J.C. Newman Cigar Co. is shipping the first Yagua release of 2024.
Yagua is a recreation of a farm-rolled cigar that J.C. Newman PENSA cigar factory general manager Lazaro Lopez remembers his grandfather making at his family’s tobacco farm in Cuba during the 1940s. Over dinner in 2019, Lopez shared the following story with Drew Newman:
“At our family farm, my grandfather would take fresh tobacco leaves from the curing barns and roll cigars without any molds or presses,” said Lopez. “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.”
Soon after being rolled, 20 Yagua cigars are bound together using a wet Yagua palmiche palm leaf. Beach box of Yagua contains a bundle of 20 cigars that are still wrapped in the palm leaf. Each Yagua cigar measures 6 x 54.
“It continues to shock me that Yagua has developed a cult-like following,” commented fourth-generation owner Drew Newman. “I didn’t make Yagua to sell. In fact, I didn’t think that cigar enthusiasts would like Yagua because it breaks all of the cigar-making rules. Yagua is misshapen and unattractive. We roll it with underfermented tobacco, and no two Yagua are alike.”
Newman went on to add, “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 have age the cigars for a full year after they are rolled.”
In total, 1,550 boxes of Yagua are being shipped to 466 premium cigar retailers across 48 states.