Last night, the soon to be wed power couple at Gurkha Cigars of Juan Lopez and Bianca Melone were our guests on the Smokin Tabacco show. In addition to catching up on all that has happened since Juan’s last time on, the dynamic duo broke the news of two new cigars that we would be seeing this year – both at the 2023 Total Product Expo. One of them is the Gurkha Ghost Connecticut that will be added to the existing Ghost line that features the same binder and fillers albeit an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper.
Gurkha Ghost Connecticut
Image Courtesy of Gurkha Cigars
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Ghost Natural Shadow (5×52) – MSRP $7.95
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Ghost Natural Asura (6×54) – MSRP $8.95
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Ghost Natural Exorcist (6×60) – MSRP $9.95
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Wrapper: Connecticut
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Binder: Mexican
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Filler: Dominican/Nicaraguan/USA
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Country of Origin: Dominican Republic – PDR Cigars
The Ghost Connecticut will be shown at TPE in Las Vegas, Nevada next month. However, they will first be available from Smoke Inn at the 2023 Great Smoke event in March. The cigars will ship in boxes of twenty-one. This is something that Bianca and Juan said Gurkha wanted to do to introduce something milder to their portfolio and wanted to do it in one of their best-selling predicate brands within the Ghost line.
“The regular Ghost is our horse.” – said Juan Lopez. “It is mild to medium – but it is the evolution of the brand. Seventy percent of the smokers smoke mild to medium. The other thirty percent or twenty-five depending on who you talk to smoke full bodied stuff.” Lopez went on to say about the new Ghost Connecticut. “The Ghost at the end of the day is our number one, by volume, box sale. So, we decided to bring out that Connecticut to incorporate a portfolio of Ghost for any smoker.” added Bianca Melone.
In addition, we also saw the new Grand Age II. The previous version of the Grand Age featured a Brazilian wrapper. This cigar will be offered in special chests of sixty with twenty of each of three different wrappers. The chests were discovered at the Gurkha headquarters and the idea for this project was born. The binder and fillers are all otherwise the same. The three wrappers offered will be a Connecticut, Nicaraguan Habano, and a Mexican San Andreas maduro. Only 2,700 boxes will be made available however, retailers will have the option to reorder refills in bundles of either all sixty or individual bundles of each wrapper variety.
Grand Age II
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6 x 54
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Twenty of Each Wrapper (Sixty Total)
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Grand Age Chest
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MSRP: $6.50
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Wrapper: Connecticut/Nicaraguan Habano/Maduro – San Andres
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Binder: Nicaraguan
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Filler: Dominican/Nicaraguan/Peruvian
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Country of Origin: Nicaragua
The Grand Age II will only be available in one size, a 6 x 54 toro and will each carry an MSRP of $6.50 cents. We do not have photos of the packaging as we were told it is still in the prototype phase but if you watch last night’s episode you can see the prototype that Juan and Bianca brought with them. We were told these will also be shown at TPE next month and will be available sometime in early spring.
When I asked if Gurkha has a factory or blender that they would love to work with that they haven’t already, Juan was pretty mum on the subject until later in the show when he teased that for the 2023 Premium Cigar Association Trade Show and Convention, they are working with someone like that on something special for that show. The 2023 PCA show takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada in July. Juan also mentioned that Gurkha is celebrating thirty-five years in business, and I assume we could see something related to that.
Watch the episode below!
