New Miami-Rolled Brand Debuting Next Month

Chef-turned-cigarmaker Michael Martello Jr. launches Martello Cigar Co. next month with a single debut release called Ortolan -- a 6 x 50 toro using an Ecuadorian habano wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers, including medio tiempo leaves, the rare upper-priming tobacco found on fewer than ten percent of plants. The cigar is rolled at El Titan de Bronze in Miami and comes in porcelain jars of ten at $26 per stick, limited to 750 jars. Martello draws an explicit parallel between culinary mise en place and the precision of an expert roller -- the same obsessive craft, different medium. City of Palms handles distribution. At $26 out of El Titan de Bronze in a 750-jar run, the debut has legitimate infrastructure behind a first-time brand.