Charlie Minato

3 days ago | halfwheel.com | Charlie Minato

Last October, J.C. Newman began shipping a new vitola for its Julius Caeser line, but it was only offered to the 36 retailers that have a Diamond Crown-branded lounge. Now, the cigar is heading to stores nationwide. The Diamond Crown Julius Caeser The Troublemaker is a 5 3/4 x 52 perfecto. Blend-wise, the Julius Caeser line uses a an Ecuadorian habano wrapper covering a binder from the Dominican Republic and filler tobaccos grown in the Caribbean and Central America.

3 days ago | halfwheel.com | Charlie Minato

Today, a handful of new releases from JRE Tobacco Co. are heading to stores. The highlight is the new Aladino 85 Aniversario Reserva, a cigar created to honor the 85th birthday of Julio Eiroa. Like many JRE releases, it’s a Honduran puro, but unlike others, it uses pinareño-seed tobaccos not the corojo that Eiroa is known for. The pinareño was brought to Honduras by Tino Agurdin in 1960, but it was known for smaller yields and being more delicate and disease-prone than corojo.

3 days ago | halfwheel.com | Charlie Minato

The cigar made for the late José Seijas is now shipping. Para José Seijas, which means for José Seijas in Spanish, is the latest release from Matilde Cigar Co. It’s a 6 x 52 toro that uses an Ecuadorian wrapper over a Dominican binder and Dominican fillers. It has an MSRP of $18 per cigar and the 2025 production is limited to 750 boxes of 20 cigars though the company says it plans to release the cigar once per year.

4 days ago | halfwheel.com | Charlie Minato

In late 2014, Casa de Montecristo of Countryside, Ill.—which is a franchise location owned by the Khalil family—received a new exclusive private label line from My Father: Oro de Nicaragua. Mo Maali smoked that cigar and enjoyed the blend. A few years later, he would go on to launch his own company: Patina Cigars. In 2024, Patina introduced an Oro de Nicaragua line of its own, which Maali made clear was inspired by the blend made by My Father.

6 days ago | halfwheel.com | Charlie Minato

When Avowed Cigar Co. announced its launch in February, the company announced three debut blends—two regular production lines and one limited edition—and teased a second limited edition for later in the year. This month, that limited edition will arrive at stores. The cigar is the 6.29 Higher Calling, a modified version of the company’s regular production The Vow 6.29. On paper, the blends are very similar.