Foundation Cigars The Tabernacle Review - Outstaning

Foundation Cigars The Tabernacle Review - Outstanding
Length: 6
Ring Gauge: 52
Strength: Full

Packaging: 1 Single Cigar
Vitola: Toro
Smoking Time: 55 Minutes

Wrapper: Coonecticut Broadleaf
Binder: Mexican San Andres
Filler: Nicaragua & Honduras

FOUNDATION CIGARS

1573 Cigars - George Frakes

In 2014 Nick Melillo faced a stark choice - He could well have stayed on as Executive Vice President of International Operations and Head Blender of Drew Estate (a role he had held since 2003), or he could seize the chance to finally use his 20 years of hard-earned experience and his access to the highest quality cigar tobacco to make his own cigars – the cigars of his dreams!

The choice was easy, and in 2015 Foundation Cigar Company was born, all for the love of the leaf.

Nick’s cigar journey started in high school, on Saturdays he would go for a smoke with his grandfather and brother at their local shop in New Haven, Connecticut. After memorising all details of every cigar in the humidor; Nick persuaded them to give him a weekend job.

Nick’s passion for working with cigars was immediately apparent, but following four years at Calabash Shoppe, the wide world was calling, and Nick took off to travel the globe. Following a lengthy global trip remarkably reminiscent of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, it was in 2003 that Nick received a call from Jonathan Drew...

Jonathan needed someone who knew and loved cigars and was willing to move to Nicaragua to oversee the setup and operations of his new cigar company - Drew Estate. Nick jumped on board and immediately started blending cigars and fermenting tobacco; cigars and tobacco that completely changed the cigar industry in the early 21st Century.

In 2015 Melillo branched out on his own, finally forming the Foundation Cigar Company.

Famously and without being prompted, paid or promoted, the cigars are now regularly being championed as the best cigars available by Joe Rogan (the world’s most popular podcaster) and winning awards and ratings such as #1 Best Buy (Cigar Afficionado), Cigar Of The Year (Cigar Snob) and #3 in Cigar Afficionado’s top 25 2019.

But what is at the heart of Foundation Cigar Company is the cigar smoker themselves – that smoke-filled moment of pure presence, that quietly thunderous connection to ancient heritage, modern science, and genuine passion for the leaf. This is something that Melillo and Foundation Cigar Company will provide endlessly to any who will sit and take audience. All for the love of the leaf.

THE TABERNACLE

Proven to exceed the heights of quality, the Tabernacle box tells the story of the cigar's name. The Artwork features an image of Haile Selassie, 225th King of Abussinia, now present day Ethiopia. Born Ras Tafari, his lineage traces directly to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. This direct link leads Ethiopia to claim possession of the Tabernacle (which held the Ark of the Covenant) and of course, every cigar smoker's humidor is their Tabernacle.

As published in 1565, Girolamo Benzoni's History of the New World (chronicling his travels through Nicaragua 1541-1556) notes tobacco being widely smoked by native Nicaraguan peoples alongside Ethiopians. It is from this rich native history of tobacco cultivation, tobacco consumption and the sharing of tobacco with kindred spirits that the Nicaraguan cigar industry draws its uniquely ancient yet utterly modern take on that raw and sacred plant.

Made with the finest example one of the most sought-after wrapper leaves in the world, The Tabernacle Broadleaf Maduro is everything that could be desired in a serious, premium cigar.