Over the years, I have religiously followed the goings-on at the various global cigar events, including the Premium Cigar Association (PCA) trade show and the Intertabac trade fair. My list of cigars I would love to try grows longer, yet sadly, the reality is because of distance and South Africa being a small cigar market, the rate at which I get to access and sample many of these cigars is often at a snail’s pace. And I haven’t had the opportunity to travel in the last year, which is when I usually hunt for some of these cigars. Fortunately, two cigars that were launched at PCA 2025 in April in New Orleans have landed.
My Father Blue
Around 2022, the Garcia family of My Father Cigars, led by Don Pepin and Jaime, bought a piece of land in the Talanga area of Honduras, naming it Finca La Opulencia — “The Opulence Farm/Estate”. Talanga is known for soil properties and a microclimate that make it a premium tobacco-growing zone.
On that piece of land, the Garcias established their first Honduran tobacco farm and built a factory of more than 7,000m². In an interview with Cigar Aficionado, Jaime Garcia said, “You couldn’t see the soil. It was all bushes, but it’s surrounded by rivers. You had richness. When we saw those soils, we had a flashback to Cuba and San Luís. It’s virgin soil and was not a tobacco farm. There are three types of soil on the farm, so you can grow stronger and softer tobaccos.”
The first cigar out of the Honduras factory is the simply named My Father Blue, which, in its name, its primary band and its packaging, pays tribute to the colours of the Honduran flag. The secondary band has the year 2025 written in Roman numerals to mark the year of the Blue’s, and by extension, the factory’s debut.
Primarily a Honduran cigar, both the binder and filler were grown at Finca La Opulencia, while the wrapper is CT Broadleaf Rosado, which makes for an intriguing blend. While Connecticut Broadleaf tobacco, grown in the Connecticut River Valley in the US, is known for thicker, darker leaves often used on maduro cigars, the Rosado has a more reddish-brown tone and slight differences in the aromatic profile. Overall, CT Broadleaf is known for rich, sweet and earthy flavour notes.
The My Father Blue gives you all of that and more from the onset. On a dry pull, there were subtle hints of caramel, and, upon lighting the 5 ¼ x 52 Robusto, the spiciness kicked in in a quietly intense manner after the first couple of pulls. Creamy on the tongue, I couldn’t decide whether the lingering sweetness was caramel or marzipan.
Overall, I absolutely love the My Father Blue. It isn’t necessarily as refined as other My Father cigars but is full of character in its own unique way. Not better or worse, just different and a definite new addition to my weekly rotation of cigars. It is box pressed and, in addition to the Robusto, comes in a 4 ½ x 50 Petit Robusto, a 6 x 54 Toro and 6 x 60 Toro Gordo.
Plasencia Alma del Cielo
The latest in Plasencia’s Alma family — Fuerte, Del Fuego and Del Campo — comes in the form of the Alma del Cielo, which translates to “soul of the sky” or “soul of heaven”, alluding to where some of the tobacco used to create the cigar is from. The farm, Finca San Julian, is estimated to be at least 1,000m above sea level in Nicaragua’s Condega area. Condega is known for its rocky, mineral-rich soils and cooler temperatures, said to produce tobacco that has an earthy-sweet flavour profile.
The farm is said to have been previously owned by the family of Melalina Torres, Don Nestor Plasencia’s wife, who operated it as a cattle and coffee farm before having to sell it in 1961. In the 1990s Nestor Plasencia bought the farm, bringing it into the Plasencia Cigars fold.
The Alma del Cielo is a Nicaragua puro with tobacco from Condega as well as from other Plasencia farms in Nicaragua. It comes in three sizes, namely the 6 1/8 x 54 Alma del Cielo Boreal (Toro), the 4 7/8 x 52 Celeste (Robusto) and the 6 x 60 Amanecer (Hexagono).
Smoking the Celeste, spice — especially white pepper — fills the mouth from the first pull with a gentle sweetness mixed in. It settles quite quickly into the first third and it’s both balanced and full of character and flavour throughout the smoke. It is medium to full-bodied and a worthy addition to the Alma range as well as to any humidor.
