Nica Sueño Prepares Releases for Blue Havana Cigars

Fabricas de Nica Sueño has a new client and cigars are now set to leave the Nicaraguan factory destined for U.S. distribution other than RoMa Craft Tobac. Skip Martin and Esteban Disla, co-owners of the Estelí-based factory, have worked with Chicago-based Blue Havana Cigars to create two exclusive blends: Ouroboros and Abaddon. Both will only come in one size, a 6 1/2 x 52 Toro, each sold unbanded in boxes of 12. There will be 40 boxes of each blend debuting later this month, although Martin said the factory is rolling the cigars regularly in small numbers.

“We went down (to the factory) with an idea of what kind of cigars we like and what our customers like, but what we each blended was to our specific tastes, so both of us blended two different blends,” said Chris Schédel, assistant manager for Blue Havana Cigars. “In the end, we decided to have two different blends to appeal to a wider audience.” The Ouroboros blending was led Mark Thomas, owner of Blue Havana, while Schédel focused on the Abaddon.

According to Wikipedia, the Ouroboros is, “an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail, and often symbolizes self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself.” The cigar measures 6 1/2 x 52 with a Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper along with an Indonesian binder and filler tobaccos from the Dominican Republic and three regions of Nicaragua. It is described as medium strength blend with full flavor and will feature a closed foot.

For the Abaddon, the origins are a bit more complicated. According to Wikipedia:

The Hebrew term Abaddon (Hebrew: אֲבַדּוֹן‎, ‘Ǎḇaddōn), and its Greek equivalent Apollyon (Greek: Ἀπολλύων, Apollyon), appear in the Bible as a place of destruction and an angel, respectively. In the Hebrew Bible, abaddon is used with reference to a dwelling place of the dead, often appearing alongside the better-known term שאול (sheol). In the New Testament Book of Revelation, an angel called Abaddon is shown as the king of an army of locusts; his name is first transcribed in Greek (Revelation 9:11 — “whose name in Hebrew Abaddon” (Ἀβαδδὼν)), and then translated (“which in Greek means the Destroyer” (Ἀπολλύων, Apollyon)).

As for the cigar, it’s also a closed-foot Toro, but with a hybrid Nicaraguan Criollo/Corojo wrapper grown in Jalapa, along with a Brazilian Mata Fina binder and filler tobaccos from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, although the filler blends for the two cigars are described as being dramatically different. Martin described the wrapper seed itself as “new.”

Prices have not been set, but the cigars should retail between $8.15 and $8.50 each. While Fabrica de Tabacos Nica Sueño is in part owned by Martin—who is also an owner of RoMa Craft Tobac with Michael Rosales—the factory is expanding its clients beyond the Aquitaine, CRAFT, CroMagnon and Intemperance blends. Martin publicly tweeted about the Blue Havana project months ago and has also indicated Jim Robinson from Leaf & Bean has spent time at the factory as well.

(Photos of boxes via Blue Havana Cigars.)

Brooks Whittington

I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.