EPC adds a longer cigar to the Pledge series

EPC adds a longer cigar to the Pledge series. Currently, EPC Cigars only makes a 5×50 Robusto and a 6×52 Toro. The shorter one, The Pledge, is Cigar Aficionado’s #1 cigar of the year 2020. But apart from the length of 6¼ inches, nothing is known. Ernesto Perez Carrillo is planning to reveal the new Pledge this week during the PCA Convention & Trade Show.

The cigars however won’t ship until October, and there will only be 3000 boxes of 10 cigars. It is unclear if that is a conscious decision or a decision due to strained production capacity. That strained production capacity is the reason why Alec & Bradley Rubin moved the production of their Gatekeeper away from Perez Carrillo’s Tabacalera La Alianza to the Plasencia family in Honduras. 

Big ring gauge

Perez Carrillo is the king of big ring gauges. And there is a hint that the Pledge Apogee will have a bigger ring size. The veteran cigar manufacturer says in a statement to Cigar Aficionado that “With Apogee, the challenge was how to get the same strength and taste profile as the Prequel. I tried the blend using different percentages of ligeros in a 60 ring gauge but was not getting the strength complexities I was looking for.” Carrillo also says that this cigar will satisfy the craving for a big ring gauge Pledge.

The EPC Pledge is a Dominican cigar with a Connecticut-grown broadleaf wrapper from Cuban seed. The binder is Ecuadorian with all Nicaraguan filler. It is the third cigar from Perez Carrillo with a spot in the top 3 of the annual Cigar Aficionado’s top 25, and the second to reach the top spot.