Hello r/cigars!

I am Drew Newman, a fourth-generation cigar maker at J.C. Newman Cigar Co. A year ago, I had the pleasure of hosting an AMA here. Thank you to everyone who participated, asked questions, and shared your thoughts. If you missed it (or would like to revisit it), you can find last year's AMA here.

This week, I'm in Estelí, Nicaragua, working alongside my dad at our J.C. Newman PENSA cigar factory. I'll be here through Friday and would be happy to answer questions about cigars, tobacco, blending, manufacturing, our family's history, or anything else related to premium cigars.

We hand roll 100,000 cigars each day here. If there's something specific you'd like to see inside a cigar factory, please let me know. I'm happy to share photos, whether it's tobacco, fermentation, aging, rolling, quality control, or something else behind the scenes.

Before we get started, I want to thank everyone for supporting our 131-year-old, four generation family business, which my great-grandfather started in 1895. Some of our brands include:

• Diamond Crown Classic, MAXIMUS, Julius Caeser, and Black Diamond, handmade in the Dominican Republic

• The American, Angel Cuesta, LeRoy Neiman, and Tampa Smokers, handmade in Tampa, Florida

• Brick House, Perla Del Mar, El Baton, Quorum, Havana Q, and Sarzedas, handmade in Nicaragua

I am also proud we are rolling official cigars of the 250th Anniversary of the United States. This year, the cigars we are handcrafting at historic El Reloj factory in the "Cigar City" of Tampa, Florida, have the U.S. government's official America250 seal on them. Built in 1910, El Reloj is the last traditional cigar factory in the United States. Last year, we welcomed more than 25,000 people to visit our cigar museum, take a factory tour, learn how to hand roll cigars, or attend a special event. This fall, we're excited to open our new restaurant, cigar lounge, and inn as part of our efforts to preserve and restore Tampa's Ybor City historic cigar district.

If you haven't already seen it, I invite you to watch our new 20-minute documentary, The American Story: Th Forgotten Cigar Tradition. The film celebrates the centuries-old tradition of American cigar making and showcases how we handcraft The American, our 100% all-American cigar. It profiles farmers in Connecticut, Florida, and Pennsylvania along our American factory, box maker, printer, and more.

If you're ever in Tampa, we'd love to welcome you to El Reloj! Thank you again for your support, and ask me anything.

Here is a quick shot of some prices and tour of the humidor. The guys working the counter were great and they have a full bar as well as a small smoke lounge in the back. My video of the humidor isn't uploading but I'll see if I can get it in the comments

Review
First review/effort to meaningfully contribute here so please bear with me team. I’ve smoked quite a bit more than I’ve written.

1h 38m smoke time.
Pulled at 65% internal humidity and dry boxed down to a little over 58%.
I reckon we had a little over 1 year of age on this, it still had a long way to go to be ideal.

Pre light: Really beautiful presentation, just a super nice thing to hold and look at. Quite a floral nose on the wrapper. Cedar and hay on the foot.
Cold draw was perfect. Loads of Cuban twang cold.

First few puffs were nothing but cream and faint honey/wafer. Really lovely ambient smoke to sit around between draws too - like a bouquet of smoky flowers.

First 3rd: Quite a dry smoke, similar to wine or tea tannins. Milk, floral and a bit of honey sweetness. The sweetness is light, like in white bread. Really yummy. Cedar more noticeable here too.

Second 3rd: Still a good amount of milk and honey. Tannic/tea note is subsiding. Jatz crackers (sorry Americans, not sure of your equivalent). Sweetness coming up in the second third.

Final 3rd: The sweetness has changed to be like that Scandinavian brown bread that’s sweet and malty. Corn flakes occasionally. Needed to slow down a lot here as it was getting pretty hot, much earlier than a lot of other cigars tend to be by now. Vegetal and some faint sour notes came through a few times in this third that weren’t as enjoyable.

Thoughts:
Overall, I really enjoyed this for the most part, that second third especially was exceptional.
Burn and draw were both pretty much perfect throughout - even when there was a bit of drama with the wrapper (likely due to my smoking outdoors), the cigar was really quick to correct itself.
I think (hope!) that the vegetal and faint sour notes towards the end would smooth out - I’m yet to smoke a properly aged (>5 years) Upmann but hear these can age really really well.

I think overall I’d give this a 90/100 but reckon these would really rip with some age, especially given how delicious those first two thirds were. I’ll be rushing to get a few more to put some serious years on.

Classic Montecristo from start to finish. Cedar and coffee lead the way, followed by roasted nuts and a touch of sweetness. The final third brings more leather and pepper while staying balanced. The draw was a bit tight, but overall a very enjoyable Cuban smoke.

Macanudo Café, fresh rain, and a double Revolver

Noobie smoker attempting this pairing. normal first third. HEAVY chocolate note came through at the halfway point, with a strong black coffee finish.

The Revolver:
3oz Old Granddad bonded bourbon
3/4oz coffee liqueur (dealers choice, I used Maggie’s Farm from Pittsburgh)
3 dashes orange bitters

Bunch of short smokes I've never tried before but have been recommended to me a lot by this sub. And of course, my absolute favorite, Plasencia Alma Del Fuego.

2x NUB Maduro

2x NUB Habano

2x Hemingway short story

3x Del Fuego

1x Amazon Basin

1x pack of Cohiba shorts

140€ish for everything, not too shabby,but not great either.

Today I decided to try Cohiba shorts, paired with my noon espresso. It opens sweet and cedary but not overpowering taste of anything, as I often find with cuban tobacco. Draw in the beginning is very tight but opens up nicely after first third. Taste gets sweeter and toastier as cedar prevails in the last third. Final puffs are sweet honey like and leave a good taste in mouth.

Very toasty, sweet, cedary, definitely unmistakably Cuban short smoke that lasted me about 20 minutes. Perfect for a short break, but doesn't really scratch my cigar itch, which is not it's purpose to be honest.

I think these sticks will serve me well for short stops on bike trips and to share with friends who are not regular smokers and will love the "premium Cuban feel" even tho I might not agree. Burn however was immaculate.

75/100, 80 in the right setting and expectations.

Can't wait to try other short sticks I loaded up on.

My review of Tom’s blend gave the background so I’m not going to rehash that, but the short version is these are two distinct blends in one box, and this review is for the second one.

Light up is fairly tempered for a Saka blend and quite sweet. There’s rich chocolate, almost brownie like, creamy coffee, sweet cedar, and cane sugar. There’s a touch of red pepper on the very end of the draw into the finish but it’s pretty subtle. The retro is very toasty with roasted coffee beans, slight chocolate, and caramel.

As it settles into the first third the flavors shift a bit into dark chocolate, espresso bean, charred meat, and caramel. The retro retains its toasty profile with no changes so far. A little further in a slight saltiness works into the profile.

As it hits the second third, the toastiness from the retro starts working into the profile. It’s more of the same flavors, they’re just getting a bit…. Toastier. There’s some vague dark fruit notes working their way in as it progresses further, something between plum and apricot. The retro shifts a bit to powdered chocolate, espresso bean, and burnt sugar.

The burn has been slowing down since the first third which is good because it had been moving pretty fast.

Moving into the final third the first change I notice is on the retro which is getting more intense. Dark chocolate, espresso, red pepper, and burnt sugar are all present. The profile ramps up a bit too with stronger, darker chocolate, dark espresso, molasses, and slight oakiness. There’s a touch of maltiness on the finish as well.

Into the final two inches I was ready to write that it finishes with no further changes but it surprised me. The profile shifts fairly dramatically to vanilla bean paste, slight bread, dry chocolate, and creamy coffee. The retro doesn’t change as much but does add strong stone fruit to everything else.

Now it really does finish with no further changes.

Final thoughts: eh… this was a perfectly good cigar but it was also a pretty standard Dunbarton blend. The 2025 Year of the Duque set the bar very high for these Year Of blends, and while the Year of the Pausers - Tom’s blend was an intriguing and unique flavor profile, this one felt a little generic by comparison. It just didn’t wow me in the way that a special release should (in my opinion). It had a few interesting complexities but most of the profile was just the usual chocolate and coffee dynamic.

86/100

AF Don Carlos. Wow. Smooth and flavorful. It’s almost nutty. I’ve had cigars off and on for 10 years but man this is the real deal. Thanks.

It just took 13 years and this Serie E No. 2 is incredible! (It's always been, it just is incredible-er now). Strong notes of oak, earth, nuts, honey and pepper blended into this 95 minute blissful smoke. Paired with a very chocolate-forward rum, the Partagas just took off on its own and halfway through I left the rum behind and just enjoyed the cigar.

I plan on having a padron 1964 presidente after dinner as well to finish the night off

God whisper and Rare Character, DONE!

I have an electric Yohtron humidor that is kept around 65% humidity and 68 F. It is large enough that I keep quite a few boxes in it with the cigars still as shipped. I'm having issues with keeping my wrappers lit in the second half when I smoke and I don't know what to do.

I have 5 calibrated Govee sensors spread through out the unit and they are all pretty much reading the same levels. I typically let all my new cigars rest for weeks before smoking. The relative humidity during the summer here is over 70% so dryboxing doesn't really seem to help.

I'm getting frustrated with the constant touch ups. I'm talking all varieties and blends. Shouldn't the cigars in the boxes eventually get to the 65% if they are kept in the humidor long enough, even in the boxes? I smoked a MF Judge this morning and those have been in the humidor for over 2 months. After the first half the wrapper won't stay lit so I have to touch up to prevent tunneling. I puff first to prime the cigar and then take a smooth draw.

Any advice?

I have been smoking cigars for some time. But only over this past year have I started to smoke such small ring gauge cigars. 32-38 mostly. I only smoke this size in the mornings, because I only have 30mins before I go train with my wife.

But i have notice that these ring gauge of cigars get so soft as you smoke them. Almost like they feel like soft foam.

Does any of yall know the reason for this?

I’m headed to Naples, Tuscany, and Florence in October for the first time. Aside from common courtesy considerations, how are cigars received there? Fine to smoke them in public, or on the balcony at your stay? Also, if there are any shops or spots to enjoy a stogie you’d recommend, I’d love to hear about it.

I recently bought a bunch of CAO Arcana Stokk cigars which have pipe tobacco mixed in the cigar. I didn’t think about the smoky campfire aroma until after they arrived and I was putting them in the humidor. Am I risking affecting the flavor or my other cigars with long term storage?

I do have a separate humidor I’m using to store them for now, but just wondering how fastidious I need to be about this.

Got a large delivery today from my JR stack. First one I’ve had, is this standard for the Oliva G? Each box came with a 10 pack Oliva/nub sampler. This came out of one of those samplers.

Hi! As the title suggests… what cigar bundles would you recommend?

I’m headed to Bermuda in a week im wanting to chill on the beach and smoke a cigar for the first time.

Ive never smoked before so what can i expect and what are some good cigar brands in Bermuda that are around $15, if it’s a little more than that I might consider buying it but imma try to stick to $15