Byron traces its bloodline back to 1848, when cousins Jose and Eusebio Alfonso opened a small factory in Santiago de Las Vegas, Havana, and named their cigar brand after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron — himself a devoted smoker. The brand flourished for generations before the Great Depression forced its closure. Nearly 170 years after its founding, Nelson Alfonso — the man who redesigned the Cohiba Behike and shaped the visual identity of Cuba’s most celebrated brands — resurrected his family’s legacy through Selected Tobacco and brought Byron back to the world. The 21st Century Distinguidos is the Serie Siglo XXI expression of that revival: a 6×55 rolled in Costa Rica at the Tabacos de Costa Rica factory, wrapped in a leathery Ecuadorian leaf and aged post-roll in cedar-lined humidors housing planks of Cuban, Spanish, Mexican, Brazilian, and Lebanese cedar. The blend itself is largely kept secret — the mark of a blender who lets the cigar speak for itself. What it says is refined and unhurried: cedar, roasted nuts, bread, vanilla, black pepper, and a long, clean finish that lingers long after the smoke is gone. One of the most elegant medium-bodied smokes in the world, at any price.
