J.C. Newman has released a new batch of the Yagua cigars and should be arriving in stores in the US very soon.
The cigar was inspired by Lazaro Lopez, General Manager at J.C. Newman’s PENSA factory in Nicaragua. He shared the following story with Drew Newman (Fourth Generation Owner, J.C. Newman Cigar Company): “At our family farm, my grandfather would take fresh tobacco leaves from the curing barns and roll cigars without any molds or presses. In an attempt to give his cigars a traditional shape, he would tie a handful of them together using pieces of the Cuban royal palm tree, known as the Yagua. When he was ready to enjoy his personal cigars, he untied the bundle. He loved how every cigar had its own unique shape. I still remember the rich aroma and taste of my grandfather’s cigars. Today, I’ve recreated Yagua, rolling them exactly how my grandfather did a century ago.”
Drew Newman adds: “After hearing Lazaro describe the beautiful Yagua cigars he remembers from his youth in Cuba, I asked Lazaro if he could make this special cigar at our factory in Nicaragua. We call it Yagua, after the palm leaves that give the cigars their distinct shape. Because the cigars are pressed together and bound while they are still wet, each one has a slightly different shape. Each cigar is truly unique. Yagua is a difficult cigar to roll because we use an under fermented Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, blend the filler tobaccos differently, and do not use the usual tools and techniques of a cigar factory. As the wrapper is not fully fermented, we age the cigars for a full year after they are rolled.”
The blend is made up of a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. Yagua comes in a single size that measures approximately 54 x 152 mm (6″). Like last year’s, this year’s batch is limited to 1,000 boxes, each containing 20 cigars.