What Makes a Cigar Worth $7,500?

When we set the price of the Schleien No. XXVI at $7,500 per cigar, the most common question — and the most reasonable one — was simply, "why?"

The honest answer has three parts.

First, the leaf. The filler is aged Nicaraguan Criollo '98 from a single Estelí farm, double-fermented and rested for eleven years. There are perhaps three hundred pounds of this leaf in the world. The wrapper is an oily, five-year-aged Habano Ecuador with the kind of glassy sheen that almost no one bothers to age that long anymore.

Second, the hands. A single master Cuban torcedor, working in Texas, rolls every cigar himself. He produces twelve a day. There is no factory line, no apprentice on the cap, no shortcut.

Third, the scarcity. Production is permanently capped. There will never be more.

Is it worth $7,500? It is worth what someone will pay. The waitlist suggests the answer is yes.

— Eric Schleien