Featured Cigars - April 2022

The La Aroma de Cuba brand goes back quite some time. Winston Churchill (who was sort of a cigar fan) described it as one of his favorites. Originally made in Cuba, this handmade is now crafted by the legendary Jose ‘Don Pepin’ Garcia in Nicaragua. The cigar features excellent construction with a dark, moist and oily Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper that complements a blend of Cuban-seed Nicaraguan long-fillers and binder. A very flavorful...

The Ave Maria Holy Grail is more than just its stunning band. The cigar itself, hailing from Esteli, Nicaragua is a stellar creation designed for those seeking a cigar of the highest caliber that’s somewhat mellower than many of Ave Maria’s other offerings. Panelists found the construction to be spot on and the flavor rich, smooth, balanced, refined and complex. One member summed it up with, “This is one of the most complete cigars I can...

Sancho Panza cigars originated in Havana, Cuba in 1852 and are still made there today with an amazingly mild taste for traditional Cuban cigars. In 2001 they were finally available to the United States market when General Cigars starting making them in Honduras. The Maduro line which we’re featuring this month debuted in 2002. Under the supervision of Estelo Padron, each square-pressed cigar is made with a specially selected blend of Dominican...

Astral is a highly recognized and praised brand. The Talanga Valley Selection is handmade in, where else… Honduras' beautiful Talanga Valley. This smoke is the newest addition to the Astral line and is still made in very small quantities. Starting from the inside out, there is a multi-country blend of Nicaraguan, Brazilian, and Dominican long-fillers encased with a Mexican binder and finished with a Honduran wrapper. We found the draw good...

You may not have heard of Cuban master cigar maker Tony Alvarez, but you once you have one of his cigars, you know that he is an expert. In Cuba, he grew and rolled tobacco for the likes of Cohiba, Romeo y Julieta, and even Montecristo, but eventually fled Cuba and ended up in Miami. Over the years, he ran his own business, but after selling interest in his company he headed down to Nicaragua and opened a small factory. Today, all of his cigars...

The Noventa had been off the market for some time; it was only intended as a one-time release to celebrate the family’s 90 years of tobacco growing. It was widely believed that there were no more of these cigars available, until Charlie Toraño (the current leader of the company) let it slip that there were indeed more. This is a truly special cigar; a Nicaraguan puro, the Noventa is blended using a vintage mixture of premium, five year old...

Recently named to Cigar Aficionado’s Top 50 Cigars, La Aurora Preferidos is a sure show-stopper. Handmade in the Dominican Republic, the Preferidos comes in multiple different varieties, each with a different wrapper type; the Sapphire you have in your shipment today comes dressed in a golden-brown Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper that looks as good as it tastes. This gorgeous wrapper hugs a Dominican binder and a bevy of well-aged Dominican...

Founded by the late Zino Davidoff, Davidoff cigars are the epitome of pleasure and the good life, and the Zino Platinum Scepter Series is both. Handmade with the utmost care in the Dominican Republic, the Scepter Series is a truly handsome cigar wrapped with a shiny, golden brown Connecticut wrapper from Ecuador. Underneath is a Dominican binder and a delicious blend of long-fillers from Peru and the Dominican Republic that have been...

The Gurkha legend comes from when colonial soldiers, at the height of British rule in India, started making their own cigars from local tobacco, some of which was produced in the Portuguese territory of Goa. Expatriates from Britain who were still living in India continued smoking the cigars, but eventually the cigars began to wane into history and legend, as did the rajas’ rule. Today the Gurkha brand stays true to the original essence of...