I recently had the opportunity to chat with Omar de Frias, the founder and CEO of Fratello Cigars, about the brand's inception, the core lines, and some of their special NASA-inspired exclusives, as well as hearing the story of how Fratello landed on the moon. Discover the pioneering spirit of Fratello Cigars in this special edition of "Smoke Rings."

[Tyler Caldwell]: Thank you so much for coming to hang out with us and doing some content just sharing the love of the leaf.

[Omar de Frias]: Brother, it is my pleasure.

Fratello's Inception & Name Inspiration

[TC]: Let's let the folks who are watching this video know who you are and what Fratello is. Where does the name Fratello come from? What made you get into this business and where did it all begin?

[ODF]: Fratello has a pretty crazy origin story. We started in 2013. I've been smoking cigars since I was like 17, 18 years old. I grew up in the Dominican Republic, but what drove me the most about anything else in the whole wide world was basketball. I just wasn't that good. I ended up changing my NBA dream for an MBA, so I got a master's in Business Administration out of the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez, and that is when NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, ended up recruiting me to go work for them when I was 25, 26 years old.

I started my career in the federal government of the United States. NASA is a very unique agency with a very noble mission. I was very driven to make processes and process management much better when I arrived.

I ended up spending 12 years at NASA, working a multitude of jobs there. I ended up being an IT Program and Project Manager to the last job that I had, which was a Director of the Budget Execution for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D. C., so I was managing a $5.2 billion budget for the agency. I loved what I did, but there was something always inside of me that wanted to pursue something entrepreneurial, and something that would give me a different purpose and a different meaning.

I was sent a beautiful address by Steve Jobs at Stanford University; He said that the only way to do great work is to love what you do. I was struggling at that time with the agency to do something that was very powerful. I started thinking about a few things that I loved and obviously cigars were always high on my list because I've been smoking cigars for so long. I asked myself where I fit into this whole world: distribution, retail, brand management, working in the fields? As everybody knows who is in the cigar industry, there's so many areas where you can fall into.

Branding for me was something that was an absolute no brainer to get into. I wanted to create something that was different from everybody else. I was one of the very few new brands that Joya de Nicaragua had picked up in 2013 to produce because they, at that time, also were being distributed by Drew Estate. They had an agreement where they couldn't do brands for anybody else. So for two years I had to say that I was just some random factory in Nicaragua producing my cigar. So imagine trying to sell a cigar like that, bro. It's really hard.

I also wanted to create something that was different visually so we created the first cigar band that actually angles around the cigar, which is easy to peel in the back. It's something that annoyed the heck out of me every single time I would peel a band. It would always take away a little bit of the wrapper and I hated that.

So we created Fratello and this is the first cigar that we ever launched.

[TC]: Well, of course, you gotta let the people know all the details. Where does the name Fratello come from?

[ODF]: My nickname from college, man. I could not walk away from this name. I was taking an Italian class and the only reason I was taking this Italian class is because I was in love with the teacher. That ended up not working out, but what did work out was that I learned that a brother in Italian translated to fratello. I started calling my friends my brother, or my fratello. And that nickname stuck with me.

I literally landed in the Dominican Republic and said, hey, my fratello, ven aca. It's crazy.

Fratello's Core Lines

[TC]: Fratello started in 2013, and you began with the Classico. Can you tell us about any of the other lines that you've come out with since then?

[ODF]: Fratello Classico is our classic brand and it is the number one best-selling cigar we have in our lineup. We used a tobacco that I am obsessed with: It's tobacco from Peru. It has Tarapoto Peruvian tobacco in the filler, Ecuadorian tobacco for the binder, and then we put a Nicaraguan wrapper on this.

After that, we launched the Fratello Bianco. At that time, I wanted to try to work with tobacco from a lot of different regions to help tell the story of those places. We actually put tobacco from five different countries in the follow-up to Classico. I always call it combustible chocolate, brother, because it is delicious. That has a Mexican wrapper, tobacco from Peru in the filler, U.S. Pennsylvania Broadleaf, and then we put tobacco from the Dominican Republic as well.

[TC]: Very cool, man. I know there's also a Connecticut version to go along with it as well.

[ODF]: Yes, the Connecticut shade is the third iteration of Fratello's core line. We launched the Fratello Oro in 2016 and that became my number two best-selling cigar, up to this point. In the case of the Dominican Republic, I wanted to manufacture this at the La Aurora factory in the DR, which is also the first company that I ever tried a cigar from. I had a personal connection with that brand already so the Fratello Oro is something that we put together with tobacco from five different countries, including Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Cubita from Columbia, African, and Nicaraguan. The result of that mixture is a gorgeous harmony of different flavors.

Italian Collection: Arlequín

[TC]: We've gotten to touch base about your core lines. Personally, when I think of Fratello, I think of Arlequín, especially in the Connecticut. That is my favorite cigar that you've put out so far.

[ODF]: Thank you. I'm a big fan of Arlequín. A lot of people don't know the story of Arlequín, but the Arlequín line was inspired by Arlequín, which is a character from the 16th century Italian opera who is very popular in the DR. When I was like 10, 12 years old, there was this play in one of the most popular theaters in the Dominican Republic and this play was all about Arlequín. I was fascinated with this character because he is basically a buffoon. He's funny, dances around and is jovial, and would wear a lot of colors. I related to a little bit of that, so this line was inspired by that, and obviously in conjunction with the continuation of Fratello as the name of the company being an Italian word.

Unfortunately, the message wasn't conveyed super clearly, which also played against me with the NASA-inspired exclusive cigars we launched.

When we launched the Arlequín, I wanted a cigar that was a straight up medium-bodied, box-pressed cigar. Just something to sit back and enjoy. It very quickly became one of the lines under my lineup that have been rated the highest out of everything else I produce.

Many of my cigars have been highly rated. The Classico has got 91 points in Aficionado, 92 points in Cigar Snob, same thing with the Oro and Bianco. I have never had a cigar where the Classic, the Corona, the Robusto, the Toro, and the Gordo all got 91 points plus in one year with Cigar Aficionado; That was until Arlequín was released.

It was a top 25 cigar of the year for Cigar Snob, top 25 cigar of the year for Dojo, I mean, you name it, Arlequín has gotten it. It is a product that I take a lot of pride in. I basically smoke it every morning with my coffee right now. It used to be the Fratello Classico. I go back and forth between both of them but I am obsessed with Arlequín. You've gotta try it.

Tyler, you've had the Arlequín Connecticut. What are your thoughts on it?

[TC]: That was my first cigar this morning. I had it with a cup of coffee and it was delicious. It's not something you have to sit and reflect on, but it's got enough characteristics on it where you might take a couple of puffs to ponder. It's a best of both worlds type of a cigar for anyone and everyone, whether it's your first cigar you've ever smoked or your ten-thousandth cigar. It's going to fit everybody.

[ODF]: Yeah. It's also one of the simplest blends I've ever done, but at the same time one of the hardest. When I created the Arlequín Connecticut, I had been working already on eight different blends to choose from. While I was testing the cigars, I told the factory to send me them, including the Classico Arlequín, which was basically the same cigar that we launched. Instead of putting San Andrés, I asked them to put the Connecticut shade.

Sure enough, man, when I did the review, I tested it thoroughly. I don't consider myself a master blender, but I am a master tester. I am telling you that it was so far above everything else that it was a no brainer to release it. That's the story of the Arlequín Connecticut.

NASA-Inspired Exclusives On The Moon

[TC]: You mentioned some NASA exclusives before. Tell us a little bit about that.

[ODF]: The first cigar that I launched exclusively was the Navetta, which features four-year-old aged tobacco in the filler. We use a beautiful Ecuadorian Oscuro wrapper on it and it ages the best out of everything else we have in our lineup.

Remember how I told you that a brand needs to match the cigar? In the case of the Navetta, I made the box literally look like a space shuttle tile. I worked at NASA as a Support Analyst on about six space shuttle missions myself. So this was me paying homage to my time at NASA in the space shuttle program and to the people that worked so hard to be able to build this beautiful shuttle.

The key here is that I made the box a beautiful matte color, and when you opened it, the inside has a picture of the space shuttle tile that protects the orbiter from disintegrating in over 3000 plus degrees Fahrenheit as it comes in on re-entry. We even put the numbering system of each tile in the front of each box, and then each brand has a name that is attached to a particular shuttle, so we have the Discovery, the Robusto Discovery, the Boxer Atlantis, and the Toro Endeavor.

When I presented this product, the consumer didn't understand what I was trying to do because it was too complicated. Sometimes simpler branding is more effective. The band is beautiful but people didn't connect to the box itself. It was just another black box. Navetta also means shuttle in Italian. So there were a lot of elements of the line that were really cool and unique, but that necessarily didn't translate. The cigar, however, is outstanding. The blend is out of this world, literally, and it is one that allowed me to do the transition to what right now is one of my strongest lines: the Lunar.

Fratello became the first company ever to land their logo on the surface of the moon. Steve Altemus became a good friend of mine when I was working at NASA and he reached out to me about three and a half years ago and said, "Hey man, we just landed that X3 Lunar Lander contract for the agency and I would love to have a cigar that I can commemorate and that we can use to help celebrate for when we launch and land on the moon in 2023."

That got postponed to 2024, but I was of course fascinated in making it happen. I sent him a beautiful box that I had presented just for him. We actually wound up getting number three for best packaging that year on halfwheel.

Steve was so grateful and asked if I minded if he used the logo to put on the actual capsule that was going to land on the moon.

[TC]: That's really cool.

[ODF]: I said, "Yes, please!" So now our logo is sitting on the surface of the moon. If anybody's going to be selling any cigars to aliens, people, it's gonna be me.

That was a batch of pride because there's only a handful of companies that have something that they created sitting on the surface of the moon.