Altadis U.S.A. Announces Yargüera H. Upmann

Several weeks ago, Altadis U.S.A. let it be known that it was working with a new type of hybrid tobacco called Yargüera, named for the farm in Honduras from which it originates. A hybrid tobacco seed, the company believes that it will be “leading the next wave of Honduran tobaccos and cigars for years to come.”

Today, Altadis U.S.A. announced the first cigar that will be using this new tobacco, the Yargüera H. Upmann, a new three-vitola line that will be arriving at stores around the third week of February.

The Yargüera tobacco is a new hybrid seed that traces back to the 1960s, when the Arias family of Honduras went to Cuba looking for seeds. Upon finding seeds to their liking, they brought them back to Honduras for planting, which resulted in a sweet-tasting and aromatic tobacco, though it wasn’t without its challenges, being a delicate and challenging crop.

As a challenge to develop the seed, agronomists from Altadis’ Grupo de Maestros sought out to combine that original seed with criollo 98, a more robust and heartier varietal. After several years of effort, the new hybrid was planted at the end of 2013 at the Yargüera farm.

The new tobacco is exclusive to Altadis U.S.A., and for its debut wanted to trace the Yargüera seed’s heritage to a brand of the same caliber in Altadis U.S.A.’s family, according to a press release. The result is the Yargüera H. Upmann, which gives a nod to the shared Cuban origin of both tobacco and brand.

The Yargüera H. Upmann uses a Yargüera 2013 tapado shade wrapper, criollo 98 binder and sun-grown Yargüera 2013 and criollo 98 fillers. It will come in a Torbusto (5 1/2 x 56, $9.25), Toro (6 x 54, $8.75) and Robusto (5 x 52, $8.50), each size packed in 18-count boxes, and utilizing a tight pigtail cap. They are being produced at Altadis’s Flor de Copan factory in Honduras.