Cigar Aficionado

Remember the Hoyo de Monterrey Dark Sumatra series from General Cigar? It was made in Honduras at the HATSA factory, but General has decided to give this sleepy brand a new life and a new name by turning the line over to cigarmaker A.J. Fernandez.

Now called Hoyo La Amistad Dark Sumatra, the brand is made by Fernandez in Nicaragua for General—only the blend hasn’t changed. 

“The blend is the same blend HATSA has used on this brand for a couple of decades,” says senior brand manager Ed Lahmann. “The blend is the original recipe, just rolled by A.J.’s people using his methods and techniques for fermentation and aging.”

Hoyo La Amistad Dark Sumatra consists of an Ecuadoran Sumatra wrapper, Connecticut broadleaf binder and filler tobacco from Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The sizes are the same as well: Espresso, measuring 4 1/2 inches by 50 ring gauge ($7.99); Media Noche, 5 3/4 by 54 ($8.49); and Noche, 6 1/2 by 52 ($8.59). While the Espresso size is packaged in boxes of 20, the other two come in boxes of 25. General decided to drop the Ebano size from the original lineup, which was a 6 by 45 corona.

According to Lahmann, the old Hoyo de Monterrey Dark Sumatras will be phased out “to make room for the reincarnated La Amistad Dark Sumatra.”

This will mark the fourth cigar in the La Amistad line made by A.J. Fernandez for General, following the Hoyo La Amistad Gold, Hoyo La Amistad Silver and Hoyo La Amistad Black.

Hoyo La Amistad Dark Sumatra will be introduced at this summer’s IPCPR trade show and ship in July.