Yagua Robusto Coming Next Week

J.C. Newman’s Yagua line, one of the more unique cigars on the market today, is getting a second vitola.

Next week, the company will begin shipping the Yagua Robusto, a new 5 x 56 extension for the line. It has an MSRP of $10.50 per cigar. Blend-wise, Yagua uses a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers, though the blend is not what sets the cigars apart.

Nearly every other handmade cigar sold today follows a similar manufacturing process. A buncher starts by placing the fillers inside the binder, rolling the internal blend, and then placing it in a mold, where the cigars are given their cylindrical shape. The molds are placed in presses, where pressure is applied to perfect that shape. Eventually, the bunches are removed from the molds and then a wrapper is applied. Typically, the cigars will go into an aging room, where they rest before packaging is applied and they are shipped to stores.

The feet of Yagua Toros in the palm leaf bundle.

Not Yagua.

Lazaro Lopez, who manages the J.C. Newman PENSA factory in Estelí, Nicaragua, harkened back to how his grandfather used to roll cigars. Instead of using a mold, Yagua cigars are bunched, rolled, banded and then wrapped tightly inside a royal palm leaf. The cigars sit like that for a year before being shipped.

Because the cigars are still wet when they are placed in the plam leaf, the end result is cigars of all different shapes: some round, some pressed, many partially round and partially pressed. Whereas most cigars will have a circular or rectangular shape, Yaguas can end up looking like triangles or even hexagons.

“Yagua is a difficult cigar to roll because we use an underfermented Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, blend the filler tobaccos differently, and do not use the usual tools and techniques of a cigar factory,” said Drew Newman, owner of J.C. Newman, in a press release. “As the wrapper is not fully fermented, we have to age the cigars for a full year after they are rolled.”

Since 2020, Yagua has been offered on a biannual basis in a lone 6 x 54 vitola.

J.C. Newman
J.C. Newman PENSA
Yagua
Yagua Robusto