August was a month of companies taking things back. Two distribution deals ended, one started, and the tariff bill that has been sitting on manufacturers all year finally started showing up on price sheets.
The biggest one came out of a small factory in Miami. El Titan de Bronze is done with Scandinavian Tobacco Group and is selling its own cigars again, which is a bigger decision than it sounds like.
- El Titan de Bronze's distribution deal with Scandinavian Tobacco Group ended July 30, 2026, and the Miami factory now sells Redemption and El Titan de Bronze Nicaragua direct to retailers.
- STG raised wholesale prices on August 3 across roughly 750 SKUs, averaging 4.2 percent on the items that moved, and pushed its per-order import charge from 6 to 7 percent.
- Section 301 tariffs on Dominican and Nicaraguan cigars went from 10 to 12.5 percent on July 24, and both the STG increase and Artesano Del Tobacco's 5-dollar-a-box bump point straight back at it.
EL TITAN DE BRONZE IS SELLING ITS OWN CIGARS AGAIN
El Titan de Bronze's distribution agreement with Scandinavian Tobacco Group ended on July 30, 2026. Sandy Cobas, who owns the factory, said the agreement with STG officially concluded on the 30th. The deal ran a little over two years, it started in early 2024.
Under that arrangement, General Cigar handled two releases: El Titan de Bronze Nicaragua and the newer version of Redemption. Both go back to the factory now. Retailers who want them are being told to call Miami directly.
Giselle Herrera, El Titan de Bronze's president, thanked General Cigar and the people who worked on the brand's behalf over those two years. She also said the company will show a new portfolio of cigars at PCA 2027, which lands in March.
Here's why this one caught my eye. El Titan de Bronze isn't a factory in the industrial sense, it's a rolling gallery in Little Havana that Cobas has run since 1997, and she's been making cigars in Miami since 1995. Handing distribution to the company that owns Macanudo and Cohiba was always going to be a strange fit.
Going direct means fewer stores carry you. It also means the shops that do carry you are talking to the person who made the cigar. For a place that size, in my opinion that's the better trade.
Handing distribution to the company that owns Macanudo and Cohiba was always going to be a strange fit.— NORM FARRAR, THE CIGAR FOSSIL
THE PRICE INCREASES KEEP LANDING
On Monday, August 3, both of STG's U.S. handmade divisions raised prices. That's General Cigar Co. and Forged Cigar Co., close to 750 SKUs between them, covering Macanudo, CAO, Punch, Hoyo de Monterrey, La Gloria Cubana, the non-Cuban Cohiba, Alec Bradley, Room101 and Diesel.
More than 80 percent of those items went up an average of 4.2 percent at wholesale, which is the price your retailer pays before shipping, discounts and taxes. A little over 100 items didn't move at all, and that pulls the portfolio-wide change down to about 3.5 percent. Around 2 percent took a double-digit jump. The biggest was the Punch Deluxe Chateau Maduro at 15.3 percent.
There's a second number that matters more than the first one. STG adds an import charge to every retailer order, and that's going from 6 percent to 7 percent. So even the hundred-plus items with no wholesale increase cost your shop more than they did in July.
Gene Richter, STG's vp of sales for North America, pointed to inflation in his letter to retailers. He also repeated the company's position that the import charge comes off if the tariffs come off.
The tariffs are the part nobody in the cigar business controls. On July 24, Section 301 duties on cigars from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua went from 10 percent to 12.5 percent. Honduras stayed at 10 percent. STG runs factories in all three countries, so it got hit from two directions at once.
Nine days later, Artesano Del Tobacco did the same thing on a smaller scale. Viva La Vida Classic and the El Pulpo Culebra each went up 5 dollars a box at wholesale, U.S. market only. The rest of the El Pulpo line, Viva La Vida 5th Anniversary and Viva La Vida Connecticut all held. The company said it spent months absorbing the tariff costs before passing any of it along.
That's two increases in ten days, both tracing back to the same July date. Expect more of these through the fall.
TWO MORE DISTRIBUTION DEALS CHANGED HANDS
City of Palms Distribution Services stopped distributing Tabacalera Caballeros on August 1, 2026. Kevin Dinkins, president of the Fort Myers, Florida company, called it a pleasure to have handled the logistics and distribution support while Caballeros got its start in the U.S. market, and wished the team well.
Caballeros is young, founded in 2022 by Marco Accardi and Cristian Quintana, and named for Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic. No replacement distributor has been named. If you've been buying these, that's the part worth watching, a brand this new without a U.S. distributor can go quiet fast.
Going the other direction, ChiMolly Cigars is now in Canada through a deal with Canadian Craft Cigars. The first shipment has already landed and is moving out to stores, according to Zhuofeng Weng of ChiMolly. Canadian Craft carries more than a dozen brands up here, including Tatuaje, HVC, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, Black Label Trading Co. and Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Co.
We don't get a lot of boutique launches in this country, so I'll take it.
TWO NEW PLACES TO SIT DOWN AND SMOKE
La Aurora opened its first branded lounge in Santiago de los Caballeros, on the 11th floor of the Residence Inn by Marriott. If that hotel sounds familiar, it's the one that hosts Procigar every year, and until now the place didn't have a cigar lounge in it.
There's a humidor built around La Aurora and E. León Jimenes cigars out of the factory, a full bar leaning on La Aurora's rums, indoor smoking areas and an outdoor terrace over the city. The walk to the entrance is lined with photos of the factory's history and the people in it. It's open seven days a week.
The La Aurora factory was founded in 1903 and is the oldest one still running in the Dominican Republic. Putting the lounge inside the Procigar hotel is a smart piece of hosting, if you go down for the festival you now have somewhere to sit at eleven at night.
In Miami, La Terraza Nicabanos is opening in South Beach at the Coral House property, 1030 Washington Avenue. It's more than 25,000 square feet indoors and out, with open-air cigar lounges, a cigar program run by Nicabanos' own specialists, Mediterranean food and a bar. It's in soft opening now, the grand opening is set for later this summer.
DOMAIN CIGARS PATENTED A BOX LINER
Domain Cigars was granted U.S. Design Patent D1,132,493 S for a cigar box liner. It was filed March 28, 2024 and issued June 30, 2026. A design patent protects how a thing looks rather than how it works, so what's covered here is the shape in the drawings.
The liner sits inside the outer shell of a slide-top box. It puts the humidification pack in a window down at the foot of the cigars, where it can do the most good, and it runs a bridge across the top to hold the sticks in place when you open the lid. Once the box is on a retail shelf, that bridge doubles as the shelf-talker.
Daniel Lance, Domain's co-founder and CEO, said the company knew shelf presence was going to matter for a new brand, and wanted to respect the traditions of cigar packaging while making the box unmistakably theirs. Domain also took a Gold GraphEx Award with its Kansas City printing partner MEDiAHEAD, for the production of its bands and packaging, in the Printing and Imaging Association of MidAmerica's 2026 competition.
Packaging patents are rare in this business. Domain says cosmetics companies have asked about licensing the design, which tells you somebody outside cigars thinks it's real engineering and not just a nice-looking box.
PRODUCT AND BRAND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Fifteen cigars were announced, started shipping, or got a firm date over the last few weeks. Here's the list with what actually matters on each one.
Built with the Miles Davis Estate for the trumpeter's centennial and named after his 1958 album. A 6 x 50 toro, Ecuadorian Connecticut-seed wrapper over Honduran binder with Honduran, Nicaraguan and Dominican filler, rolled at Agroindustrias in Honduras. 1,600 boxes at 185 dollars, each one packed with one of four reproduced Miles Davis sketches.
Matt Booth's anniversary release for 2026. We covered this one on its own, the full write-up is here.
AJ Fernandez's newest regular-production Diesel, shipping since August 1. Habano Criollo wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler, medium to full, in Robusto 5 1/2 x 52, Toro 6 x 52 and Gigante 6 x 60. Boxes of 20, 6.29 to 7.39 dollars a stick.
Debuted at PCA 2026 and now on shelves. Habano Corojo 99 wrapper, Ecuadorian Sumatra and Mexican San Andrés binders, Nicaraguan and Dominican filler. Toro 6 x 52 at 12.75 dollars, Sublime 6 1/2 x 54 at 12.95.
Ninety years since the family business was registered on August 28, 1936. A Dominican puro, and the first La Galera line using wrapper the company grew itself. Lector 5 5/8 x 54 box press at 18 dollars, Nanán 6 3/4 x 58 figurado at 27, named for Blanco's father with his portrait inside the lid.
Shipped nationwide ahead of the Q4 date Perdomo originally gave. Three blends, one from Nick Perdomo Jr., one from Nicholas Perdomo III, one they did together. Box-pressed gran figurado in 50-count chests, around 15 dollars.
Reinier Lorenzo's ten-year marker for the Pan Caliente. We covered this one too, read it here.
Reaching retailers in two versions, Connecticut and Oscuro, both with a sweetened cap. Dominican binder, Dominican and Nicaraguan filler, made at Tabacos de Exportación. Named after the Dominican sweet the Quesada sisters grew up on.
Announced alongside a second run of the Limitada 2025, so if you missed last year's you get another shot.
Wildfire Cigar Company is bringing The Revivalist back.
A new one from Lure, announced this month.
Three separate blends for the three Davidoff 1911 flagships in Geneva, Hong Kong and Madison Avenue, each one built around what sells in that room. All three are 6 x 54, packed ten to a wooden cabinet box, shipping September 1. No pricing given out.
The first Habanos Edición Limitada 2026 to be announced, a 5 3/4 x 50 in a size Habanos has used only once before. It launches October 24 at Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid. No price and no photos yet, and with the 2026 Festival del Habano cancelled, Cuban announcements have been coming out slowly and out of order all year.
A 6 x 52 toro for the country's 250th, Mexican San Andrés wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler, rolled early last year and resting at TAVICUSA in Estelí. Teased on July 4, then held up by packaging. It should ship mid to late September.
On sale August 22 at Wooden Indian Tobacco Shop in Havertown, Pennsylvania and Tinder Box Haverford, plus both shops' websites, before a wider rollout in late September or early October. A 5 1/2 x 52 box press with a 109-style belicoso cap, 12.65 dollars a cigar, 126.50 for a ten-count box. Same blend as the Gladius Maduro.
Two things stand out from August. El Titan de Bronze walking away from STG tells you what a small factory actually wants, and it isn't the most shelf space it can get. Sandy Cobas built that place by having people watch her rollers work through a window in Little Havana, and you can't push that through a national sales force. Losing doors to keep the relationship with the shops that stay is a fair trade at her size, in my opinion.
The other one is that the tariff bill has stopped being a spreadsheet problem. STG's import charge going from 6 to 7 percent and Artesano adding 5 dollars a box are both July 24 arriving at the register. My guess is we get another round before Christmas, and the small guys with no cushion feel it first. I'd also put March on your calendar, whatever El Titan does with its freedom shows up at PCA 2027.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Common questions about the El Titan de Bronze split, the August price increases, and this month's openings and releases.
