Alec & Bradley Kintsugi Corona Gorda

Alan Rubin, the founder of Alec Bradley cigars, has been blending and producing cigars since 1997 that have 90+ ratings from Cigar Aficionado, Cigar Insider, and Cigar Journal, just to name a few. His cigars also consistently make Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list, making his cigars some of the most sought out in the industry. Oh, and if you don’t know where the name Alec Bradley came from, look no farther than Alan’s two sons, Alec and Bradley, who are now partnering with their father in the family business under their slightly differently named line, Alec & Bradley.

Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art form that takes broken ceramics or pottery and brings them back together using gold or silver lacquer, making them more beautiful than the original piece. Alec & Bradley took this tradition and applied it to their Kintsugi line knowing that cigars, like lacquer, can bring people of all walks of life together. Handcrafted in Danlí, Honduras at the famed Raices Cubanas factory, the Kintsugi – which scored a spot on Cigar Aficonado’s Top 25 list in 2021 with a well-deserved 92 rating – uses a blend of Nicaraguan and Honduran leaves for fillers and a dual binder that is dressed with a Honduran habano wrapper from the Trojes region. Once lit, expect medium bodied notes of wood, earth, chocolate, nuts, and pepper. Pair this smoke with Deschutes Obsidian Stout.

Honduras has been a tobacco growing and cigar manufacturing area for hundreds of years, but it was the Communist revolution in Cuba that really put Honduras on the map. In the 1960s, many Cuban cigar makers fled their homeland and arrived in Honduras to re-establish their way of life. The immigrants took advantage of the climate, soil, and geography, which were well-suited to tobacco growing, and began producing high quality cigars. The center of the Honduran cigar industry is the city of Danli and the nearby Jamastran Valley. The majority of the world’s pure Corojo tobacco is grown here, now that Cuba has stopped production of this iconic, spicy, and rich variety in favor of Corojo hybrids. Other important areas of Honduran cigar production include the Talanga Valley, Copan, and Trojes.