The past 15 have been a veritable renaissance for the cigar industry. New brands are being created almost monthly, each one offering something new, original, and outside the box. Everything is changing, from the flavor profiles, to the art work, to the marketing of these brands. In the mid 2000s however, the industry was beginning to feel slightly stale. Each shop was offering the same cigars, with the same tobacco, for almost the same price. One of the first stars of this cigar revolution was the great Dion Giolito and his now famed brand Illusione.

Dion was working in his own shop near his home town of Las Vegas. He had become quite the aficionado himself, but felt it was time for customers to try something innovative and original. One of the most intriguing aspects of his new blends were the flavor profiles. Up until this time, if a smoker wanted a full flavored cigar, they had to smoke something full bodied. This limited the market to only smokers who could handle that high level of power. Illusione was one of the first cigars to introduce a lot of flavor, but with a more medium body. Dion also began sticking his size descriptions right on the label of each cigar, essentially creating a different line for each size.

Illusione was created during a time where a new generation of blenders, such as Dion and Pete Johnson, were just starting to get their creative juices flowing. In fact Dion worked with Pete when he was first starting out. Drew Estate was just starting to gain some traction as well. It was these “young guns” who were going to take the cigar smoking community and turn it into a tightly knit brotherhood. The forums, the herfs, the BOTLs, can attribute a lot of their success to these millennial innovators. If you are looking for a full range of Illusione, including the brand new Illusione OneOff, you can find them right here at Cigars.com.