Escobar Cigars Adds New Core Lines from AJ Fernandez

Escobar Cigars, whose ownership group includes the rapper Nas, has begun shipping its new core line(s), a trio of blends made by AJ Fernandez.

The Escobar Connecticut uses an Ecuadorian Connecticut-seed wrapper over an Ecuadorian habano binder and a filler blend that is 75 percent Nicaraguan tobacco and 25 percent tobacco from Honduras. The Escobar Habano uses an Ecuadorian habano wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and an evenly split mixture of Honduran and Nicaraguan tobaccos for the fillers. Rounding out the trio is the Escobar Maduro. That blend uses a Mexican San Andrés wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers.

All three cigars are offered in the same five sizes, priced the same regardless of blend:

• Escobar Connecticut/Habano/Maduro Corona (5 x 42) — $12.70 (Box of 20, $254)
• Escobar Connecticut/Habano/Maduro Robusto (5 x 50) — $13.50 (Box of 20, $270)
• Escobar Connecticut/Habano/Maduro Toro (6 x 52) — $14 (Box of 20, $280)
• Escobar Connecticut/Habano/Maduro Belicoso (6 x 54) — $14 (Box of 20, $280)
• Escobar Connecticut/Habano/Maduro Gordo (6 1/4 x 58) — $14.50 (Box of 20, $290)

In 2021, Puros Privados—the parent company of Escobar—announced that Nasir Jones, the rapper Nas, had been added as an equity partner in the brand. The brand name is also a tie-in to another name that Nas has frequently referred to himself as, including in a 1997 track called Escobar ’97. David Gomes and Michael McNaughton are the company’s principal owners. The company says it has distribution in more than 20 countries and has begun to push expansion into more humidors in the U.S.