New brand from Don Pepin for Ashton- Benchmade

By Gregory Mottola

After teaming up to create San Cristobal, Ashton Cigars has joined once again with famed cigarmaker Pepin Garcia and released a new brand called the Benchmade.

The cigar is an economy-priced Nicaraguan puro produced in Garcia's Tabacalera Cubana S.A. factory in Nicaragua.

"It's basically a value cigar made by Pepin for Ashton," said Sathya Levin, vice president of Ashton Cigars Inc. "It was a concept that we came up with — a down and dirty, no-nonsense, well-priced, medium- to full-bodied cigar."

Benchmade is constructed with mixed filler tobacco components held together by a double binder. Although the center of the cigar is packed with medium filler (a mix of long and short filler) the ends, according to Levin, are made with three-quarter-filler to help ensure that tobacco does not fall out of the foot, or that a smoker will not get tobacco flakes in his mouth.