Omar De Frias followed up his time as a professional basketball player in the Dominican Republic with a career as a project analyst for NASA. Inspired by the men and women working in the Space Program, De Frias set about creating a line of cigars that would pay tribute to their dedication and to that ecstatic feeling of pride for a safe and successful mission, himself part of 21 missions. The result is the Fratello Navetta series.
Each Navetta (or “Shuttle”) cigar is constructed around Nicaraguan filler tobaccos which are topped by a Dominican binder and a dark Ecuadorian Oscuro wrapper leaf. The medium-to-full bodied smokes deliver hints of pepper, coffee, wood, cocoa and sweet spice throughout. Currently available in four sizes, each named after a Space Shuttle, including the Atlantis, a 6 ¼” x 52 box-pressed Torpedo (aka The Boxer in Fratello’s other lines) which has Extra Ligero tobaccos added to the mix for greater richness.