition La Gloria Cubana Eighth Street line in the form of a Corona Grande. La Gloria Cubana Eight Street is a project that was developed in collaboration with Justin Andrews and blended by the team at El Titán de Bronze in Little Havana. Last year the Eighth Street made its debut with a 6 x 50 Toro.

For La Gloria Cubana, it’s a homecoming as the brand was once produced by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr. at his El Credito factory in Miami, Florida. In 1999, Perez-Carrillo would sell the brand to Swedish Match where it became part of General Cigar. Today it is a part of the Scandinavian Tobacco Group portfolio under Forged Cigar Company. While today most of La Gloria Cubana’s production comes from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, in 2008 there was a limited project that was done in Miami under the La Gloria Cubana brand called Artesanos de Miami.

The blend features an Ecuadorian Habano Oscuro wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and a combination of Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. The Corona Grande measures 6 1/2 x 48. The cigars are presented in ten-count boxes. Pricing is set at $22.99 per cigar.

In a press release Justin Andrews said, “It was a true pleasure to work with Sandy Cobas and her team to blend a new expression of La Gloria Cubana Eighth Street. This cigar is proudly made in the USA and honors the Little Havana roots of this legendary brand. For this special project, we stayed true to a classic La Gloria profile and replicated a Cubanesque smoking experience by way of the cigar’s size. This is a rich and complex smoke that celebrates the resilience of the cigar making tradition and I’m proud to have been a part of blending it.”

Sandy Cobas, owner of El Titán de Bronze added , “As one of Calle Ocho’s biggest success stories, La Gloria Cubana is a brand my team and I have always admired. We were thrilled to have the chance to blend a second Eighth Street Cigar. It allows us in some small way to continue honoring the Cuban expatriate cigar rollers who practice their craft in Miami, most especially at El Titán de Bronze, and who are committed to keeping the traditions of the homeland alive.”

The La Gloria Cubana Eighth Street Corona Grande is scheduled to ship to retailers in early September.

At a glance, here is a look at the La Gloria Cubana Eighth Street: