I just brought in some Aganorsa Leaf products to the site to see how they go for me. Aganorsa Leaf is famed for their tobacco, as I am sure you know. This is a brand I have considered bringing in for some time, as I personally enjoy the products. That being said, often I see their more “special” or limited releases get a lot of the attention in the “cigar nerd’ community.
This morning I smoked one of those releases - the Supreme Leaf Rothschild. If you want to truly understand Aganorsa tobacco, the Supreme Leaf is always a great cigar to start with. For me, I was amped to see a Rothschild release of this blend, and even more amped that I could snag a box for the site still.
Smoking this got me thinking about something that I wanted to touch on - Vertical Integration. As mentioned, Aganorsa tobacco stands out on its own and is a highly sought after tobacco for many brands and factories. Aganorsa Leaf cigars were formerly known as Casa Fernandez Cigars. Terrence Reilly was brought onto Casa Fernandez’s team and made a real push to rebrand to “Aganorsa Leaf”. This was a phenomenal idea. As Terrence has stated many times, their strength and notoriety is in their tobacco. Now there is no mistake that their own cigars, from their own factory, are tied to the leaf.
Vertically Integration is a combination in a company of two or more stages of production. This has obvious advantages in quality control, supply, and cost. In the cigar industry, this is a golden egg and something I appreciate as a retailer, but I really think it should get more appreciation by consumers. Aganorsa Leaf is a prime example of the benefits of vertical integration. They use the same tobaccos in their products as several other highly popular brands out in the market. Of course the blender of a cigar has the responsibility and opportunity to create a unique product with these tobaccos, however, the core of the cigar remains similar.
With vertical integration, a cigar maker is able to provide those core flavors that you are accustomed to with extreme consistency. They grow the tobacco and can select the tobaccos that best suit the blends. Those are keys to consistency. Potentially the best part is that those tobaccos are then used, once properly cured, to roll cigars in their own factory. Again, this is essential to consistency. However, it is also a critical step in cost reduction.
With a vertically integrated company, such as Aganorsa, you are getting consistent cigars at lower prices than other cigars in the marketplace that use the same tobaccos. It is truly a win-win.
Based solely on that logic, Aganorsa Cigars should be among some of the most purchased “boutiques” (I use quotes because I don’t know the actual numbers for production of Aganorsa products). Are they? Well, as I mentioned, their special blends are. However, I can’t speak to specifics on their core line products, such as La Validicion. I will say that I don’t see a ton of them smoked on various platforms. This is where I speculate that the perception of quality based on price may come into play. I would hope an educated consumer would understand that price is not always a perfect indicator of quality…
Take care,
-Trevor