Joya Red by Joya de Nicaragua

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Robusto: 5 1/4 x 50
Price: $5.75

This cigar was assessed in depth by Cigar Coop.

Joya Red is a new offering that was launched at the 2014 IPCPR Trade Show by Joya de Nicaragua. This blend is described as a more dialed back cigar than most of the JDN powerhouses. To accomplish this goal,the company said they moved away from their abundant use of ligeros and thick wrappers and made use of more viso leaves. The company also says the wrapper is a lower priming habano. The binder and filler come from Esteli, Jalapa, and Condega.

The blend achieves its goal. This is a cigar that is going outside the range of mild to medium in terms of strength and body. The milder profile seems to work very well with this cigar. There is plenty of sweet natural tobacco to start out along with some notes of nut, toast and citrus. I found the cigar transition to more notes of earth and grass along the way and it loses some sweetness until the end. There are some pepper notes, but overall this cigar won’t throw up much spice until the end.

I thought this was a very good cigar. I’ve seen some reviews really score this cigar high. I’m not sure it would be a box worthy cigar in my book. While I’m not going to officially rate this pre-release, it probably will come in between a five and box split.