Cienfukegos Blazer

It takes over 60 years of cigar making experience to create a cigar like this! Rolando Reyes Sr. started rolling cigars in Cuba at the age of 14 and has worked for such prestigious Cuban brands as H. Upmann, Romeo y Julieta, and Partagas, to name a few. In pre-Castro Cuba, his cigar factory was manufacturing over 6 million cigars a year! He's widely recognized as one of the most talented tobacco blenders alive—so anything he's created is a real treat to the palate and eyes alike. But his full-bodied cigars are probably the most admired by our panel, and Cienfuegos (meaning "100 fires") is one that lives up to its reputation and name. Wrapped in a gorgeous, four-year-aged Nicaraguan Habana 2000 wrapper and filled with full-bodied Dominican long leaves, expect aggressive yet smooth tobacco flavors. Note the very spicy, earthy quality of this cigar as it burns with a heavy smoke volume and pleasant, woody aroma. With its long-lasting finish, this cigar is nicely complemented by single-malt scotch. A bit of cigar trivia for you budding aficionados out there: the first tobacco plantations in Cuba were developed on the eastern side of the island, in the provinces of Cienfuegos and Oriente (due to their accessibility to larger rivers like the Cauto, which allowed for the easy smuggling of tobacco under the watchful eye of the Spanish-ruled monopolies). OK, so maybe you don't quite have the 60+ years of cigar trade knowledge that Rolando Reyes Sr. has, but hey, it's a start!