General Cigar Co. is adding a new cigar as part of its CAO Arcana series called Thunder Smoke, and its filler tobacco is all from Africa. 

Introduced in 2021, the Arcana series is an annual release that highlights unusual tobaccos. Thunder Smoke marks a first for the company as no cigar in General’s portfolio has ever been blended with all-African filler. The cigars are expected to ship by mid-September.

Thunder Smoke is named after Victoria Falls, a waterfall in Zimbabwe, close to where some of the filler was grown. Known locally as “Mosi-Oa-Tunya,” it translates to “The smoke that thunders” in Lozi (a Bantu language), and is one of the largest waterfalls in the world. The other African fillers come from South Africa and Cameroon. While the latter is not unusual in the cigar world, it is more commonly used as a wrapper or binder rather than filler. 

The rest of the five-country blend includes a Honduran Olancho San Augustin wrapper and a Mexican San Andrés binder. According to the company, CAO Arcana Thunder Smoke is medium-bodied.

Made in the Dominican Republic at the General Cigar Dominicana factory, Thunder Smoke is available in only one size, a toro that measures 6 1/2 inches by 52 ring gauge with a suggested retail price of $12.99 each. The cigars come in 20-count boxes and are limited in production, though exact numbers have not been disclosed.

Thunder Smoke is the third cigar in the Arcana series, with Mortal Coil released in 2021 and 2023, and Firewalker in 2022.