Espinosa Premium Cigars was founded in 2012, by Erik
Espinosa, a cigar impresario with more than twenty years in the cigar industry.
Espinosa also owns La Zona cigar factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. The brand is
known for crafting memorable cigars such as the 601, @ZUCAR, Crema, Laranja,
Las 6 Provinicas, Wasabi and Warzone. In 2019, the company hired Jack Torano as
its Director of Sales. Torano is related to the Torano family and at one time
worked for the Torano Family Cigar Company. Prior to joining Espinosa Cigars,
Jack work for General Cigar Co. as a brand ambassador. Neptune had the
opportunity to speak with Jack about Espinosa Premium Cigars and its highly
rated cigars.
Neptune: What made you decide to work for Espinosa Cigars?
Jack Torano: I’ve always stayed in close contact with Erik. He is one of my
confidants. Every time something would happen to me in this industry, he was
one of the guys I would always talk to. I came close to working with Erik in
2016 when I was leaving Roberto P. Duran Premium Cigars. We were ready to pull
the trigger but General came calling and the opportunity to get back together
with the Torano brand was very exciting to me. So, I gave that a shot for two
and a half years. When I saw it was coming to an end, I went back to Erik. He
said, “I’m ready to hire you. You should leave General right now.” And I’m like
I can’t do that because I get a nice bonus at the end of the year. So, we had
everything negotiated, and he waited for me. Finally, when General let me go, I
called Erik and said, “I’m on board.” I guess it was something like five years
coming.
Neptune: What do you like about working for Erik?
Jack: Espinosa cigars have always been some of my favorite cigars. I can’t work
for a company if I really don’t love their cigars. I’ve always wanted to be a
part of Erik’s world. And it truly is Erik’s world. I’ve never worked for a
company that has the following that this company has. Not even in the heyday of
Torano cigars did they have the kind of following that Erik has. And it’s
pretty cool to see that attention. I know there are a lot of cigar companies
out there that has the social media presence like Tatuaje or Drew Estate. But
Erik is up there. And it’s pretty cool to have that cult-like following.
Neptune: How long have you been working with Erik?
Jack: I’m coming up to the end of my second year. We had a great first year. We
could not anticipate 2020 [the COVID19 pandemic], but as soon as all this
craziness ends, I think we are going to have a really good future.
Neptune: Two of the cigars that contributed to Espinosa’s
cult-like following were the Psychedelic Turtle and the Comfortably Numb. Are
those two related? Did they have a theme behind them?
Jack: They weren’t related. Comfortably Numb is a private label cigar. The
Psychedelic Turtle was a Cigar Dojo creation. They wanted the Psychedelic
Turtle. It was a shame we didn’t make more of them. It was a great cigar. We
only made about 300 10-packs and they sold in about three hours. I did get to
smoke it and it was phenomenal. There will probably be a Psychedelic Turtle II
sometime next year. Comfortably Numb since we don’t really get to see it here,
I really don’t get to smoke a lot of it. But both are very clever ideas, and
that’s Erik working with Dojo and the other company putting those ideas
together. Hopefully, we will get to do a pretty cool idea with Neptune pretty
soon.
Neptune: What can you tell us about the re-release of the
Azucar?
Jack: Azucar was a predicate blend. It came out a long, long time ago. We
didn’t have anything to offer in the flavor category. No one knows how long
it’s going to last with the FDA rulings. Flavored cigars might be going away
but who can guess when. So, why not bring back a cigar everyone is asking for.
It’s doing great for us. It is a vanilla sugar tipped cigar. It has a little
bit of flavor. It is a great gateway cigar. It is a great way to introduce
people to cigars and then slowly work them into cigars that don’t have flavors.
Neptune: On the Azucar band, the name starts with the “@”
symbol. Why is that?
Jack: I think it was a copyright or trademark issue. We had to call it the
@ZUCAR. The original name was AZUCAR, but once it went away somebody else
picked it up. We just brought it back with the “@” symbol.
Neptune: Where does Erik find the inspiration to make such
unique cigars like @ZUCAR, Wasabi?
Jack: The funny thing is that Wasabi was an experiment. For Wasabi, we made a
hundred 10-count boxes. We wanted a candela wrapped cigar, but none of us are
really big fans of pure candela. Erik and the team decided to add a Habano tip
to it. What you’re really feeling in your mouth is Habano not candela. This
softens that grassy or raw candela taste. It really balanced it out. We really
expected it be a one-time, 100 10-count box cute kind of thing. But it really
took off. It sells like crazy. It sells great at events. People love it. Right
around St. Patrick’s Day they go crazy for it.
Neptune: Tell me about the Las 6 Provincias. The boxes are
gorgeous.
Jack: The Las 6 Provincias is a tribute to the original six provinces in Cuba.
Each release is named after one of the provinces. The LHB, which stands for La
Havana and has an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, was the first release. The second
release was the Matanza. Las 6 Provincias was Erik Junior’s brainchild. It is
made up of 500 unique individual boxes that are handmade, and hand painted. It
needs a trade show type of display. People need to see that cigar. Pictures
don’t really do it justice. We were about to release Las Villas, the third
installment, but then they cancelled the PCA convention and we were hoping to
release it for TPE in January but that got pushed back to May. This has given
Junior more time to tweak it and really work on it.
Neptune: What can you tell us about the Espinosa Elite
Club?
Jack: The Espinosa Elite Club has about 150 members. They get to test certain
blends. To join, the members pay a fee. The majority of the time they get a
bunch of swag: t-shirts, cutters, and medals. They also get cigars in unique
sizes that we don’t always offer to the public. And in this last batch, they
were sent this special Elite box full of all of these cigars and includes the
next Las 6 Provincias with the factory band. They get it three times a year.
Neptune: What are the new Espinosa cigars?
Jack: We just did the new Warhead 6. The cool thing about the Warhead is that
it was developed to show people how the different sizes affect the blend. A new
brand comes out with three or four different vitolas and each one has its own
nuance. It smokes differently. You’ll always get some people that favor the
robusto or the toro or the Churchill, but there is always one size that hits
the sweet spot. It hits right where the blender intended it to be. The Warhead
uses the same blend every year but in a different size. This year we came out
with a 5 by 58 figurado. We’ve had lanceros, coronas. We just change the size,
and it changes the taste of the blend completely.
Neptune: Where are Espinosa cigars made?
Jack: Half of our portfolio is made at Erik’s La Zona factory in Esteli,
Nicaragua. The other half is made at AJ Fernandez’s factory in Ocotal,
Nicaragua [it was formerly the San Rafael factory, which was purchased by
Fernandez from Fidel Olives in 2016 and renamed San Lotano, according to “A.J.
Fernandez Opens New Factory, Producing 601 Brand” an article which appeared in
Cigar Aficionado, December 28, 2016]. Nobody in the business has access to the
type of tobacco that AJ has. We wanted to do business with AJ because we wanted
that tobacco. We gave him the 601 line. He actually did the Warhead and the La
Bomba. He also did the Las 6 Provincias. Our core lines … the Crema, the
Habano, the Laranja, those are still made at La Zona.
Neptune: For someone who has never tried an Espinosa cigar,
which one do you recommend they try first?
Jack: Laranja is everybody’s favorite cigar. It was my favorite cigar in 2015
when it first came out. It ended up being cigar #13 on Cigar Aficionado’s Top
25 Cigars of the Year by the end of the year.
Neptune: Has any other Espinosa cigar been listed in Cigar
Aficionado’s Top 25 Cigars of the Year?
Jack: In 2017, the 601 Red was #15. The Habano was #11 in 2019. And in 2009,
the 601 Blue was #6. For a company that doesn’t advertise on Cigar Aficionado,
they show us a lot of love and they truly love our cigars, which is very
impressive.
Neptune: Has Espinosa done any collaborations recently?
Jack: This year [2020] we collaborated with General Cigar. We came up with the
Warzone. It is a limited release of 3,000 boxes. It did so well that we will be
re-introducing it soon as a short Churchill. The Warzone robusto received a 93
rating on Cigar Aficionado in 2020. This makes it eligible for their
Cigar of the Year. The blend was developed by our own Hector Alfonso who runs
operations, and he is our master factory blender along with Justin Andrews from
General.
Neptune: Tell us about Crema de Laranja.
Jack: It is a special event only cigar. It is the result of virtual blending.
It features the best of our Crema and our highly rated Laranja. It’s a barber
pole that features the Crema’s Connecticut Shade wrapper and the Laranja’s
Brazilian wrapper.
Neptune: Which is your favorite Espinosa cigar?
Jack: One of my favorite Espinosa cigars is the 601 Green Label Oscuro La Punta
which is a figurado. It’s incredible.
Published January 10, 2021