A Small Company Makes a Big Statement With Its Anniversary Smoke
Five years in business is no small thing in the premium cigar world, and Founders Cigar Co. is marking the milestone the way any serious blender would — by putting out what it calls its strongest cigar yet.
The new release is called Declaration, and it comes packed with meaning. Every detail, from the price tag to the number of boxes produced, was chosen deliberately to tie back to American history. For a company celebrating its fifth anniversary during the same year the United States is celebrating its 250th, the timing felt right.
What's Inside the Box
Declaration is a corona vitola measuring 5 1/2 by 43 ring gauge. The blend brings together a Pennsylvania broadleaf wrapper, an Ecuadorian habano binder, and a filler combination of Nicaraguan criollo 98 ligero and seco tobaccos. Production is handled at Tabacalera Las Lavas S.R.L. in the Dominican Republic.
That's a serious combination of tobaccos. Pennsylvania broadleaf is known for bringing natural sweetness and some earthiness to a blend, while Ecuadorian habano binders tend to add spice and backbone. Pair that with Nicaraguan ligero and seco in the filler and you're looking at a smoke with both strength and complexity. The company wasn't exaggerating when it said this was its boldest blend to date.
Each cigar carries an MSRP of $13.76. That number wasn't pulled out of thin air.
The History Behind Every Number
Here's where Founders Cigar Co. put some real thought into this release. The price, the box count, the wrapper choice — all of it connects back to a specific piece of American history.
The $13.76 MSRP breaks down like this: 13 for the original colonies, and 1776 for the year the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Production is capped at 250 boxes of 25 cigars each, which honors the 250th anniversary of the United States being celebrated this year.
Then there's the wrapper. Pennsylvania broadleaf was chosen partly for what the state represents historically. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was where the majority of the delegates to the Continental Congress gathered to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Picking tobacco grown in that same state wasn't an accident.
Co-founder Angelo Fraboni put it plainly in a press release: "The Declaration of Independence was one of the boldest statements ever made. When the colonies declared independence from Great Britain in 1776 they were making a clear and unwavering statement about who they were and what they believed. In many ways this cigar represents our own declaration as a company."
That's not marketing fluff. For a company five years into building something from scratch, releasing a limited, historically themed cigar in this particular anniversary year carries some genuine weight.
Limited Run, Specific Window
Retailers won't be waiting long to get their hands on boxes. Founders Cigar Co. has scheduled shipments to begin during the 2026 PCA Convention and Trade Show, set to take place April 18 through 20 in New Orleans. For retailers attending the show, that's going to be one of the cigars worth tracking down.
With only 250 boxes in existence, this one will move fast once it hits shelves. Anyone interested in getting their hands on a box would be smart to reach out to their local retailer sooner rather than later.
A Name in the Middle of a Dispute
There's one wrinkle worth mentioning. Founders Cigar Co. is not the only company to announce a cigar called Declaration in recent weeks. JRE Tobacco Co. made its own Declaration announcement just a week earlier.
That overlap isn't sitting cleanly. Santa Clara, Inc., which is part of JR Cigar, filed for a trademark on the word "Declaration" back in 2024, and that application is still pending. Whether that trademark eventually gets approved — and what it would mean for either of these releases — remains to be seen.
For now, both cigars share a name and a patriotic theme, but they are entirely different blends from different companies aimed at different parts of the market.
Five Years and Building
What makes the Declaration release feel significant beyond the historical packaging is what it says about where Founders Cigar Co. stands as a company. Five years is enough time to figure out what you're doing, who your customers are, and what your blends are capable of. Releasing your strongest cigar at the five-year mark suggests a company that's been saving something, getting better, and is now ready to put its name behind a real statement.
For cigar smokers who appreciate both the craft of a well-constructed blend and the kind of American history that tends to get overlooked in everyday life, Declaration checks a lot of boxes. A corona format keeps the smoke manageable in terms of time. The blend offers complexity without being a novelty. And the story behind it gives the experience some context that most cigars simply don't have.
Whether it ends up being the best cigar Founders has ever made is something every smoker will decide for themselves. But the intention behind it is hard to argue with.
