Monthly Archives: July 2023

At the turn of the century, El Septimo embarked on a lifelong mission: to break free from the constraints of traditional practices that hindered the quality of the world's most prominent brands. Instead, they aspired to offer consumers something novel: the finest cigars globally, crafted by cigar connoisseurs and master blenders.

Driven by dissatisfaction with lackluster flavors, premature stocks, subpar manufacturing, insufficient attention to detail and quality control, as well as the declining standards of Cuban crops, the El Septimo team chose to start anew.

Their first undertaking was to procure the finest raw materials, specifically the perfect tobacco leaf. Given the escalating global demand for cigars, conventional brands had already depleted the soil and wreaked havoc on the available stocks. Thus, the search for new fertile land became urgent.

After years of thorough research and exploration of arable lands worldwide, the El Septimo team concluded that

In early 2020, Carlos Fuente Jr. announced  that Arturo Fuente would release a special version of its popular Hemingway line with a rosado wrapper as an exclusive for retailers that attended the 2020 PCA Convention & Trade Show. That project was unfortunately put on hold due to the Covid pandemic. Luckily the wait is over and the special project is back on track.

The cigar is called the Arturo Fuente Hemingway OpusX, a cigar that is described as unique compared to the existing OpusX blends. Fuente Jr. says this is a tribute to his father, the late Carlos Fuente Sr., who created the Hemingway brand in the 1980s. It will be offered in a special 7 x 50 size and it will be sold, at least for now, in a special Elie Bleu humidor that was designed by Elie Bleu and Manny Iriarte, a longtime Arturo Fuente collaborator. The humidors themselves  evoke memories of the Ernest Hemingway House in Key West, Florida. Elie Bleu, a renowned French humidor maker, expertly crafted

The gran begins with complex flavors of nuts and earth. It's Nicaraguan filler tobaccos add notes of fresh spice and leather. Due to the tobaccos' remarkable age, a noticeable balance characterizes the whole smoking experience from beginning to end. In the second third, the spicier notes slowly fade as the cigar evolves towards more intense notes of oak wood, milk coffee and an intriguing floral character. During this development, the gran toro maintains its full body beautifully. As the cigar comes to its close, its intensity increases once again, and the previous milk coffee notes evolve into those of black coffee. Aromas of fresh herbs join the ever-present toasting flavors of this masterpiece, which treats aficionados to 60 to 70 minutes of time beautifully filled.