Guáimaro Corona

Esteban Disla might be the most famous cigar factory manager.

Disla is a co-owner of the Fabrica de Tabacos NicaSueño S.A. factory, which is best known for producing RoMa Craft Tobac cigars. Last year, Disla got a cigar of his own, though it’s oddly not sold through RoMa Craft Tobac.

It’s called Guáimaro, a name that has its origins—like so many other things in the cigar world—in Cuba. Disla’s mother worked for Serigo Cuevas in the Dominican Republic at the Tabacalera Cuevas & Hermanos factory. He and his brother, Raul—who is the factory manager at NACSA—worked as young kids and later adults for Cuevas. In 1997, they moved with Cuevas to Nicaragua to the Nica Habano factory. Disla would then become the chief of production at Latin Cigars S.A., the factory that produced CAO and Toraño cigars and is now known as STG Estelí.

Back to the name, it was a nickname that Cuevas gave to a young Disla:

I owe everything I am to Sergio Cuevas… He took a skinny black boy off of the streets and developed me into a man. He gave me a purpose in life, a profession, and I have dedicated every day to honoring his faith in me and the traditions of the craft that he entrusted to me. I can still hear his instruction, his advice, his reprimand. In the early days, he began referring to me in an affectionate manner; he called me by the name of the skinny, dark-skinned, young boys that would work on his family’s farms in Cuba. To this day, I can hear his voice speaking to me when I had done something to earn his praise and his respect: “Fenomenal, Guáimaro, Fenomenal”

Guáimaro is produced at NicaSueño. It uses a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Brazilian Arapiraca Castaño binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The line is offered in three sizes: Robusto (5 x 52, $7.25), Corona (5 1/2 x 46, $7.25) and Torpedo (6 x 54, $8.75).

It’s being distributed by Pospiech Inc., the company behind the Powstanie brand, which is also produced at NicaSueño.

• Cigar Reviewed: Guáimaro Corona
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: Fabrica de Tabacos NicaSueño S.A.
• Wrapper: Mexican San Andrés
• Binder: Brazilian Arapiraca Castaño
• Filler: Dominican Republic & Nicaragua
• Length: 5 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 46
• Vitola: Corona
• MSRP: $7.50 (Boxes of 20, $150)
• Release Date: Nov. 21, 2016
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

The Mexican wrapper is a bit darker than normal, though some of that might just be the contrast against the white band. Aroma off the San Andrés cover leaf has toasted nuts, some leather and a bit of dried fruit. The foot is quite different with a ton of brownie-like chocolate over leather and a bit of meatiness. The cold draw sees the meatiness overtake the brownie and the overall profile becomes a bit more bitter, though there’s some pepper on the throat.

Before the flavors on the tongue or in the nose, I notice there’s a fair bit of spice around the lips. The Guáimaro starts off with a sweet meatiness, a Milano cookie-like flavor—without the chocolate—and some lemonade. Unfortunately, two of the three samples don’t seem want to light evenly despite my normal toasting routine. Despite my best efforts, those problems continue and by the end of the first third I’m dealing with tunneling on a pair of samples. Flavor-wise, there’s lots of meatiness, more of a lamb flavor than anything else, with a lot of nuttiness around it. In addition, it’s got secondary notes of earth and wet leaves while the retrohale has a mild cinnamon, peppermint and salty leather. Flavor and body are both medium-plus and the strength is medium-full.

Some charcoal appears right around the transition point between the first and second third, but it’s relatively short-lived. The nuttiness in the retrohale becomes the dominant flavor with some Dijon mustard and a very sweet caramel behind it. It really is all about the retrohale, which has four flavors behind the nuttiness that keep moving in and out. In addition to the caramel and mustard, there’s some white pepper and floral flavors. Two samples need to be touched-up because of an uneven burn while one cigar goes completely out. Otherwise, things are pretty much the same with the flavor creeping ever so close to medium-full.

Somewhat out of nowhere, the floral flavor ramps up to overtake the rest of the flavors. The nuttiness isn’t that far behind, but it’s a pretty surprising return. Things aren’t as sweet as the first third, largely because there’s a ton of starchy flavors. It starts the final third with a Ruffle’s potato chips, though it’s more of an alkaline noodle flavor by the one-inch mark. In addition, there’s some hay and the familiar lamb flavor. As good as the flavor is, my lighter is still needed with touch-ups required until the end.

Final Notes

• There’s something to be said about the simplicity of the bands. This doesn’t look or feel cheap, though it’s about as simple as it gets.
• Outside of smoking test cigars that were entirely made of ligero, I cannot recall an instance where I’ve lit a cigar thoroughly, taken two puffs and seen part of the foot not burning. Furthermore, it happened on all three cigars.
• What’s the difference between the score below and an 89 or a 90—the constant relights. While there were certainly construction points deducted via our scoresheet because of the relights, I have to imagine the flavor would have been a lot better without the burn issues, particularly on the two samples that tunneled in the first third.
• Nica Sueño is really not a factory I have many construction issues with; these three cigars were definitely an outlier to the hundred or so Nica Sueño-produced cigars I’ve smoked over the last five years.
• Esteban Disla is super talented. There’s no factory hitting the quality to price ratio better than NicaSueño in my opinion. It’s not just value, the factory is making a variety of world class cigars at prices that are really below average.
• Furthermore, cigars like this, Intemperance and Wunder|Lust show the factory is far more than just about strong cigars.
• On that note, strength is medium-plus.
• Cigar Hustler is owned by the same people as Pospiech Inc., which distributes Guáimaro. Cigar Hustler advertises on halfwheel.
• Cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.
• Final smoking time was two hours and five minutes on average.
• Site sponsor Cigar Hustler has the Guáimaro Corona in stock. JR Cigar carries the other two sizes, but not the Corona.