AGANORSA Leaf Announces New Arsenio Cigar

For most of 2024, AGANORSA Leaf has been teasing a new version of its Arsenio cigar, named for the late Arsenio Ramos, AGANORSA’s blender.

The new AGANORSA Leaf Aniversario is a follow-up to the discontinued Casa Fernandez Arsenio and Arsenio Oro lines. Blend-wise, it uses a corojo wrapper from Jalapa, Nicaragua and two binders: criollo 98 and tobacco from Estelí. The fillers come from the company’s farms in Condega and Jalapa.

It will be offered in three sizes:

• AGANORSA Leaf Arsenio Corona (6 x 44) — $14.99 (Box of 15, $224.85)
• AGANORSA Leaf Arsenio Robusto (5 1/4 x 54) — $15.99 (Box of 15, $239.85)
• AGANORSA Leaf Arsenio Toro (6 x 52) — $16.99 (Box of 15, $254.85)

AGANORSA Leaf says that for 2024, there will be 2,000 boxes each of the Robusto and Toro, while there will be just 1,500 boxes of the Corona, which was Ramos’ favorite size.

Ramos was born in Cuba and spent more than four decades working for Cubatabaco, the state-run tobacco company in Cuba. Around 2000, he left the country and, like many other highly-skilled workers in the Cuban cigar industry, went to work for Eduardo Fernández in Nicaragua, who had recently purchased Tabacalera Tropical, which is now known as AGANORSA Leaf. Ramos would become the head of the manufacturing team for the company’s factory in Estelí, once known as TABSA but now known simply as Aganorsa. Before his passing, Arsenio’s name graced a couple of different blends released under the Casa Fernandez brand.

In 2018, Ramos passed away at the age of 83.

“Arsenio was a giant of the Cuban Tobacco Industry,” said Fernández, owner of Aganorsa, in a press release. “He was a self-taught man of humble means, a true craftsman. He was a great human being who was instrumental in creating the singular flavor that distinguishes the richness of Aganorsa’s leaf, taking us back to the traditions of a true Habano of old. This blend was his favorite and a tribute to his lifetime of work.”

AGANORSA Leaf will show off the new Arsenio line to retailers at next week’s 2024 PCA Convention & Trade Show in Las Vegas. The company says the line will ship to stores this month.