A lot of dreaming, time and care went into this collaboration. But first, for those who don't already know his work, let me introduce you to Christian Watson. Christian is the founder of 1924us, a company that specializes is branding, animation, photography, along with selling antique products and other items designed by Christian. While Christian lives with his family in Tasmania, his work - particularly in illustrations and animations - are world-renowned.
Christian's work has always provided inspiration for Standard + Twain, so when he reached out to me a couple years ago about creating a cigar together it was both a thrill and an honor. After several conversations, we decided to create one limited edition cigar that would come in a 10-count box. His job was to create a one-of-a-kind design for the box. For Christian, this month's illustrating by hand every detail of artwork. This is an extremely time-consuming process rarely practiced anymore. Christian has worked with hundreds of companies, most recently with Onyx Coffee, one of my favorite coffee roasters, but he said this was the most detailed and arduous design he had ever done (this was very evident when the box company we worked with said they had never seen a box design even close to this detailed and creative).
Christian said he wanted to box to be more than just a storage container for cigars - he wanted it to be an art piece you would want to keep as if it were a painting or a sculpture. This put a lot of pressure on me to create a cigar as worthy as the box it came in! So I journeyed to Esteli, Nicaragua, twice in the last year to work with my friends Victor Calvo Sr and his son Victor Jr at their factory Tabacalera Tambor. Tambor was once known mostly for creating machine made cigars, including what is often considered the best flavored cigars in the world, but in the last few years they have taken major steps toward creating some of the best premium cigars coming out of Nicaragua, including not just their own factory but their own tobacco and curing barns as well.
The final blend was exactly what I envisioned yet better than I imagined: very accessible and balanced, with a lot of rich nuanced flavor notes like toast, mixed nuts and vanilla for an extremely pleasant medium bodied smoke.
