Cigar Aficionado

Philadelphia’s Ashton Distributors Inc. is shipping out reblended, repackaged and stronger versions of La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial, a line extension of the Aroma de Cuba brand. Among the changes are a fatter size, and an upgraded wrapper. The cigars are on their way to cigar shops now.

“It’s a little more dynamic: richer, stronger,” Ashton’s Sathya Levin told Cigar Aficionado this morning. “We didn’t do major surgery on it.”

While the blend looks the same on paper—Ecuador wrapper, Nicaraguan filler and Nicaraguan binder—Levin said the blend has been tweaked. One of the biggest changes is in the wrapper. It remains Ecuador Havana, but the new wrappers come from higher primings, meaning they grow on a higher portion of the tobacco plant. High-priming tobacco tends to be stronger than tobacco that grows lower on the plant.

The cigars are made by the Garcia family in Nicaragua, just like before. Tobacco for the cigars is grown by the Garcias in Estelí, Jalapa, and Namanji, Nicaragua.

La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial has been on the market since 2008.

Among the changes are one new size, the No. 60. Measuring six inches long by 60 ring gauge, it’s the fattest smoke in the line. Gone are the Minuto (a petit corona) and the No. 55, which measured 5 1/2 by 55. (The brand also had a lancero, but it wasn’t part of the regular line; it was a special edition released roughly 10 years ago.)

There are five other remaining sizes: No. 1, measuring 5 5/8 inches long by 46 ring gauge; No. 2 (5 by 50); No. 3 (6 by 50); No. 4 (7 by 49) and No. 5, a belicoso measuring 5 1/2 by 52. La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial ranges in price from $7.50 to $8.90 per cigar and comes in boxes of 25.

Look for a rating of the new La Aroma Edicion Especial in an upcoming issue of Cigar Insider.