Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Gran Reserva Presidente Returns to TAA Stores with Selección de Torcedor 2019

The Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Gran Reserva Presidente is once again off to retail members of the Tobacconists’ Association of America (TAA), but this year another cigar will also be available at those retailers.

Joya de Nicaragua opted to give stores five-packs of the new Joya de Nicaragua Selección de Torcedor 2019, a cigar that was chosen by the company’s cigar rollers. This year’s release is a 6 x 52 toro, though the company isn’t saying much about the blend.

“We are so humbled by all the recognition we received last year during our 50th anniversary, that we decided we needed to give an extra step to express our gratitude with the trade and the industry, and this is how we came up with the Selección de Torcedor program, that will be part of something even bigger,” said Juan Ignacio Martínez, executive president of Joya de Nicaragua, in a press release.

The company says that the Selección de Torcedor will see the company’s rollers select a new cigar every year to send to stores to test whether it is popular enough to become a regular release. These cigars, offered in five-packs, are promotional items meant to be offered to consumers who purchase the Antaño Gran Reserva Presidente. There is no listed price.

As for the Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Gran Reserva Presidente, it is a 6 3/4 x 50 Nicaragua puro that debuted last year as an exclusive to retail members of the TAA. The company says production of the special Antaño Gran Reserva is limited to 1,000 boxes annually.

The Tobacconists’ Association of America (TAA) is a fairly small group of some of the country’s top tobacconists, about 80 retailers as well as 40 or so manufacturers. The association gathers annually to discuss issues facing the industry and retailers, as well as to have its annual trade show, a unique event that works on a group buying format in order to secure exclusive deals for these generally high-volume merchants.

This year 11 companies, in addition to Joya, released new exclusives for TAA stores: A.J. Fernández, CLE, Crowned Heads, E.P. Carrillo, General Cigar Co., J.C. Newman, La Flor Dominicana, La Palina, My Father, Nat Sherman and Tatuaje.

Joya de Nicaragua is distributed by Drew Estate in the U.S.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.