| Warning - Regard this post as biased as it was written by a guy who has a vested interest in it being successful. |
Pricing is a reflection of cost - and it costs a lot to make LP what it is - we have to buy an awful lot of tobacco to being able to sort out the exceptional leaf for LPs. Indexes are low, yields are low, labor is high, and so on. In short we spare absolutely no expense in making LP, not a single corner is knowingly cut, we simply could not spend more money to make a cigar.
Whether it is a good value for your wallet, well only you can decide that. And we understand it is too expensive for some and we understand that the cigar is not for everybody and that some people just don't like it for its taste. As I always say, "If you make a cigar everyone likes, you have made a cigar nobody loves..."
When it comes to the Papas Fritas, it is actually way way way more work to do what we are doing - nobody sorts their table trimming back into individual leaf variety and thickness to create a sandwich cigar - then hand cuts the filler even and then hand blends each one to a very exact standard. it is totally insane for a tripa corta, but it was the only way we could get the blend consistently tasting and burning the way we wanted it. And well it is LP, so it is only right that we do our upmost to make it the absolute best possible.
The issue is the "short filler". By it's very nature, it has a very negative connotation and rightfully so. Most short fill cigars are crap. Most short fill cigars are filled with scrap tobacco that can't be used in a good cigar. Short fill is synonymous with machine made cigars. Etc., etc..
But that isn't the case here, we are only using exceptional tobacco that happens to be the table trimmings from the manufacture of LP. We are going through painstaking efforts to prep the leaf and to get the blend right. We are using Grade 7 pairs to make the cigars. We spent a year working to get this right... actually longer because we were sharing the first samples right after last year's IPCPR with a few folks and we already were two to three months into this project.
This is totally different short filler than any other anyone has ever created and smoked, myself included. And the truth is, if we didn't tell anyone they were tripa corta, it is doubtful most would ever know because they smoke excellent and even hold a decent ash. I get about 35 - 40 minutes of smoke out it - this is a cigar you will want to nub. But that would go against our ethos of being authentic, so even knowing it is likely to hurt sales and would mean we would have to get over the negative perception of being "short filler", we are fully disclosing it because it is what it is.
There are a ton of $6 - $8 long filler coronas and short coronas in the market place and I believe you will find the Papas Fritas more than holds its own with any of them.
But ultimately, it may be a total flop, it may be a concept that no one is willing to try or like regardless of how it tastes. I hope that isn't the case because being able to make and sell Papas Fritas will help to maintain or at least slow the long term costs of making the other LPs which has gone up dramatically over the last couple of years (another longwinded conversation - sigh). On the opposite side of the coin, I think PF are actually good enough they could put a real hurt on Dirty Rat sales... it tastes different, but it is in that real peppery, spicy wheelhouse with a good hit of nicotine that I can see the Dirty Rat smoker really digging these...
All I can hope is people will try it and hope they see the merit in it that I do.
If not, we will stop making them - it won't be the my first dumb idea, nor my last. :>
BR,
Steve Saka
President, Drew Estate
