In 2021, JRE Tobacco Company would introduce its seventh line under its Aladino line, the Aladino Classic Toro. JRE Tobacco is known for the tobaccos it grows, most notably its Authentic Corojo, but they also grow other leaves – one of which is its Habano leaf. While JRE Tobacco has released blends utilizing Habano before, […]
In 2021, E.P. Carrillo announced it was bringing back a small batch series known as the Short Run. The series was launched in 2010 and through 2016, it became a staple of the E.P. Carrillo portfolio. While it was never clear why the series was discontinued, one can infer several factors caused this: a restructuring […]
The year 2022 is going to be remembered as quite an active one in the cigar industry. In particular, one newsworthy item has been the large number of new companies entering the cigar industry. This year probably saw the largest amount of new companies enter the scene since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) […]
Agile Cigar Reviews are cigar assessments where we use a lightweight, shorter format. These will never take the place of our comprehensive reviews. They are only used on blends we have previously assessed. This might be a blend we are re-scoring or giving a score for the first time. It might be a blend we […]
Late in 2021, Drew Estate unveiled an all-new line in its portfolio called 20 Acre Farm. The 20 Acre Farm gets its name from the 20-acre plot of land in Clermont, Florida where Jeff Borysiewicz grows Florida Sun Grown (FSG) tobacco. Borysiewicz is best known as the founder of Corona Cigar Company. In 2013 […]
In 2017, Southern Draw Cigars would release a line known as Jacobs Ladder. The cigar gets its name from Southern Draw owners Robert and Sharon Holt’s son Ethan Jacob. There were two common denominators with the Jacobs Ladder line – they feature dark wrappers and they are positioned as being the boldest smokes in the […]
One thing I am fascinated about when a new company launches is how its portfolio will evolve. Such is the case with Jochy Blanco’s La Galera Cigars. Blanco launched La Galera in 2016 with two blends, Habano and Connecticut. Since then the company has evolved its portfolio adding a box-pressed, San Andres Maduro, and Connecticut […]
The story of La Palina Cigars is one that is well known. In 2010, William C “Bill” Paley announced he was resurrecting a brand started by his grandfather Samuel Paley back in 1896 known as La Palina Cigars. Samuel owned a very successful cigar company called Congress Cigar Company, but when Samuel retired in 1926, […]
In 2021, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust introduced StillWell Star. This is a brand in the Dunbarton portfolio where each of the blends incorporated pipe tobacco into the filler. For over 30 years, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust owner Steve Saka has also been a pipe smoker. He has admitted that, for over 20 years, he has […]
At Tobacco Plus Expo (TPE) 2022, La Aurora Cigars would introduce a new offering known as the La Aurora Especiales. This was the culmination of what La Aurora Cigars has described as a six-year project working with some of its key retail partners. During this project, La Aurora solicited input from about 100 retailers who […]
