To say that Lost & Found is a special project is to put it somewhat mildly. Lost & Found is a clandestine endeavor created by Robert Caldwell of Caldwell Cigar Company and Tony Bellatto of La Barba Cigars. The brand itself doesn’t fashion or create any of their own cigars, per se. Instead, Caldwell and Bellatto have utilized the potential of “lost” cigars forgotten in the vast warehouses of other manufacturers. It goes something like this: Whenever a cigar brand rolls and boxes cigars for a particular line or release, they’re inevitably left with, well, leftovers — either only so many boxes were made or the series was capped at a certain number, the surplus left on the factories’ shelves. Caldwell and Bellatto, then, “find” these “lost” cigars, rebrand them, and offer them to consumers. While the blends’ original components and company of manufacture remain anonymous, connoisseurs can count on them being from some of the most reputable names in the industry and having several years worth of age to them. Lost & Found offers some of the best kept secrets in the cigar industry and has developed a loyal following.
The Antique Line, however, is a slightly different offering from Lost & Found: Instead of being procured from leftover stock, these cigars were personally aged by Robert Caldwell and, in his words, are among “the oldest, most special, best-tasting cigars — the caviar of what we do with Lost & Found.” This particular offering from the Dominican Republic was first rolled in 2012 and features a unique Cumex INT wrapper (a unique Mexican hybrid leaf), a Sumatran binder, and fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
