REO Robusto

Premium cigar distributor, United Tobacco, decided to create and distribute its own line of cigars: EO Premium Brands. Two of the three lines, Reo and Vibe, are handcrafted at Rocky Patel's Indian Tabac factory in Honduras where United worked with Patel's master blender Jose Fuego to create these new cigars. This month we're pleased to bring you the REO Robusto which has been a top seller since its 2005 release. The exquisite band on this cigar is fitting. With a light box-press, it's a beautifully crafted cigar. No surprise with Rocky at the helm. The cigar's dark Costa Rican/Sumatra wrapper, aged 5 years, is an evenly colored chocolate brown, smooth with minimal veins and a somewhat oily feel. This cigar has sex appeal. As one panelist said, "Looking at the Reo Robusto you get the feeling you are in for quite the ride once you put a flame to it." We weren't disappointed. The cigar lit easily and burned evenly with a firm gray ash. The blend is a mixture of aged Honduran and Nicaraguan long-fillers. The taste is complex—ranging from sweet nuts to mild, mellow maduro flavors, to chocolate with hints of spice halfway through and culminating in a dry, floral finish. Definitely not one-dimensional, the medium- to full-bodied REO is a joy to smoke. Because it's so complex, your favorite bourbon or dark rum will do it justice.

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.