Cabal Cigars

Cabal — a cabal, the founder says, in the sense of people gathered by a common purpose — is the brand of Chris Arolfo, who ran The Smoke Ring lounge in Webster, Texas, before founding it in 2013. He went to Hendrik Kelner Jr., the son of Davidoff's tobacco master, at Kelner Boutique Factory in Santiago, whose entry this atlas carries: nearly two years of trials, twenty-one blends, for a cigar with a Bonao wrapper — a Dominican leaf rare on a band — over binders from Peru and the Dominican Republic and fillers from Nicaragua, Pennsylvania and the Dominican Republic. Blend no. 19, too different to be Cabal, became Esoteric, in small batches.

Cabal is thus the fourth brand of this atlas to come out of KBF, after Casdagli, Principle and the factory's own The 73. Its new release, Initiative, came out of another Dominican factory, Tabacalera La Isla, that of Hostos Fernández Quesada — Ecuadorian Colorado corojo wrapper, Nicaraguan binder —, and a retailer presents it as the house's first release in more than six years.

Six years of silence, then, between two cigars: the trade press has not described the house since 2015, and what the entry knows of what followed comes from its retailers and its site. This atlas writes it because both factories are named, and it says what it does not know.

Range Depth

• Cabal

  Wrapper Bonao (Dominican Republic) · Strength Medium-Full

  2013 — twenty-one trials at KBF with Hendrik Kelner Jr.; Bonao wrapper, a rare Dominican leaf.

• Esoteric

  Wrapper Undisclosed · Strength Medium

  Blend no. 19 of the trials — too different to be Cabal, kept in small batches.

• Initiative

  Wrapper Ecuadorian Colorado corojo · Strength Medium

  The new release, at Tabacalera La Isla — the first in more than six years, a retailer says.