A relative newcomer in the tobacco world, but the company's cigar making traditions and flavors are rooted in generations of Cuban cigar tradition. A native of upstate New York, Warped founder Kyle Gellis studied Marketing at school in Florida. Already well-versed in the cigar culture thanks to his father's love of the leaf, Gellis decided he wanted to learn the cigar industry inside out.
It was August of 2008: while smoking on his patio, Kyle decided it was time to make the short 90-mile trip and go door to door throughout Miami's tobacco-rich Little Havana neighborhood, looking to soak up the knowledge. He admits that the door got slammed in his face more often than not; but one small factory took him in, and helped him on the path of what would become Warped Cigars. Kyle would blend, smoke, blend some more - and relied on feedback from friends, fellow smokers and cigar forums to tweak his recipe and determine what makes a Warped cigar. And it's taken off from there.
Today, Warped cigars are premiums made "how they were meant to be", what Gellis calls "the Cuban way": traditional Cuban methods, warped with new tastes and styles. Warped cigars are made in Miami at El Titan de Bronze, the legendary Calle Ocho factory where all the rollers are experts who trained and worked in Cuban cigar factories in Cuba. This makes Warped as Cuban it gets, without stepping foot in Havana. And no big ring gauge cigars here: Kyle is obsessed with the Corona Gorda (5 5/8 x 46), and this classic cigar shape features into every line of Warped cigars.
El Oso, Spanish for "the Bear", is a complex beast of a boutique from Warped Cigars. Featuring a three-nation blend wrapped in Ecuadorian Habano, it's El Titan de Bronze expert handiwork in action. Flor del Valle cigars use true Cuban production methods in the making of this all-Nicaraguan long filler smoke, making for a medium-bodied smoke full of peppers and sweet spices. La Colmena cigars, or "the Beehive", exhibit traditional Cuban triple caps finished in a pigtail - and are extremely limited in their production.
Warped Cigars are steering the world of boutique smokes back to the ultra-traditional - see what they hold in store for your taste buds, when you buy Warped cigars at Famous Smoke Shop!