THE NEXT BIG STEP-UP IN PREMIUM CIGARS

ATABEY – The Cigar of the Year

 

Two Guys Smoke Shop has been announcing The Cigar of the Year on Superbowl Sunday for 20 years now, since they made their first announcement back in 1993, announcing the 1992 Cigar of the Year. 

“Each year it gets more complicated” says David Garofalo, who began this ritual when he had a small shop in Boston Massachusetts back then.  Today, Garofalo has 3 of the largest cigar shops in America and operates the highest volume cigar shop in the world now in New Hampshire. 

 

“This year we crowned a cigar that really outshined all others.  It stood out and impressed everyone who has tried them and a cigar I consider the best cigar I have ever smoked” Garofalo claims.  The new cigar brand called he talks about is Atabey. 

 

Atabey is handmade in Costa Rica although it uses no Costa Rican tobacco at all; actually the entire blends of all Nelson Alfonso brands are unknown.  Nelson would rather leave it to the imagination or the smoker. 

 

Nelson is the creator and man behind Atabey Cigars.  Born in Havana , Cuba , Nelson is a Visual Artist (Artist, Designer, Photographer and Researcher) and cigar manufacturer.  Since 1999 Nelson created designs for all major brands of cigars from Cuba.   He published “Puros Habanos” in four languages, winning the best multimedia publication of Cuban cigars by Habanos SA.   Nelson Directed the Spanish advertising and communication agency “Golden Age”, where he remains in charge of the image and creativity of all Premium Cuban tobacco brands.

 

Nelson is the graphic designer and in charge of industrial development in the art of smoking, and the designer of luxury products for brands such as Cohiba, Montecrsito, Partagas, Romeo & Julieta, H. Upmann, Hoyo de Monterrey, among others.

Nelson has won First Prize for Innovative Packaging Design and Products ,  4 consecutive years (2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010) at TFWA in Cannes, France, which was made ​​for Habanos SA for the International Duty Free World Wide Show.

In 2010, Nelson Alfonso Designed Cuba’s most luxurious cigar brand Cohiba “Behike” while he began drafting cigar brands “Atabey”, “Byron” and “Bandolero” for Selected Tobacco Company and had a soft launch of the brands this year at the IPCPR trade Show in Orlando Florida. 

Atabey, which was named “The Cigar of the Year”, is named after the Supreme God of the Taino Indians.  Worshiped at full moon ceremonies, tribe members would sit together in the act of COHIBA (smoking ritual) and blow their smoke over to their tribe leader THE BEHIKE who would raise his hands to heaven through the smoke he received and praise the goddess ATABEY.  “This cigar is the next step up for premium cigars, I couldn’t be more impressed.” says Garofalo. 

The 2012 Cigar of the Year – ATABEY are prices between twenty to thirty dollars per cigar.