Señorial
A Family Story

Señorial – A Family Story

On this page I will tell our road to Señorial from my very personal point of view, and what Señorial means to me, to us, Jose Blanco and myself.
Long before Señorial had its name, long before the blend was in the works, long before anyone had even seen or heard a peep about Jose coming out with his own cigar, I said “let´s make this all about family and tradition, let´s finally promote your story and your family´s story in tobacco as this Blanco family deserves.” Also my own family has some cigars and tobacco here and there in our history (as seen in the page “About me”).
We did everything ourselves as much as possible. We had to seek some outside help for some things that we simply have no clue about (such as IT for example… our website and even getting this blog working! Thank you Brian Berman (Proyecto Mañana) Seth Geise (Seth´s Humidor) You guys have been amazing!).

Finding the name:
Jose and I would take long walks strolling with our son Jasper, spending hours trying to find a name. This industry has so many great names out there! Each one more innovative or classic than the other… So the name was actually a very late discovery.
And a lot of time and marketing-research I found ”Señorial!” A word I did not even know in Spanish! I was using the language I am the most rich in vocabulary-wise: French. Side-note for the understandably confused: I grew up in the South East part of France, in Annecy, so my real first language and basic education is French. I was looking for synonyms, Google-translating my way to: “Señorial!” That was it! A spot-light shone on this word!

Marketing, meaning and message of Señorial:
Jose started working on the blend ever since September 2013. Meanwhile, I started working on a marketing-plan with an entirely different name. Until I found that that name was already too widely used for diverse products. The entire image I had created was based on that latter name and story. That plan was indeed just to be dumped, although I still keep it safely tucked in my laptop for my emotional reasons J

- And so it went on… I sent my business-plans around to a very few intelligent and trusted contacts of ours for objective opinions… until I would say “nope sorry, that´s not the plan, sorry for making you read yet another 100 slides!”

Suddenly, after finding the name Señorial my final marketing, image and business-plan were clear to me! My fingers were typing and drawing and searching on their own to create my next and final 100 slides!

The meaning:
Señorial means word for word “Lordly” – Yet Jose and I are both very humble beings, so it does not mean “lordly” to us. I chose this name to symbolize and value Jose´s years of experience, deep knowledge and even his family´s history in tobacco.

Jose´s family in tobacco:
Jose´s great grand-father, grand-father and dad, all from the Blanco side, were all tobacco-growers in the Dominican Republic, in the Santiago area, Tamboril. Jose´s uncle Arnaldo Blanco, Jose´s first cousin Jochi´s father, founded Tabacalera Palma in 1936, and Jochi is now running it – this is the factory where Señorial is being made. See the page “Señorial and Updates” for more details about this factory and its tobaccos.

The Blend:
I made, what Jose already knew, clear to him: this blend HAS to be fantastic and memorable! Jose´s pressure was heavy! Strong pressure and high expectations from his experience and previous blends for La Aurora and Joya de Nicaragua, from his well known knowledge, from media, both classic and social media, through the years… And after seven months of blending , Señorial was truly born! It was then all in place!

ART!
My imagination was growing wild yet still very clear in my mind – I wanted ART! I wanted Tradition! Culture! Character!

Would you like to write to us ?

Contact hello@lascumbrestabaco.com.