PCA Magazine Winter 2020

PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG WINTER 2020 | PCA The Magazine 23 who makes his cigars to this day. In the brief six years since its inception, Fratello has already cemented itself firmly as a go- to for many cigar connoisseurs, from the Clasico, to the Bianco, to the Navetta, to the DMV. However, de Frias didn’t just stop at cigars—he also has an imperial stout called Terminal Descent, as well as a YouTube channel called Imperfect Pairings, where he travels all over the world in search of what he calls “imperfect pairings” for his cigars. Even with all these different projects, de Frias decided that for the Navetta Inverso, one of his newer blends, he wanted to do something different: literally turn his original Navetta cigar inside out. “I utilized the tobacco that was so unique from the original T H E B L E N D Navetta, and I blended it into the Navetta Inverso,” de Frias says. “I utilized the wrapper from the original Navetta, which is a Habano Ecuador Oscuro, and I put it on the binder of the Navetta Inverso.” De Frias also used the Dominican binder from the Navetta, and used it as the filler for the Navetta Inverso. And he increased the blend from a viso to a ligero. “So all I really did was inverse a lot of the tobaccos in the Navetta, made it a little higher priming, made it a little stronger and the Navetta Inverso was born,” de Frias said. The name Navetta Inverso means “inverse shuttle” in Italian, with de Frias noting in a press release for the cigar that the blending was special for him as he wanted to translate into a cigar the elation and celebration the men and women of the space program felt after a successful mission. “Colleagues of mine would get together and smoke a very special cigar to commemorate the occasion,” de Frias said in the press release. “This very special blend carries the ultimate feeling of innovation, duty, honor and success.” Another unique aspect of de Frias’ cigars is that he turns “The name Navetta Inverso means ‘inversed shuttle’ in Italian, with de Frias noting in a press release for the cigar that the blending was special for him as he wanted to translate into a cigar the elation and celebration the men and women of the space program felt after a successful mission.”