4月3日，通用雪茄公司旗下的麦克纽杜品牌开始向零售商运送一款新品雪茄，这款名为“tercios”的雪茄采用了一些经过特殊发酵的烟叶，这是一种将烟叶成捆放在干燥的棕榈树皮里发酵的工艺，棕榈树皮称为“tercios”（方阵）。

这款雪茄使用了四国烟叶，茄衣是墨西哥圣安德烈斯烟叶，茄套是印尼烟叶，茄芯是多米尼加、哥伦比亚的混合烟叶。多米尼加烟叶是古巴皮洛托种子烟叶，这款烟叶在棕榈树皮里发酵了六个月。雪茄是在多米尼加共和国的圣地亚哥生产的。

根据通用雪茄公司的说法，在棕榈树皮里发酵烟叶的方式可以让烟草的风味更加饱满。这款tercios的口味是中等强度。有两个尺寸。公牛，54环径，6英寸，在美国的零售价是10.49美元。丘吉尔，49环径，7英寸，零售价10.99美元。两个尺寸都是每盒10支包装。

美国市场将分配2000盒公牛和1400盒丘吉尔。雪茄烟标和外包装盒上印有一个二维码，消费者可以扫描后观察烟叶发酵过程的视频。

通用雪茄公司不是第一次采用在棕榈树皮里发酵的烟叶来生产雪茄，之前生产的高希霸幽灵也含有在棕榈树皮里发酵的烟叶。

A pair of smokes from General Cigar Co.’s Macanudo Inspirado brand are shipping to retailers today, and they feature specially-aged tobacco as part of the blend. Called Macanudo Inspirado Tercio-Aged, the brand is named after a process where bales of fermented tobacco leaves are wrapped in dried palm tree bark (called tercios) to age.

Rolled at General Cigar Dominicana in Santiago, Dominican Republic, the cigars consist of a four-country blend: A dark Mexican San Andrés wrapper atop an Indonesian binder with Colombian and Dominican filler. The Dominican Piloto Cubano fillers are the leaves that underwent the tercio aging process for a period of six months.

According to the company, the tercios “round out the tobacco in a way that is not attainable through other methods.” 

Billed as being medium in body, Macanudo Inspirado Tercio-Aged is available in two sizes: Toro, measuring 6 inches by 54 ring gauge ($10.49); and Churchill, 7 by 49 ($10.99). The cigars come in 10-count boxes.

Production is limited to just 3,400 boxes (2,000 of the Toro and 1,400 of the Churchill) for the U.S. market.

The cigar bands and boxes include a QR code which directs consumers to links showing a video of the tercio aging process.

This would not be the first time that General has released cigars with tobacco aged in tercios. Cohiba Spectre, which is the company’s most expensive brand, is purported to contain tercio-aged leaves as well. 

General Cigar Co. is a subsidiary of its European parent company Scandinavian Tobacco Group.