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by CigarCraig | August 30, 2017 · 9:17 pm

IPCPR 2017 – Fratello Cigars

I’m down to my last couple videos to post from the IPCPR show, and realized that I hadn’t posted the video with one of my ~~biggest~~ best friends from the cigar industry, Fratello Cigar‘s Omar de Frias. So tonight I grabbed a Fratello Bianco the Boxer for my evening walk. You may recall this cigar was one of my favorite cigar from 2016, and it remains so, it’s a great smoke, it has a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Dominican binder and fillers from the USA, Nicaragua and Peru made at the Joya de Nicaragua factory. It’s rich and chocolaty with some spice and I really like it. The rest of the line is great, as are all of the Fratello cigars. I especially look forward to trying the Oro in The Boxer shape, as well as the new cigar Omar showed at the IPCPR show, the Navetta, which he tells us about in the video. Navetta is “shuttle” in Italian, and it pays homage to Omar’s career with NASA and all the shuttle missions of which he was a part. If you ever have a chance to meet Omar at an event near you, run, don’t walk, to the event and spend a few minutes talking to this super-cool dude.

this was the display, not the retail packaging….sadly…

Speaking of Big….don’t forget to go back to Friday’s contest post and leave a comment for a chance to win some Big Papi cigars from the folks at El Artista! Contest ends Friday!

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under IPCPR, Review, Video

Tagged as Bianco, cigar, cigars, Fratello, Navetta, Oro, The Boxer

by CigarCraig | September 7, 2016 · 9:08 pm

Fratello Bianco The Boxer Cigar

One of the great treats at the IPCPR is seeing my friend Omar de Frias, who charged on to the cigar scene in 2013. Here was this larger than life unknown guy at his first trade show, making a big splash with his line of cigar made at the Joya de Nicaragua factory, although that was hush hush for quite a while. Omar is one of the nicest guys you will want to meet, and one of the hardest working as well. He holds down a day job at NASA, travels tirelessly promoting Fratello cigars, meets with legislators on Capital Hill fighting for our freedom, and has a family too. If you ever have the opportunity to meet Omar, jump at the chance and do whatever you have to do to get to one of his events.

This year at the IPCPR Omar presented his new line extension in the Fratello Bianco series, the Fratello Bianco The Boxer. The Bianco series is the San Andrés maduro cigar in the line, it’s got a beautiful dark wrapper, quite the opposite of the name Bianco, which is Italian for white. So We have a guy who was born in Puerto Rico, raised in the Dominican Republic, living in the US and making cigars in Nicaragua with an Italian name! The Boxer is his box pressed torpedo, it’s a classic 6¼” x 52, with a crisp square press. The wrapper is the afor mentioned San Andrés Negro, the binder is Dominican, and the fillers are Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian and Peruvian, blended in a slightly different proportion than the rest of the Bianco line. This was the best cigar I’ve smoked in recent memory. It was rich, loaded with those dark chocolate and espresso flavors I love, with some interesting spices from the Pennsylvania and Peruvian fillers. The shape was fun and comfortable in the mouth and hand, and it smoked perfectly, the draw had just the right resistance, and the burn was even. I lit it with a new lighter, the Xikar Xidris, a new addition to their lighter line, which you’ll hear more about in the near future, but out of the box it worked well and has a great feel and look. I’ll certainly be on the look out for the Fratello Bianco The Boxer as this is an amazing cigar.