New World Redondo Gets Full Release

The New World Redondo from AJ Fernandez is now a widespread release after debuting as an exclusive to retail members of the Tobacconists’ Association of America in May 2019.

The cigar is a 6 1/2 x 55 toro extra that does not get the box press of other vitolas in the line, which leads to its name as redondo is Spanish for round. It comes in 20-count boxes with individual cigars priced at $8 before taxes. While images have not yet been released, the company said it has updated the packaging a bit from the original, which featured the TAA’s logo while the cigars wore a foot band that indicated it was a TAA release. Shipping is slated to begin this week.

This also gives the cigar much greater availability, as the shipment for the TAA was limited to 1,000 boxes of 21 cigars.

AJ Fernandez added the New World line in August 2014, and was notable for a number of reasons. It’s a Nicaraguan puro with a dark oscuro wrapper, Jalapa-grown binder and fillers from Ometepe, Condega and Estelí, a blend developed by Abdel Fernandez in collaboration with his father, Ismael, who joined his son’s company after spending 17 years with the Plasencia family. But it was also heralded as a blend that could sell for around $10 per cigar but be offered at around half that price.

The name is a nod to the regions of the world not named Cuba where tobacco is grown and cigars are produced.

There are now six regular production sizes in the New World line:

• New World Robusto (5 1/2 x 55)
• New World Belicoso (5 1/2 x 55)
• New World Gordo (6 x 58)
• New World Toro (6 1/2 x 55)
• New World Tins (4 x 32)
• New World Redondo (6 1/2 x 55)

In the years since the debut of the original New World, the line added a Connecticut version in 2015, the New World Puro Especial in 2017 that used tobacco solely grown in Nicaragua’s Estelí region, and then a Cameroon version in 2018, the latter of which was the first time the company used a Cameroon wrapper.