Tatuaje Owner Releases Secret Cigar

Gregory Mottola
Posted: September 24, 2008

Ever smoke a cigar that doesn't exist? According to Pete Johnson, owner of Havana Cellars and the Tatuaje cigar brand, his newest project, El Triunfador, does not exist. It's not on any price sheets, it's not on his Web site, and you're really not supposed to know about it. If it does exist. it's available by appointment only.

"This is a ghost cigar," said Johnson. "You can maybe get it if you ask, but I don't really talk about El Triunfador. It might be out there circulating—the story and the cigar."

So what does one have to do to get his hands on a box of El Triunfador? Johnson didn't really say. The cigar started mysteriously finding its way to retailers and smokers in the beginning of September, but it's a cigar that Johnson is hesitant to even acknowledge.

"I didn't want any buzz about this cigar," said Johnson, while adding that the secrecy behind El Triunfador is not unlike the mystique behind the storied Cuban "diplomatic" Trinidad. Before that brand became commercially available with a new size called the Fundadore, few smokers actually ever saw one.

To find out what El Triunfador looks like, what it costs, why you probably can't get it and other details you're not supposed to know about, see the current issue of Cigar Insider.

For more on Pete Johnson, click here.