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 W 
ith optimism unburdened byexperience, a trio of boyhoodfriends from Brazil, still in their20’s, has set out to re-establish the SouthAmerican country in the United States,as a manufacturer of premium cigarsusing Brazil’s own tobacco. “Our maindriving point is to make the best cigarspossible using the tobacco that we havein Brazil — a Brazilian ‘puro’ cigar,”says Tarek Mourad, 28.Mourad, Felipe Lemos and MarceloLima, both 26, and all three highschool chums from São Paulo, have been importing Brazilian-made Car-avelas cigars into the United States fornearly two years. Lemos and Lima di-rect Caravelas marketing from officesof their company — Puros do Brasil —in Miami, Fla., while Mourad supervis-es tobacco procurement and cigar pro-duction in Brazil.“When I originally suggested mak-ing a
 puro
Brazilian cigar and distribut-ing it in the U.S., Felipe called me delu-sional,” Mourad recalls.
BOUTIQUE
CIGARS
A True Brazilian
Experience
84
SMOKESHOP
 August 2004
 Brazilian newcomer Puros do Brasil aims to rekindle the nation’s lost glory in fine premium cigars and rebuild markets worldwide.
By Bob Ashley
 
Not that such a venture hasn’t beenattempted before. During the 1990s’ cigar boom, several companies experimentedwith selling Brazilian-made cigars in theU.S. with little success. But Brazilian to- bacco has long been used as filler to adda little kick to premium cigars manufac-tured in the Dominican Republic, Hon-duras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Braziliantobacco is also popular as filler and binder for machine-made, dry-cured cig-ars manufactured in Germany for theEuropean market.“We wondered, ‘If Brazil had all thisgood tobacco, where is a good Brazilian brand?” Lemos says.The trio started work in January 2003exploring tobacco blends, suggestingnames, and designing labels.The Caravelas premium cigar brandmade its wholesale debut last August atthe RTDA trade show in Nashville.The only tobacco in Puros do Brasil’sCaravelas is Mata Fina grown in theBahia region in northern Brazil. “The rea-son that area is good for tobacco is be-cause of the unique climatic conditionsthat exist there,” Mourad explains. “It’sinteresting to note that Bahia is the samedistance south of the equator that theCuban growing regions are to the north.“Mata Fina is not Cuban tobacco, butgood tobaccos share similar growing con-ditions that are similar to wine growingregions. The good ones are always simi-lar in the same approximate latitude.”Although Caravelas is a Brazilian“puro” cigar, its tobacco is blended. “Weuse different cuts of Mata Fina from dif-ferent farms,” Mourad said.Oddly, when Mata Fina cures in nor-mal fashion, it appears to be a maduroleaf, although it is not nearly as full-bod-ied as a maduro wrapper would be. “Thecharacteristic flavor that Mata Fina deliv-ers is very aromatic, full of taste, but gen-erally medium-bodied,” Mourad says,.“Mata Fina typically is used in other cig-ars as a wrapper.”The Caravelas line features seven cig-ars in lengths ranging from 5 to 7 inchesand ring gauges ranging from 43 to 60.Among them are the Blastico — a hefty8” torpedo — and the tapered 6” Ele-gantes. Suggested retail prices rangefrom $4 for the 5 1/2 x 43 Corona Gordato $12.50 for the 8 x 60 Balistico. A newsize is also being added, called Cruzeiro— a “canhonaço” shape.An extension of the Caravelas brand — the Caravelas LE in two sizes— will debut at the 2004 RTDA tradeshow in Las Vegas. “The tobacco weuse in the LE was aged an extra year,”Mourad reveals.Also scheduled to launch at the LasVegas RTDA show is a new blended linecalled Delectados. The five-size line fea-tures a combination of Brazilian-grownMata Fina and Mata Norte tobacco. “Thisname was used in the last James Bondmovie, when Bond goes to Cuba andlooks for a fabled cigar called Delecta-dos,” says Lima.The Mata Norte tobacco in the Delec-tados will produce a more full-bodiedcigar, but retain the all-Brazilian natureof the Puros do Brasil’s cigars. “We wantto achieve a little more distribution andvolume while we maintain Puros do
86
SMOKESHOP
 August 2004
Eduardo Isao and Marcelo Lima at the Fumex curing barn.
 
Brasil as a factory that produces consis-tently high-quality cigars,” Mourad says.“The Canhonaço blend will allow us toproduce more cigars because it is a blend— but it’s still only Brazilian tobacco.”Lemos says Puros do Brasil won’trepeat the mistake other Braziliancigar manufacturers made trying to en-tering the North American market.“The strategies that the other compa-nies followed ended up with them try-ing to do too much too fast,” he says.“They created huge production inBrazil, but there was not the focus onquality that we have.“Previous Brazilian brands that weredistributed in the U.S. relied too much onthe sheer marketing aspect of being aBrazilian cigar. Marcelo and I spenthours talking to people about what theywanted in a cigar. We watched people insmokeshops and talked to store owners.“We will grow slowly so that wecan control Caravelas’ quality and thequality of the other cigars that wemanufacture.”Although boyhood friends in SãoPaulo, Mourad attended American Uni-versity in Beruit, Lebanon, while Lemoshas a history degree from Duke Univer-sity and Lima an engineering degreefrom Cornell University.The trio has met with some early suc-cess in their efforts to promote Braziliancigars. Brazilian President Luis Incio“Lula” da Silva has taken to passing outCaravelas to visiting dignitaries, causingan increased demand for the cigar inBrazil that the company has been chal-lenged to meet. “We’ve had some angerdirected at us in Brazil because we’ve notproduced enough boxes for national con-sumption,” Lemos said.Puros do Brasil’s initial production ofthe Caravelas 5
1
 ⁄ 
2
”x 43 Corona Gordo re-ceived a 4.2 out of a possible 5.0 from a
Smoke
magazine review panel. Said onereviewer: “A pleasant medium-bodiedcigar with strength and rich complexity.A nice, peppery aftertaste tops it off.”Caravelas are packaged in boxes of20 or 25. Special orders can also be sup-plied in boxes of 10. For retailer promo-tions, Caravelas can wrap each cigar in-dividually with cedar sheets that can becustomized with the store name or logo.“What makes our product more pre-mium and unusual is that the tobaccoisn’t grown anywhere else,” Lemos says.“If you grow Mata Fina anywhere else, itisn’t Mata Fina, just like if you plantCuban seeds in the Dominican Republic,you don’t get Cuban tobacco. You getgood tobacco, but it’s not Cuban.“It’s been a challenge for us to kickstart Caravelas so quickly because of thelimited nature of Mata Fina in Brazil. Wehad to make a major effort to findenough tobacco to make our cigar.”According to Mourad, who oversees
88
SMOKESHOP
 August 2004
Tarek Mourad rolling a puro with other workers at Puros do Brasil.
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