The Eliot Ness is the newest offering from Protocol Cigars honoring history’s famous lawmen, following on the heels of 2019’s Sir Robert Peel.
It’s not just that Protocol loves crime stopping icons – the tribute is also a natural extension of the law enforcement backgrounds of Protocol co-founders Juan Cancel and Bill Ives.
Like the Peel, the Protocol Eliot Ness comes in a natural and maduro. It comes in a 6 x 52 box pressed toro vitola. Also like the Peel, it is a Nicaraguan puro.
The natural has a Nicaraguan habano wrapper/binder with viso/seco/criollo fillers. The maduro has a Nicaraguan broadleaf wrapper, habano binder and viso/seco/corojo fillers.
The cigar ships in the fall, and both come in 10-count boxes at $119.50 or $11.95 a stick.
“The Sir Robert Peel was a total change of direction for the company,” Cancel said in a statement. “We wanted to offer our supporters a more regal product from marketing, packaging, and to the actual tobacco used in the blend. Sometimes the average working Joe likes to put on a suit and get a little fancy while smoking his cigar.”
The Peel was a success, and “we figured, ‘why not continue on the coattails of that success.’ ”
The Ness is part of Protocol’s “Lawmen Series,” which becomes part of a legacy of cleverly named, crime fighting inspired lines that also include Official Misconduct and Probable Cause.
Protocol’s Lawmen Series is a response to the notion that criminals are sometimes glorified in the media. The cigar line, then, aims to pay homage to those who bring those figures to justice.
In the case of Ness, that figure would be gangster Al Capone, whom Ness helped arrest in 1931. Peel was a British statesman who is known for establishing a police force in London in the early 1800s that became known as the Metropolitan Police. It is considered the first modern police department, and influenced the organization of law enforcement agencies in the U.S.
