Bombay Tobak

Bombay Tobak is the house of Mel Shah, owner of the Fame Lounge in Palm Springs, California — a cigar, wine and beer bar. He founded the company in May 2014 to distribute nationally the cigars he had made for his lounge, under the MBombay brand. The name states the founder's Indian origin, and so do the lines: Gaaja, in July 2016, comes from gaja, the elephant of Hindu culture; Kēsara is saffron; Mōra, the peacock.

Everything is rolled in Costa Rica, in Puriscal, at Tabacos de Costa Rica — the factory this atlas describes at the Vegas de Santiago entry (Casdagli writes that it was then known by that name) and which also rolls Selected Tobacco, Villa Casdagli, Malekö, Skull 77 and the Zechbauer Royales. Cigar Coop names Andrés León as its owner and operator, and counts Bombay Tobak, with Selected Tobacco, among the brands that come out of it. Costa Rica remains, here too, a workshop country: the tobaccos come from elsewhere — Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Nicaragua.

The Classic line, in Ecuadorian Connecticut, is the mildest; M.Estelí, in 2019, the house's fullest, in Ecuadorian Habano 2000 over mostly Nicaraguan filler. The name of Estelí on a cigar rolled in Costa Rica is a debt to the tobacco, not to the workshop — the entry says so because the atlas's rule is the rolling place.

Range Depth

• MBombay Classic

  Wrapper Ecuadorian Connecticut · Strength Mild-Medium

  The mildest line — fillers from Nicaragua, Peru and the Dominican Republic.

• Gaaja

  Wrapper Undisclosed · Strength Medium-Full

  July 2016 — the elephant, gaja; a single size at first, a box-pressed 6 × 54 toro.

• M.Estelí

  Wrapper Ecuadorian Habano 2000 · Strength Medium-Full

  2019 — the house's fullest, mostly Nicaraguan filler, uncut foot. Rolled in Costa Rica despite the name.