Ramón Bueso Olancho Vintage Robusto

Ramón Bueso is a name that you may or may not have heard of, but that doesn’t mean that you haven’t smoked his wonderfully created cigars. Bueso started in this industry over 40 years ago as a tobacco grower where his family’s land was the first tobacco farm in Honduras. At the ripe age of 15 he became a cigar roller, eventually evolving into factory supervisor at the famous Villazon factory which is the original home base for Honduran cigar brands including (but not limited to) Punch, Hoyo de Monterrey, and Excalibur. He also has worked side by side with some of the most influential and powerful men in the cigar world, such as Estelo Padron, Benji Menendez and Frank Llaneza.

The third installment to Ramón Bueso’s already incredible and highly rated lineup is the one cigar that he has always wanted to make and we couldn’t be happier that he did. Not only is each leaf aged, flawless, and handpicked, each cigar was carefully crafted by hand. Starting from the inside out, first we have an incredible wide range selection of long filler leaves that include 2008 Nicaragua Esteli, 2010 Honduras La Entrada, 2008 Honduras Jamastran, and 2003 Honduras Olancho, which is all hugged by a 2005 binder leaf from Talanga Valley. This blend is then blanketed with an under-fermented Colorado Oscuro Olancho that was grown specifically for this cigar. The under-fermation was done on purpose and it gives this stogie a unique flavor unlike anything on the market. Once lit, balanced and complex notes of earth, spice, leather, and cedar play in perfect harmony. Pair it with a scotch.

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.