New World Dorado Toro

When I first started writing about cigars, there seemed to be a handful of new releases that aimed to mimic the wine world’s concept of using just a single farm to produce all the grapes for a single wine. Many, if not most cigars use tobaccos not just from more than one farm but often from more than one country, so the concept of using tobacco from only one farm is rather foreign. Outside of the Perdomo Lot 23—which includes one line that is not even a single country blend—I’m not sure of another regular production cigar that really markets that is made it entirely of tobaccos from a single farm.

Image via AJ Fernandez

Earlier this year, AJ Fernandez began teasing a new version of New World that featured dark golden colors. That cigar is known as New World Dorado, which is made entirely of Nicaraguan tobacco, most—but not all—of which comes from the company’s Dorado farm in Estelí. It’s topped off by a habano sun grown wrapper and the blend is produced at the San Lotano Factory in Ocotal.

Four sizes began shipping to stores in September.

• Cigar Reviewed: New World Dorado Toro
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: San Lotano Factory
• Wrapper: Nicaragua (Habano Sun Grown)
• Binder: Nicaragua
• Filler: Nicaragua
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 54
• Vitola: Toro Extra
• MSRP: $12 (Box of 10, $120)
• Release Date: September 2022
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

Depending on the lighting, the main band of the New World Dorado can look more of a mustard color than a typical yellow. When the lighting is bright enough, however, it looks more yellow and that really helps to contrast against the mocha brown wrapper of the cigar. The wrapper’s color is pretty uniform in color from top to bottom, though there’s some darkening throughout the surface of the wrapper. While I don’t pick up on this until I grab the third cigar, I find that cigar to be light in weight for the size. Once out of the cellophane, the cigar smells like many other AJ Fernandez products: bold. There’s sweet cocoa over a mixture of barnyard, leather and red pepper. Further sniffs at the wrapper reveal some green grapes, raisins and acidity. It’s an aggressive aroma in terms of the types of flavor, but it’s only medium-full. The foot continues the trend: chocolate over leather, oak and some acidity. If I had to judge a cigar’s nicotine strength by its foot aroma—something I wouldn’t recommend doing—I’d venture to guess this is going to be a full cigar. The Dorado is box-pressed, so I expect the draw to be a bit open, but I find the cold draws to be more open than I’d like. Flavor-wise, I pick up dried dates, leather, a chocolate that reminds me of Yoo-hoo chocolate drink, and flax seed oil. Everything is very integrated and the profile sits right at medium-full.

From the moment I began to pull in the first puff, I feel the draw thankfully tighten to a more normal level, which is great given what I experienced on the cold draw. Flavor-wise, it’s not as aggressive as I expected. Saltiness and leather are the first two flavors to hit the palate followed by an earthy core with some terroir flavors and a building white pepper. A salty bread flavor—not quite a saltine cracker—is the strongest flavor during the first, slightly edging out a hearty cedar. At times, the cedar can taste more like nuttiness, but each time I focus in on the flavor, I taste it more like a cedar. There’s lots of isolated saltiness hitting different parts of the palate, which makes it a bit more difficult to tell what flavors I’m tasting versus a flavor that is being altered by the saltiness. What’s not confusing is the finish: charred earthiness and lots of saltiness over some creaminess and nutmeg. Even 10 minutes into a cigar, the New World Dorado has a finish with enough charred flavors—earthiness and meatiness—and black pepper that it feels like I’m on my third cigar of the day. I find there’s quite a bit of sweetness as well, I just have to go looking for it underneath all of the charred flavors. Retrohales have red pepper and white pepper over some soy sauce and sesame flavors. While it’s a unique profile, the more interesting part is during the finish. Each time, there’s a point where the smoke has left my nostrils and I taste a bitterness that lasts for about two seconds before getting super crisp—almost like a bread’s crust—and then cinnamon, watercress and charred meatiness, almost like crisp pork skin, emerge. It’s more interesting from the way it feels than the way it tastes. Finally, there’s another dimension flavor-wise: lots of red pepper on the lips. Flavor is full, body is very full, and strength is medium-plus. At times the draw gets a bit open and the burn line can stray a bit, but overall, construction is fine during the first third.

The earthiness that was ever-present during the first third takes an even stronger role during the second third of the New World Dorado Toro. It has different dimensions, most of which are present on each puff: generic earthiness, terroir-like funkiness, barnyard and a charred earthiness flavor. In addition, each puff brings a decent bit of red pepper and, after the midway point, there’s nuttiness and grapefruit that appears when the smoke is in my mouth. Nuttiness emerges for a few seconds during the finish before a very heavy combination of charred earth and pepper takeover. Like the grapefruit in the first third, when I really focus, I can find some orange flavors during the finish. Retrohales have red pepper, straw, leather and a softer white pepper. The finish doesn’t have the same textual quality that it had during the first third, but I still find the cinnamon flavor as it transitions. There’s also lots of charred earth flavors over barnyard, the aforementioned cinnamon and white pepper. Flavor is full, body is full and strength is medium-full, though just south of what I’d consider full. One cigar needs a touch-up early on in the second third to correct an uneven burn, though construction is otherwise fine.

Different types of earthiness combine to remain the leading part of the New World Dorado’s profile in the final third. The charred earth and terroir flavors seem to both pick up in intensity, which creates a heartier and darker core than what the cigar showed before. Saltiness, leather and white pepper are secondary notes. Collectively, they seem to have closed the gap to the earthiness, but I think that’s largely a result of all of the flavors softening a tad as the cigar comes to an end. The finish sees the terroir and barnyard flavors separate themselves a bit from the charred earth. Like when the smoke is in my mouth, secondary flavors shine a bit more—a sweet creaminess reminds me of soggy Nilla wafers that have been dipped in milk, and there’s also a reduced amount of red pepper. I find it tough to tell the difference between the main flavor and the retrohales; if anything, the retrohales are just less aggressive than the main flavors, but it’s a list of flavors that includes earthiness, charred earthiness and white pepper. The finish has straw, some raw sugar and white bread—but it’s the most subtle part of the flavor to date. I’m not sure when it happens, but at some point in the cigar the red pepper on the lips has transformed into a softer cinnamon. It’s still something I can feel, but it’s not as intense as before. Despite what I’ve written about flavors softening during the final third, the end result is a full-flavored, full-bodied and full strength profile during the final third, the latter noticeably increasing. Each cigar requires at least one touch-up to get it to the end.

Final Notes

• Dorado is Spanish for “golden.” For those curious, “oro” is Spanish for gold, which is why that’s commonly used in cigar names.
• Juxtaposing the New World Dorado and my most recent review, the HVC Seleccion No. 1, really highlights the difference between flavor, body and strength. Neither cigar could be confused as medium, but if I listed out the flavors and asked the general public which one was likely to cause me to consume too much nicotine, the obvious choice would be the Dorado. While there was certainly a full strength profile towards the end, the cigar that overloaded me with nicotine is the one that had the more subtle flavors.

• The inside of the band features Abdel Fernández’s signature. It’s printed in a way that you might think it was actually signed by hand.
• The tapered foot on the Figurado we purchased looks nothing like the elongated one shown in the picture on the company’s website.
• If I’m not mistaken, this was the first new line from AJ Fernandez—the company—in nearly 18 months. While there’s perhaps no manufacturing operation we write more about than AJ Fernandez, as far as the cigar company it’s been relatively quiet outside of packaging updates.
• I really like that AJ Fernandez chose to highlight a specific farm. I wish more companies would do it and it would be great to see a portfolio that really tries to show off the differences between specific farms.
• At some point during the second third of the second sample, I noticed the cigar’s aroma reminded me of the smell of a glass of bourbon.
• This is the type of cigar where the changes can be subtle and the profile is pretty linear. While the change does happen, I find it challenging to believe that if you don’t like how the cigar tastes after 10 minutes you will end up liking the cigar. From start to finish it’s a bold profile centered around different types of earthiness and pepper. That said, the first third sees those two flavors really dominate the finish, whereas the rest of the cigar sees the flavors as more encapsulating.
• When the regular New World debuted, the sales pitch was that it was a box of 21 cigars that was priced like it was a box of 20. I never found that to be a sensible explanation because the company is the one that gets to set the price. Regardless, it stands out to me how the company tried to make New World a value play, including by using some more basic packing and now there’s New World Dorado with not only 10-count boxes but also one where each cigar is separated by a piece of wood. It’s a much more high-end presentation and I imagine one that is more expensive to produce.
• AJ Fernandez advertises on halfwheel.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel. After those cigars were purchased, AJ Fernandez sent some additional cigars that were not used for this review.
• Final smoking time averaged just around two hours. I found the first half of the cigar burned noticeably slower than the second half of the cigar.
• Site sponsors Atlantic Cigar Co., Famous Smoke Shop and Gotham Cigars carry the New World Dorado Toro.