In this video Justin Holman steps out from behind the camera to talk to Frankie Santos about what’s new with AJ Fernandez for IPCPR 2017. Frankie gets us started with the New World Puro Especial, which joins the existing Maduro and Connecticut blends of the New World line. All tobacco going into this new blend are from AJ’s farms in Esteli. The Puro Especial will be available almost immediately in three sizes: Robusto (5 1/2 x 52), Short Churchill (6 x 48) and Toro (6 x 54), and will retail for $8 to $9, plus applicable taxes. (The AJ Fernandez website also lists a Gordo vitola (6 x 58) that wasn’t mentioned.)

As we walk to the next new release, we stop and take a look at the new packaging for the San Lotano, a cigar that’s been given a good amount of love over the years on Stogie Review. The bands now depict the center of AJ’s home town in Pinar Del Rio, San Luis.

Next we take a look at the new Enclave Broadleaf. As the name indicates, it features a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. Like the Puro Especial, the binder and filler also comes from AJ’s farms in Nicaragua. Also like the Puro Especial, the Enclave Broadleaf is already shipping, will retail for $8 to $9 plus applicable taxes, and comes in three sizes: Churchill (7 x 52), Toro (6 1/2 x 54), and Robusto (5 x 52). Frankie says more sizes will follow, and again in the case of the Enclave Broadleaf, the website indicates there is also a Gordo vitola (5 1/2 x 58).

Frankie says that limiting the releases to just three sizes wasn’t a reaction to future FDA concerns, but that did figure into the packaging changes. They specifically designed the boxes to make room for FDA warning labels without compromising the design.

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