There aren’t a ton of cigar companies I have not heard of, but Providencia is one of them.

Founded by Jim Faber, Reed Grafke and Raymond Zinar, the company makes cigars with Javier Mendoza’s Alianza Cigars, a growing and factory operation I also didn’t know anything about. Faber played soccer in a second division league in Honduras, which is where he met Mendoza.

Trinitas is the newest line, the third offering for the company and what it says is the strongest in its portfolio. Trinitas is offered in a single 6 1/2 x 52 box-pressed perfecto portfolio using a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder and fillers from Honduras and Nicaragua. The company says there’s three types of ligero: the wrapper as wells as Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers.

At the moment, production is limited to 4,700 cigars divided between 250 boxes of 10 and 200 bundles of 11 cigars.

  • Cigar Reviewed: Providencia Trinitas
  • Country of Origin: Honduras
  • Factory: Alianza Cigars
  • Wrapper: Mexican San Andrés
  • Binder: Nicaragua
  • Filler: Honduras & Nicaragua
  • Length: 6 1/2 Inches
  • Ring Gauge: 52
  • Vitola: Double Perfecto
  • MSRP: $12 (Boxes of 10, $120)
  • Release Date: January 2018
  • Number of Cigars Released: 250 Boxes of 10 Cigars & 200 Bundles of 11 Cigars (4,700 Total Cigars)
  • Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

It’s a pretty looking cigar with some sharp pressing and an overall dimension that seems to hit the Goldilock’s paradigm: neither too large nor too small. The first thing that’s apparent is just how soft the wrapper is, almost leather-like. Aroma-wise, there’s not a ton going on though I pick up leather, some nuttiness and an artificial raspberry. The foot is ridiculously sweet, easily the sweetest smell I’ve had in the last year outside of flavored cigars. It reminds me a bit of some Cuban cigars with tons of floral flavors and some oak. The cold draw of the Providencia is equally as sweet with some artificial coffee overpowering any hope of me detecting any flavors on two of three samples. The third has a bit of fruitiness and earthiness, but still with that artificial coffee flavor.

Despite its perfecto shape, the draw is a bit open. That pays off once the cigar is lit with a volcano of smoke. Flavor-wise, there’s earthiness, some cedar, lots of coffee and an underlying sweetness. It, fortunately, avoids the artificial coffee flavor. At times it seems like I’m visiting an ice cream shop with both a creamy vanilla flavor and some sugary bread that reminds me of ice cream. It’s contrasted by some sourness that picks up steam after the first half-inch. A bit of pepper hits the back of the throat on the finish, but it doesn’t hold up to the initial flavors. In other news, the massive smoke production makes my balcony  appear to be on fire. Flavor is medium-plus, body is mild-medium and strength is mild-medium.

The second third of the Providencia Trinitas sees the sourness stick around, now paired with a saltiness that began in the final puffs of the first third. It’s not particularly pleasant as it reminds me of sweat, but it seems to be reducing with each puff. Left in its place is some sweet bready flavors that remind me of a cinnamon roll without the frosting. Through the nose, I pick up Lay’s potato chips and a jalapeño pepper on the back of the tongue and throat. That’s in contrast with a separate irrational-like flavor that is in the middle of the tongue. Construction remains impressive and impeccable with the burn great and smoke production out of hand.

While the flavor in the mouth is largely reduced to some earthiness and an uncooked store-bought flour tortilla flavor, the retrohale is now much more enjoyable, as there’s a defined blueberry flavor on top of some raspberry and earthiness. The salty and sour flavor comes and goes, but it’s substantially reduced compared to the earlier two thirds. Flavor picks up close to full, but the body and strength remain south of medium. One sample needs two touch-ups in the final third to deal with an uneven burn, but otherwise, the Trinitas is relatively maintenance-free.

Final Notes

  • One thing I appreciate is that the boxes of 10 and bundles of 11 are both priced at $120. The takeaway here is that boxes cost money and if you just want the cigars, you can have an extra cigar for the same price.
  • “Triple Ligero” doesn’t have the best connotation in the cigar industry. One of the most notable counterfeit cigar scandals in the last decade involved a forum user who went by the name TripleLigero. He sold what likely amounted to close to $100,000 in counterfeit Cuban cigars, “specializing” in rare and expensive cigars. Brooks Whittington reviewed one of the fake cigars here.
  • Speaking of Triple Ligero, Gurkha has a trademark on the name.
  • And while we are on the topic, I wouldn’t have guessed there was much in the way of ligero tobaccos in this cigar given the ridiculous smoke production and the flavors.
  • While the company says this is their strongest cigar, I didn’t find it to get close to medium in terms of nicotine strength.
  • Faber is a coach at the Dallas Texans Soccer Club, a nationally-noted program. My sister played for the club and I used to carpool with someone who played on the club’s top boys team, which won numerous national championships.
  • While my love of Borussia Dortmund is noted on this website, I never played soccer at any level beyond P.E. class.
  • Cigars for this review were sent to halfwheel by Providencia Cigars.
  • Final smoking time is two hours and 20 minutes on average.
88 Overall Score

Start to finish, the Providencia Trinitas provided some bizarre flavors, but overall, I enjoyed the cigar quite a bit. It's a bit confusing to describe: the band says triple ligero, but the strength was quite light; the cigar smelled like some flavored cigars, but there was a salty and sour mixture throughout; the smoke production was gigantic, but the body was thin. I'm always interested to try cigars from brands I've not smoked and am even more interested in smoking cigars from factories whose products I've not yet had. Trinitas is a winner, oddities and all.

Avatar photo

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.