2000 Mayorga Robusto

[ElkTwin]

I bought a lot of cigars around the turn of the century. That’s probably why I have so many left. The Mayorga Robusto was an interesting cigar for a couple of reasons. One, the wrapper, and two the coffee. Lew’s fingerprints are all over this one; apologies to him in advance if I get any of these details wrong.

There was a time in the late 90s when you could not walk into a JR store without tripping over a huge mountain of Montecristo coffee. The coffee, stuffed into thick mylar bags that bore the signature colors and font of the Montecristo cigar brand, was excellent. The Internet was buzzing (pun intended) and it seemed everyone was buying it like crazy.

And then, like throwing a light switch, it was gone and in its place was Mayorga coffee. Martin Mayorga was roasting some of the greatest, most epic blends and people loved it. We were buying it by the ton. Martin had the Midas touch and was not only making great coffee he was making an impact in the coffee business.

Martin was also trying his hand in the cigar business. The first few attempts at blending weren’t met with the same warm reception as the coffee, but then he hooked up with Nestor Plasencia and Lew and things changed.

In the late 1990s disease was ravaging the Corojo fields in Cuba. The Cubans created a new hybrid tobacco plant to battle the disease and called it Habana 2000.

Nestor Plasencia was the first to grow this new hybrid outside of Cuba. While it eventually became a delightfully refined product, initially it was a bit iffy. The leaf was course and veiny, and shared similar characteristics with asbestos.

The re-blended Mayorga cigars in 1999 had these Nicaraguan H2000 wrappers, which folks were concerned about. But they were solid, square pressed cigars at a good price and JR made them very attractive by featuring them, often paired with the awesome coffee, in weekly Midnight Specials.

I loaded up on them and set some aside in the hopes that some age would improve the wrappers. It did, they burn now, but age didn’t help the blend.

These are still sold by JR, and the recent ones are a solid value and flammable. The new Costa Rican wrapper probably has a hand in that.

Thanks again Sean!