Angel Cuesta Doble Robusto

Cigars fit for a king. Literally.

Angel Cuesta might be a new line for J.C. Newman Cigar Co., but it is not a new line. The brand was introduced in the early 20th century by Cuesta-Rey, a Tampa-based cigar company, and once served as the official cigar of King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

While the cigars’ bands—both the original and the 2023 version—feature an A with XIII underneath it, a reference to Alfonso XIII, the cigar is named after Angel LaMadrid Cuesta, one of the founders of Cuesta-Rey, which Newman acquired in 1958.

In July 2022, J.C. Newman announced that it was bringing back Angel Cuesta by way of its historic El Reloj factory in Tampa, a factory that makes around 100,000 cigars per day using antique cigar machines and also produces a much smaller number of premium handmade cigars, most notably The American.

The new version of Angel Cuesta uses an Ecuadorian habano rosado wrapper over a blend of undisclosed tobaccos that come from three countries. The line is made by two workers—one of whom is named Angel—who roll approximately 150 cigars per day.

After being shown off in 2022, J.C. Newman began shipping the cigar in April 2023 to just 25 retailers. The company says that this is a regular production item, but it will be released in limited quantities just twice per year. It also plans to increase the number of retailers that sell the cigar.

• Cigar Reviewed: Angel Cuesta Doble Robusto
• Country of Origin: U.S.A.
• Factory: El Reloj
• Wrapper: Ecuador (Habano Rosado)
• Binder: Undisclosed
• Filler: Undisclosed
• Length: 5 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 56
• Vitola: Double Robusto
• MSRP: $18 (Box of 20, $360)
• Release Date: April 2023
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Visually, there is a lot going on with this cigar. There are three different pieces of paper, a twisted cap and a covered foot. Underneath all of the paper is a pretty standard wooden brown-colored wrapper with some red tint and lighter-colored veins breaking through. All three cigars feel dense, though the first cigar I smoke is particularly firm with just a small amount of give. The wrapper aroma is medium or medium-full with a smell that I can best describe as foul water, like the taste of lake water, over acorns and some generic sweetness. The foot generally smells medium-full with the foul water scent smelling more like processed lunch meat gone wrong, though I’m grasping at straws to describe the very unique smell. Cold draws have some of that foul water flavor, though it’s joined by sweet cereal flavors, woodiness, milk creaminess and some earthiness. One cigar has more of an oatmeal cookie flavor along with some earthiness and dry fall leaves, around medium-plus.

Whatever that foul water or processed meatiness smell was, I don’t taste it once the Angel Cuesta Doble Robusto is lit. Instead, earthiness leads cedar, cocoa, leather, some weird fruitiness—one cigar tastes like cranberries—and saltiness. While the lists of flavors are pretty consistent between the three cigars, the textures are a bit different between them. After about 10 minutes, the three cigars seemingly end up in the same place. Nuttiness leads leather and woodiness, with some mild amounts of pepper underneath. At this point, the most noticeable variable between the cigars is sharpness, which makes a massive difference as the cigar that felt the densest of the bunch is way too sharp, whereas the others are just slightly too sharp for my liking. The profile finishes with lots of woody flavors and an interesting listing of secondary notes: dry vanilla, apple core, toastiness, peanuts and some coffee cake. Retrohales start being led by leather, though they eventually transition to a dominant peanut butter. Secondary flavors include white pepper, unsalted popcorn and mineral flavors. The finish sees the sweetness leave with the popcorn joined by herbal flavors, black pepper and some generic woodiness. Flavor is full, body is very full and strength is medium-full. The very dense cigar is again an outlier as it’s the only one of the trio that has any construction issues: a tight draw and the need for a touch-up to help with both combustion and an uneven burn.

The sharpness in each of the three cigars calms down in the second third, which makes for a more enjoyable experience. Leather and pizza crust have joined the earthiness at the top of the profile. White pepper, black pepper and dry starchiness sit underneath, while a milk-like creaminess ties everything together. The pizza crust and creaminess stick around during the finish, now joined by more herbal flavors and a sharpness. Unlike the first third, there’s no added dryness during the finish. Retrohales vary between toastiness, bread and leather to a more defined pizza crust flavor over some nuttiness. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason about which sensation I taste, as both experiences are present in all three cigars. The finish is saltier which seems to help bring out the nuttiness, while the milk flavors mix with the rest of the profile to remind me a bit of the aftertaste of a cappuccino. Other times, the retrohales finish with an intense saltiness and nuttiness over the pizza crust flavors while sharpness, herbal flavors and sweetness are secondary flavors restricted to different parts of the mouth. Flavor is medium-full, body is full and strength is having a noticeable effect on me, so I guess I’ll consider that full. All three cigars need help via at least one touch-up and the draw is still rather tight on the first cigar.

There’s a very distinct dry potato chip flavor—think Ruffles—that leads the final third of the Angel Cuesta Doble Robusto. Nuttiness sticks around, but it’s nowhere like the force that it was in the earlier parts. Creaminess is also still present, though it’s no longer akin to milk and now, due to some other sensations, reminds me more of a salad dressing. There’s a myriad of starchy flavors, and, at times, I feel like I’m tasting pasta water, though it’s milder compared to the potato chip, bread and nuttiness. A sharp corn flavor—like one I find in some whiskey—joins the potato chip flavor during the finish; underneath that pair, white pepper and red pepper mix together and there’s some bright citrus. Retrohales define that citrus sensation as an orange, which is joined by woody flavors and more of a starchy melody. That starchiness mixes with white pepper during the finish, which also sees a creaminess that is more like a hybrid between the milky creaminess and the sensation I get when not blowing smoke through my nose. There are also tertiary flavors of leather and dry hay. Flavor teeters around full, body is full and strength is full. The uniquely dense cigar needs another touch-up and continues to suffer from a tight draw, though the other two cigars do well to make it to the end without any further issues.

Final Notes

• I smoked these cigars on three consecutive days at my normal smoking time, starting in the mid-afternoon and ending in the early evening. Each time, midway through the cigar, I noticed that I felt very tired and continued to feel that way for a couple of hours after smoking each cigar. While I acknowledge that this could have been a placebo effect on the third cigar, I hadn’t considered that the cigar might have been the cause of this until I was midway through the second cigar and noticed that I was feeling a lot more tired. I didn’t notice any of the classic symptoms of nicotine sickness, but it seems like the cigar is most likely the culprit of this.
• While I don’t have any evidence of this, I believe that the same cigar will affect people differently and this could be the case that my body has a unique reaction to something that is caused by the combination of these tobaccos.
• It’s also possible that there was some other cause, though this tiredness was not a problem in the days before or after smoking the Angel Cuestas for review.
• As for the other very unique part of this review experience, I’m not sure what to make of the “foul water” aroma other than this isn’t the first time I’ve smelled this. Fortunately, I didn’t taste it once the cigar was lit.
• That first cigar was dense but not hard. If I squeezed the cigar, I would feel some give, but it wouldn’t contract as much as I’d expect a normal cigar.
• Outside of the first cigar, construction was near flawless on the other two cigars.

• Here’s a picture showing the old bands (top) with the new bands (bottom).

• And here’s a picture of the secondary band, which includes a drawing of the El Reloj factory’s iconic clock tower on the right, which ends up being at the center of the secondary band when it is attached to the cigar. El Reloj means the clock in Spanish.
• These cigars are aged much longer than most. Due to packing issues—not packaging, but literally the process of putting the cigars in their boxes—these cigars sat in the aging room for at least three extra months. I know this because I happened to be at El Reloj in December 2022 and was told that the cigars were going to ship later that week; they ended up not shipping until April.
• Despite having a covered foot, the foot on this cigar is remarkably flat, and it ignites itself in a way that seems quite different than most cigars with a covered foot. The only other factory I can think of that consistently produces covered feet that have this flatness is El Titan de Bronze, coincidentally another factory located in Florida, albeit in Miami, as opposed to Tampa, where El Reloj is located.

• The Angel Cuesta Grand Salomones is rather unique as it has a pigtail cap, something that is rarely seen on non-parejo vitolas.
• I’ve begun playing this game: would this happen if Drew Newman wasn’t leading the charge at J.C. Newman? I do not see the previous era of J.C. Newman doing this project.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel. J.C. Newman sent a box of the Angel Cuesta Salomones, but those were not used for this review.
• J.C. Newman advertises on halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was two hours and 30 minutes on average.
• Site sponsor Corona Cigar Co. carries the Angel Cuesta Doble Robusto.