Ashton Distributors Inc. has owned its own cigar brands for more than 25 years, but the company has broken new ground with the creation of La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor. The cigar brand is the first from Philadelphia's Ashton to be made with a Mexican wrapper. Mexican leaf has been used forever in the cigar industry, but Ashton has always opted to use Connecticut broadleaf on its dark cigars. Most Mexican maduros are made with a leaf known as San Andrés Negro, while these La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amors have wrappers grown from Cuban seeds. The lush and fertile San Andrés Valley outside of Veracruz turns these leaves dark and oily, packing them with flavor.La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor is rolled for Ashton in Nicaragua at My Father Cigars, the massive factory run by the talented Garcia family. Originally from Cuba, José "Pepin" Garcia, his son, Jaime, and daughter, Janny, now make millions of cigars at My Father, perhaps none finer than the La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor Belicoso. They combine Nicaraguan tobacco they grow themselves—using two binder leaves, as is their custom—with this dark, Mexican wrapper, and the combination is sublime. The tidy Belicoso is a box-pressed smoke that burns beautifully and has a lovely woody component balanced by notes of sweet nougat and copious amounts of nuts on the palate.These cigars are not only delicious, but consistent. This is the second year running a Mi Amor has made our Top 25 list.

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