Foundation Cigars
Foundation Cigar Company is a small-batch franchise operated by brand founder Nick Melillo. Foundation cigars are handmade in Nicaragua at a handful of factories, including AJ Fernandez and My Father Cigars. Melillo got his start in the premium cigar business working at local cigar shops in his home state of Connecticut before taking a position with Drew Estate, where he managed tobacco procurement and became acquainted with many facets of factory and warehouse operations. The Foundation brand debuted in 2015 and is home to several boutique cigar lines, including Wise Man, The Tabernacle, and Charter Oak. Foundation cigars comprise a colorful and complex portfolio of blends.
CIGARS
Aksum Claro
Price Per Cigar:$13.95 - $18.006 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Ecuador Sumatraread more
Aksum Maduro
Price Per Cigar:$13.95 - $18.006 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Ecuador Sumatraread more
Charter Oak Broadleaf
Price Per Cigar:$5.76 - $7.306 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf2 Reviewsread more
Charter Oak Connecticut
Price Per Cigar:$5.76 - $7.306 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Ecuador Connecticutread more
Menelik
Price Per Cigar:$12.15 - $13.502 options availableStrength: FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: San Andres2 Reviewsread more
Olmec Claro
Price Per Cigar:$12.51 - $16.006 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: San Andres2 Reviewsread more
Olmec Maduro
Price Per Cigar:$12.51 - $16.006 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: San Andres3 Reviewsread more
The Tabernacle
Price Per Cigar:$11.25 - $14.006 options availableStrength: Medium-FullCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf4 Reviewsread more
The Tabernacle Havana Seed CT 142
Price Per Cigar:$11.25 - $14.006 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Connecticut Habano5 Reviewsread more
Wise Man Corojo
Price Per Cigar:$10.35 - $13.506 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: Corojoread more
Wise Man Maduro
Price Per Cigar:$10.35 - $13.506 options availableStrength: MediumCountry: NicaraguaWrapper: San Andres1 Reviewread more
FOUNDATION CIGARS BRAND HISTORY
Foundation Cigar Company was founded by Nicholas Melillo in June of 2015. Melillo got the bug for premium tobacco from smoking cigars with his grandfather. Shortly after graduating high school in 1996, he ran the humidor at the Calabash Shoppe in the town of Hamden, Connecticut. Melillo studied at Quinnipiac University and immersed himself in the world of premium cigars throughout his college years, visiting local smokeshops at the height of the Cigar Boom of the 1990s.
During an event at the Calabash Shoppe in 1998, Melillo forged a fast friendship with Drew Estate brand founder Jonathan Drew. Over the next few years, the two stayed in touch, and Drew offered Melillo a position with Drew Estate in 2003, overseeing the company’s tobacco procurement and fermentation in Estelí, Nicaragua. Melillo jumped at the opportunity and played an integral role in the company’s growth as he learned the factory, warehouse, and packaging operations, eventually serving as Drew Estate’s vice president of international operations.
Melillo’s drive to start his own brand remained a central goal. He left Drew Estate in 2014 to create Foundation Cigars, knowing that ensuing FDA regulations could thwart his chance to start a new cigar brand if he waited. Melillo laid the groundwork for his new endeavor during the eleven years he worked at Drew Estate, contributing much to the Liga Privada No. 9 and T52 releases.
Melillo relied on the relationships he established at Drew Estate with tobacco growers around the world to assemble his portfolio of blends. Foundation cigars are handmade in Estelí, Nicaragua. Production of certain lines, like The Tabernacle, is handled at the AJ Fernandez factory, while other cigars were originally made at the TABSA (Tabacos Valle de Jalapa S.A.), a factory known for rolling several small-batch brands, including Illusione and Warped. Melillo transferred production of his cigars from TABSA to the Garcia family at their world-renowned My Father Cigars factory in 2024.
Melillo creates each line in the Foundation portfolio with a variety of provincial and cultural details in mind, stemming from his travels and his affinity for history and religious studies. He works closely with Estelí-based artist Alex Garcia to imbue the boxes and bands of Foundation cigars with historical, cultural, and biblical references.
While many premium cigar companies are headquartered in Miami or Tampa, Melillo, a Connecticut native, chose Windsor, Connecticut, as the home for Foundation’s offices in 2017. Foundation’s headquarters are situated in the heart of the Connecticut River Valley, where Melillo’s beloved broadleaf tobaccos are grown.
FOUNDATION CIGARS BRAND OVERVIEW
In 2016, Foundation Cigar Company’s first release, El Güegüense, earned a 92-point rating and was ranked in the ‘Top 25 Cigars of the Year’ by the critics in Cigar Aficionado. Pronounced “el way-when-say,” El Güegüense translates to “the wise man” and is blended entirely from Nicaraguan tobaccos, including its oily Corojo ’99 wrapper leaf. Peppery notes of paprika, earth, and cedar provided a beefy backbone in an early hit from Foundation.
The Charter Oak brand is named for a historic tree in Connecticut that stood from the 1100s until the 1850s, marking a place where Native Americans gathered. Charter Oak is Foundation’s value-based line, and it’s available in two wrappers. An Ecuador Connecticut wrapper delivers hints of vanilla bean, wood, and fresh alfalfa, while the Broadleaf edition is sweet and rich with notes of dark chocolate, hazelnut, and pepper. Beneath each is a well-made blend of Nicaraguan long-fillers. In 2018, Cigar Aficionado rated Charter Oak Connecticut 93 points.
The Tabernacle is one of the most popular lines from Foundation. The original Tabernacle is blended with a decadent Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper and features a nutty profile of licorice and cedar with a sweet finish. A newer edition, The Tabernacle Havana Seed CT 142, is finished in a Cuban-seed wrapper, grown in Connecticut, and is characterized by notes of almond, cashew, cinnamon, clove, and dark cocoa. Both Tabernacle blends include long-fillers from Nicaragua, San Andrés, and Honduras, and both are handmade at the AJ Fernandez factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.
In 2022, Melillo debuted an annual, limited release called Menelik. The cigar is named for the first emperor of Ethiopia, Menelik I, and it’s blended from an oily San Andrés wrapper leaf and an intricate interior of Nicaraguan long-filler tobaccos from Estelí, Jalapa, and Condega tucked within a Jalapa binder.
Nick Melillo has also produced a handful of cigars for George Herbert, the eighth Earl of Carnarvon and godson to the Queen of England, who commissioned Foundation to blend a cigar for his world-famous chateau, Highclere Castle, the setting of the PBS television series “Downton Abbey.” Melillo’s latest project with the Earl of Carnarvon is called Highclere Castle Senetjer, a cigar that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun—aka King Tut. The boxes of Senetjer cigars are modeled after an actual artifact that was pulled from the tomb, which was discovered by renowned archaeologist Howard Carter and George Herbert, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon. Melillo’s Highclere Castle cigars are expensive, small-production releases crafted at the AJ Fernandez factory.
During the spring of 2024, Melillo rebranded El Güegüense cigars as Wise Man Corojo and Wise Man Maduro when he transferred production from the Aganorsa factory to My Father Cigars in Estelí, Nicaragua. Melillo jumped at the opportunity to work with legendary father-and-son cigarmakers Pepin and Jaime Garcia. Wise Man Maduro is finished with a dark and thick San Andrés wrapper leaf, while Wise Man Corojo is blended with an oily, brown Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper. Underneath each is a formidable recipe of premium long-fillers grown on Garcia family estates in Estelí, Condega, and Jalapa.
Melillo also rebranded his Metapa line as Aksum Claro and Aksum Maduro cigars. Aksum cigars are named for the Kingdom of Aksum, an empire that spanned the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula during Classical Antiquity and is rumored to be the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Aksum cigars are blended and produced by AJ Fernandez.
Explore the Foundation portfolio when you’re looking for new Nicaraguan cigars with a good amount of buzz behind them to add to your collection.
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