What would you do with 19-foot long, 3-foot wide and 1,600-pound weight cigar? That are actually the measures of world’s largest cigar, which recently sold for $185,000. This unusual cigar, nicknamed Gran Habano Coroju #5 El Gigante (The Giant), made by Grand Habano is rolled with 1,600 pounds of high-quality Nicaraguan tobacco – big enough to make 25,000 regular-sized cigars.
Juan Panesso, a South Tampa resident and man behind CigarsDirect.com managed to sell this giant cigar to a private collector at an undisclosed location. Mr.Penesso got a call from a customer with a laundry list of expensive requests. He initially asked for a very rare, high-end cigar – Gurkha His Majesty’s Reserve cigar, which cost $750 each. He then proceeded to buy 100 of them.
“At that point I didn’t believe him at all,” Mr. Panesso, owner of CigarsDirect.com said. “It’s like buying a 100 Ferraris. In my years here I have never sold one of these cigars.”
After a few more high-end deals, a private collector who most people would recognize by name asked about world’s largest cigar. Mr. Panesso located the world’s largest cigar, which was used as a display piece for trade shows, and he wasn’t even sure it was for sale. As he inquired about the giant cigar, everyone he spoke to was skeptical.
“Everybody along the way was like, ‘What? This is fraudulent, this is crazy,’” he said.
Fortunately, Mr. Panesso managed to make a deal, probably the biggest deal of his career.
