Amar is a blend that AJ Fernandez created to honor the cigar community that rallied around him and his company after a large fire damaged the company’s Estelí, Nicaragua factory in March 2025. The name is a dual-meaning word for the different aspects of his lineage. AJ is half-Cuban and half-Lebanese…in Spanish “amar” means “to love” (the company says this is “a brand built with love for those who stood by us”) while in Arabic “amar” means “moon” (to reinforce the the transitions and growth after phases of the moon).
The blend is a Nicaraguan puro with a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper leaf and has been described as medium-bodied. The wrapper was somewhere between tan and brown in color…call it dark tan, I guess…and quite oily to the touch. The aroma from it was earthy and rich, with accents of leather. The foot had a more complex earth, cedar, citrus, and hay aroma. The cold draw had just a tiny touch of resistance and tasted of mildly sweet hay and cedar.
Once I fired up the Amar, I got hay and light citrus notes up front over an earthier core flavor. A couple puffs is all it took to start getting a really good amount of pepper spice, too…a spice that lingered forever between puffs. In the time this blend has been available, I’ve really learned to enjoy it’s medium-bodied, full-flavored goodness. It delivers a truly satisfying amount of complexity, with sweet and spicy notes countering each other right from the beginning.
