A Smoke with Camacho’s Christian Eiroa
Christian Eiroa,
president of Camacho Cigars, dropped by the Cigar Aficionado office on
Friday. I've known Christian for years, but his visits up this way are
few and far between. It had been a while since I had seen him in
Manhattan.
He brought something
new with him, a triangular box of Camacho cigars with a shiny, black
exterior. He asked for a little screwdriver, the type you use on a pair
of eyeglasses.
These
cigars—called Camacho Super Limitados—aren't meant to be sold on an
individual basis, so Christian has made it tough for a person to get at
the smokes. You actually have to unscrew the four screws that secure the
box in place. Christian took the screwdriver, went to work, and before
long we were puffing away.
The Super Limitados are the first in a series
of new blends Christian is coming out with. These particular smokes
were made in 2007, using wrapper grown on the Eiroa farm in Jamastran,
Honduras, using a seed variety named after Christian's grandfather
Generoso. The wrapper was delicious, says Christian, but the yield was
far too low to allow it to be made into a big brand. And its rarity
meant it had to be a pricey smoke, so Christian has sat on it for
awhile, waiting for the economy to improve. He thinks this is the time.
The cigars, which are made in Camacho's curious 11/18 perfecto shape,
will retail for about $350 for the box of 18 (making them about $20
apiece) and Camacho will only sell 6,000 of the cigars. Christian thinks
it's the best blend he's ever made.
I shot some video of Christian
describing the smokes.
The cigar was very
tasty, nice and balanced, and very smooth from all the years it has been
aging. The idea is that Christian will travel personally to a store
that will sell the cigars so he can present them to cigar smokers and
tell some of the story behind the creation. He's first offering the
cigars to the 40 original customers of the Camacho Corojo brand.
Camacho Cigars have
been doing quite well lately in our tastings. The Camacho Corojo
Churchill is our No. 5 cigar of 2010, and Camachos are getting solid
rating after solid rating. "We've been able to really take the time with
our tobacco," said Christian. It's showing in the product.
Eiroa has other small
batches of interesting tobacco in Honduras, and he plans to roll it into
limited-edition smokes like this Super Limitado. They should be
interesting smokes.