Eiroa Expedition Collection Arrives at Select Stores

Last year, CLE Cigar Co. harkened back to the early days of air travel with a release called the Aviator Series. It was an extremely limited release—just five American stores received the cigars—and they arrived priced at over $100 per cigar.

After the cigars were shown off, Christian Eiroa, the founder of CLE Cigar Co., said there was persistent demand from some of the company’s international clients. Now, some of those stores are getting a new release that sounds a lot like the Aviator Series, only it’s got a new name and maybe, or maybe not, a different blend.

Last week, the company started shipping the new Eiroa Expedition Collection, which, for all intents and purposes, appears to be Aviator Series 2.0. Eiroa declined to say if the two cigars were in fact the same, but both cigars are 6 x 52 toros.

Beyond that, most of the unique elements of the Aviator Series can be found in the new Expedition Collection: the cigars are pricey, once again, there are just 880 cigars being sold, and the packaging is mostly the same.

The Aviator Series was a project that was started by Eiroa, an avid pilot, though finished by his youngest son, Santiago. For the packaging, Santi Eiroa worked with Santiago Riaño, a Colombian artist, to create the unique presentation. Rather than using traditional cigar boxes, they replicated a briefcase that was used by Generoso Eiroa, Christian’s grandfather. The cigars were placed inside the briefcases on wooden inserts, with each cigar held in place by a fabric strap.

As if that wasn’t unique enough, CLE then packaged eight briefcases inside of a giant wood-lined trunk, pictured above, reminiscent of luggage of the early 20th century. Each of the five retailers received one trunk that contained a total of 176 cigars.

The Eiroa Aviator Series briefcase.

For the most part, the Expedition Collection brings back those same packaging elements. Beyond the change in name, the largest difference is that the Aviator Series featured metal on the outside of the trunk and briefcases, whereas the Expedition Collection features leather. Other elements like the unique tray, saddle leather accents, and the fabric strap are on the Expedition Collection. As before, each briefcase comes with a numbered leather luggage tag.

All of this led to the Eiroa Aviator Collection ranking #1 on halfwheel’s Packaging Awards for 2025.

The retailers receiving the Expedition Collection are:

• Best Cigars (Sofia, Bulgaria)
• Cigarrenfachgeschäft KrocOdil (Graz, Austria)
• Luxury Tobacco World WLL (Hamala, Bahrain)
• Tabakhaus Simon Potsdam (Potsdam, Germany)
• Zino Cigares (Abidjan, Ivory Coast)

Due to local taxes, the prices will vary, though the MSRP for the entire case of 176 cigars is €20,000, which corresponds to the $20,064 MSRP for the Aviator Series.

Best Cigars
Cigarrenfachgeschäft KrocOdil
CLE Cigar Co.
Eiroa Aviator Series
Eiroa Expedition Collection
Luxury Tobacco World
Tabakhaus Simon Potsdam
The CLE Factory
Zino Cigares