AJ Fernandez New World Puro Especial Short Churchill (6 x 48)

Video review HERE.

(Description taken from Cigar-Coop.com website)

At the 2017 IPCPR Trade Show AJ Fernandez Cigars introduced a third blend under its New World brand, the AJ Fernandez New World Puro Especial.

The  AJ Fernandez New World Puro Especial is a Nicaraguan puro that consists exclusively of tobaccos blended from several of AJ Fernandez’s farms across the Estelí region of Nicaragua.

The blend is a collaboration between Fernandez and his father, Ismael, that has been under development for several years. The blend includes a Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 wrapper from Fernandez’s San José farm. It also uses tobaccos from Fernandez’s La Soledad, La Providencia, and San Diego farms. The tobaccos in the blend have been aging for three to five years. New World Puro Especial is coming out of Fernandez’s Tabacalera Fernandez factory in Estelí, Nicaragua.

The New World Puro Especial will be available in three sizes: Robusto, Toro, and Short Churchill. It will be packaged in 20-count boxes. Pricing is $8.00 to $9.00, slightly higher than the pricing for the New World and New World Connecticut offerings.

The cigar had a limited stealth release last year under the name New World Habano Especial.

Blend Profile

The blend features tobaccos from Fernandez’s San José, San Diego, La Soledad, and La Providencia farms.

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Criollo ’98

Binder: Nicaraguan (Estelí)

Filler: Nicaragua (Estelí)

Country of Origin: Nicaragua (Tabacalera Fernandez)

Vitolas Available

Robusto: 5 1/2 x 52 (SRP $8.50)

Short Churchill: 6 x 48 (SRP $8.00) REVIEWED TODAY

Toro: 6 1/2 x 52 (SRP $9.00)

The cigar is quite dark and well made. Here is a shot of the foot.

The cap has a fairly flat head so I decided to cut just below the flat area in order to take the minimum. The test draw was pretty good. The initial flavors at light up were dry cedar, boysenberry, and sweet chocolate. There was a nice amount of black pepper which I rated at an 8. There is a touch of buttery notes in the mix. There was a nice black coffee base. The cigar comes out of the gate at medium to full bodied.

1 1/2 inch in (21 minutes) you no longer have the boysenberry notes. You still have the cedar notes and now instead of straight buttery notes you have the flavor of a cashew butter. There were still chocolate and coffee notes also. The cashew butter is very distinct and you get it at the very beginning of the draw. It quickly fades to cedar, chocolate and finally the black coffee, but you cannot miss them. The finish has influence from the cashews and there were cream notes, along with nice lingering black pepper. The chocolate notes which began in the cigar as sweet chocolate are now more of a dark chocolate with little sweetness. The coffee notes are starting to become more prominent. 

A little past the midpoint (42 minutes) the dark chocolate and coffee notes are highly elevated. They far surpass everything else. The cigar is now full bodied. The cashew butter and cedar notes are still there with modest sweetness from light brown sugar. The cigar has turned into a very dark noted cigar.

The cigar ended at 1 hour 20 minutes. The heavy dark chocolate and coffee notes continued right to the end. You still had the cashew butter, cedar, and flashes of brown sugar sweetness. The cigar is very full bodied. You can feel it! The finish is still one of cashews and cream but you now have influence from the dark chocolate also. The lingering black pepper remained very good. This turned into a very dark noted cigar with modest sweetness. It was a little too dark for me since it lacked significant sweetness. But, if you like dark noted cigars with lots of black coffee notes you might want to check this out. After-all, it IS an AJ cigar and he makes great cigars, as we all know. This one, however, was just too dark with insufficient sweetness...for me. To give these cigars a try you can get them HERE.

Score: 91