AJ Fernandez Rosa de Guadalupe Toro

Raised in Cuba, Abdel “A.J.” Fernandez has produced cigars for other cigar makers such as Padilla, Gurkha, Rocky Patel, and Graycliff, just to name a few. Every now and then AJ decides to make his own and the AJ Fernandez Rosa de Guadalupe is brand spanking new having been just released this year, and we’re super excited to share this beauty with you. Handmade at his Estelí, Nicaragua factory (which produces roughly nine million cigars annually) the Rosa de Guadalupe has a beautiful and oily Mexican San Andres wrapper leaf with the binder and filler leaves coming from his very own farms in Nicaragua. With near perfect construction, this beauty has notes of earth, leather, dry spice, and a bit of cedar. Medium in body, this is a perfect pre-dinner smoke with a dark rum.

The Nicaraguan cigar industry originated when Cuban cigar makers escaped the revolution and re-established their livelihood in Nicaragua with Cuban-seed tobacco. Blessed with dark, rich soil, their new home was ideal for tobacco cultivation and Nicaragua quickly became known for cigars that rivaled Cuban quality. Unfortunately, revolution and war came to Nicaragua in the 1980s and devastated the industry, but it’s rebounded dramatically and is once again producing tobacco considered by many to be the finest in the world.

The Esteli Valley is in many ways the heart of Nicaraguan production and is known for its very powerful and spicy tobacco. The Jalapa Valley produces arguably the finest tobacco in the country: somewhat sweeter and less intense than Esteli, but extremely complex. The tobacco of the Condega Valley is often described as a blend of the other two regions.