The Fratello Cigars logo, the company founded in 2013 by Omar de Frías, a former employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was placed on a capsule that will remain on the dark side of the Moon. It is the first part of an adventure, with which it is hoped to bring the first cigar to the natural satellite of our planet.
As a Dominican, Omar was attracted to this industry from an early age, thanks to his grandfather and other older people who enjoyed tobacco inside a store near the court where he used to practice basketball.
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His hobby began when he was 17 years old, thanks to a León Jiménez cigar: “I think I didn’t honor it as I should, because I coughed too much, but I remember that the sensation was memorable and made me feel different from the rest of the guys who smoked cigarettes,” he remembers.
Some time later –as a result of his training– for 12 years he was in charge of different projects at NASA, after which Omar felt the need to explore the business world, “And what better, if it was through cigars,” he says. This decision gave rise to Fratello.
The products of Fratello Cigars, with presence in 28 countries and more than a thousand points of sale in the United States, have in their core line the Clásico, with Nicaragua wrapper; Bianco, Negro San Andrés wrapper, and Gold, Connecticut Ecuador wrapper. Fuoco is a short version of each of them, with 3.5 inches, 50 ring gauge, pigtail and closed foot.
There is also the Italian Collection with Arlequín Maduro and Connecticut; the State Exclusives, with Texan, the Camo Value Series line and some limited editions.
The NASA Inspired line was born with Navetta, a cigar with Ecuador wrapper, Dominican binder and Nicaragua filler, and the Inverso, with the same blend, but inverted: Nicaragua wrapper, Ecuador binder and Dominican and Nicaragua filler.
The latest addition is Lunar, a Connecticut and Cameroon wrappers cigar that celebrates the moon landing of Intuitive Machines, a company founded by an Omar’s friend that won the next three contracts for commercial trips to our satellite.
The people involved in the project liked this cigar so much that it was decided to place the Fratello Cigars logo on a capsule that will remain at the south pole of the Moon, known as the dark side, where it could last –according to calculations– until near of 2.2 billion years. “On this occasion it was only the logo, but there are plans to also send a cigar,” says Omar.
