Wrapper: Cameroon (aged 3 years)
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic, Nicaragua
Size: Toro (6 x 54)
Strength: Medium → Almost Medium-Plus (last inch)
Body: Medium-Plus → Full (last couple of inches)
Price: $7.45 Cigar Page Page Plus / under $10.00 standard retail
Factory: Not disclosed, Dominican Republic
Blender: Not disclosed
Release: 2023
Smoking Time: 1:45
Experience Rating: 98
I literally stumbled upon NF Cigars.
Perusing Cigar Page’s brands page, looking for cigars and brands I hadn’t yet tried, I saw the NF Cigars link and clicked on it. Then I read the first paragraph of the product page.
Daniel Nunez and Modesta Fondeur are two of the most prominent figures in the cigar industry. Both started way back in the 1970s and rose to the upper echelon within General Cigar, President and Vice President respectively, before both retiring from the company in the late 2000’s. They have once again joined forces and are bringing their decades of experience and expertise together to form NF Cigars.
I made note of that, and just by chance, Instagram’s algorithm apparently decided I needed to know about them. That was enough to compel me to try them out.
The V Década name stands for Five Decades, pointing directly back to NF Cigars founders Daniel Nuñez and Modesta Fondeur and their five decades in the cigar industry.
Starting in the industry in the ’70s, they came up through the ranks at General Cigar, where Daniel eventually became President and COO, while Modesta served as Executive VP of Tobacco, Manufacturing, and Operations.
Those aren’t casual titles, and given the size of General Cigar, they speak to just how deeply both were involved in the business of tobacco, not to mention the lofty positions they held. That gives NF Cigars something a lot of boutiques simply don’t have: founders with high-level industry credentials.
We’ve all heard the same story again and again.
Our cigars are made from the highest quality tobacco and crafted by skilled artisans who share the same passion we have about cigars.
I’ve heard it so much, I’ve become numb to it. But when the NF founders say something like that, it carries a gravitas earned through fifty years of experience working inside one of the largest cigar companies in the world.
Which brings me to the cigar itself.
It’s complex from the start, yet incredibly structured. If I only had a single word to describe it, I’d call it poised. It’s clear this was blended by people with a deep understanding of tobacco.
In their marketing brochure, they say, “We have put everything we have learned into this cigar; V Decades steeped in it, which we invite you to enjoy.”
This is what fifty years of experience tastes like.
Synopsis
Strength rises slightly early, holds remarkably steady through most of the smoke, then makes another modest move late and remains there through the nub. Body begins high, builds gradually through the middle, accelerates in the second half, and reaches full before holding there through the finish. Activity rises early, remains elevated and exceptionally stable across most of the progression, then drops sharply in the last inch and continues easing through the nub.
The wrapper is gorgeous, a deep chocolate brown with a slightly mottled complexion that makes me think it’s been sitting for a while. There’s a nice shimmer of oil across the surface, and the cigar feels densely packed with some real heft. The branding is simple but elegant, blue on gold with a kind of Art Deco look that suits the cigar.
The wrapper gives off vanilla, hay, a little mustiness of stale bread, a faint floral note, and an exotic woodiness. At the foot, things get sweeter with plum and strawberry preserves, along with a slight citrus-floral quality. The cold draw is a little snug, but the airflow is good and even, bringing fresh bread and dry sweetgrass.
The draw loosens with the heat and is now perfect, with just a little resistance.
The start is delicious, redolent with cedar, baking spices like nutmeg and clove, white pepper, and toasted nuts. Cedar is the leading lady. I get a little hit of nicotine, along with a light spice that hits the top of my palate. Swiss Miss cocoa powder enters, followed by the slightest hint of coffee.
There’s nice energy despite the nicotine. It’s enough to relax, but not at all overpowering.
Then a thick, rich cream enters and settles as the base. The body is rich from the start, and it’s already impressively complex.
The cigar settles about half an inch into the smoke, and I can feel a core beginning to form. Cream sits at the center, and coffee steps up and joins it.
There’s an underlying energy in the profile that I still can’t quite put my finger on. It lurks just below the surface, and it feels visceral, which I don’t come across very often.
Strength picks up just a tiny bit, but it’s still incredibly moderate.
The baking spices are becoming a central theme. I’m not sure they’re part of the core, but they’re definitely present: clove, cardamom, and allspice. There’s also an interesting hint of bay leaf.
The interesting move is the cedar. It’s structural, but not a core flavor yet. It announces itself with every puff, then quickly steps back again. Its behavior reminds me of photobombing someone’s picture. I sneak in just as they’re snapping the photo.
Moving through the first third, it’s a slow roll. I’m not even at the one-inch mark and I’m already 20 minutes in.
A nice caramel flavor shows up and kind of oozes on my palate. The baking spices and bay leaf are dancing at the top of my mouth, and I think they’re the ones driving the energy. The spice circles the profile and weaves in and out between the baking spices.
A gorgeous black tea comes in, and with the baking spices, it reminds me of drinking an unsweetened chai tea latte.
The core is confirmed now: coffee, cream, and cedar. Cedar has decided to join the core, and it really is the emotional center of the profile. Cream is the structural base, fresh cedar is the central pillar sitting on top of the cream, and coffee rotates around the cedar. The structure is very clear.
The complexity is amazing, with a plethora of flavors that I’ve just started noticing: malt, charred oak, toasted bread, roasted nuts, peanut, hazelnut, cashew, pecan, button mushrooms, a hint of green bell pepper, green peppercorn, and white pepper.
And amazingly, strength hasn’t moved an inch. The body is thickening.
The interesting thing is that there’s not necessarily much movement other than the dancing baking spices, but the complexity is incredibly energetic, giving the impression of movement.
The retrohale really brings out the delicious baking spices, along with a light citrus element.
Wow. It’s taken 50 minutes to get through the first half. Like I said, it’s a slow roll.
Looks like the gang’s all here, but I start detecting a rich, dark honey in the background. It’s floating in the middle of the profile, not touching my tongue.
I’m finally detecting some movement in the secondary flavor layer. There’s no pattern to it. It’s like looking at a live culture through a microscope. On the surface, nothing is apparent. But take a closer look and you can see things moving. Some things rotate. Some dart. Some flow. Others just sit there.
Again, strength hasn’t budged. This is great because it really allows the profile to be expressive.
Into the home stretch, the fresh cedar steps forward. So does the bay leaf, and now it has this curious eucalyptus-like quality to it. The baking spices push forward with them.
There’s a strong bread note now, along with candied fruit. Put the two together and I’m getting fruitcake.
Then I get a flash of bourbon on the retrohale. That came out of nowhere. And I like it.
There are a few things that stand out in the experience so far. There’s a lot of complexity, but very few transitions. This cigar is structurally complex.
Strength has also refused to budge despite the steady increase in body. Even at this point, I’m not getting any suggestion that it’s going to increase much.
The burn has been almost perfectly straight. I had to make one correction after a slight breeze came up, but I’m smoking outside. It gets a little jagged now and then and just fixes itself.
And probably the most important thing I’ve realized is that this cigar just doesn’t ask much of the smoker. It’s really the epitome of Cut. Light. Enjoy. The moderate strength makes the presentation so pleasant that you wouldn’t necessarily feel compelled to examine it closely. But if you do, there’s a lot of beauty and complexity underneath.
A little deeper into the second half, the coffee suddenly gets much darker, like Turkish coffee dregs. They’re dark, gritty, and concentrated. The bourbon on the retrohale is sticking around now too. Technically, this darker turn is a transition, but it doesn’t really feel like the cigar added activity. It simply changed the way it has been expressing itself.
The cream thickens and the body starts pushing toward full. The caramel that’s been oozing through the profile darkens along with everything else.
What’s strange is how little the strength reacts to any of this. The cigar has gotten much darker and the body thicker, but the strength has barely moved.
And regarding strength, let’s be clear: This cigar is restrained, but not reserved.
A reserved cigar is quiet. A restrained cigar is controlled. And this cigar is controlling its energy.
And there’s a lot of energy.
In the last couple of inches, there’s yet another change of expression as the spice changes in nature.
Instead of providing heat and bite, I get a tingly sensation, just like the ma la effect from eating Szechuan food, but without the taste of Szechuan peppercorn. After that initial tingling sensation, the spice moves to my lips and the tip of my tongue, where it provides a slightly shimmering red pepper bite.
Wow.
The secondary flavors are moving and buzzing around the profile like bees in a swarm cluster, gathering around their queen. Amazing movement here.
With all that swarming, the body is now full.
And still, my perception of the activity is the same. There are no transitions. Just different expressions.
In the last inch, activity seems to be slowing down as the spice goes back to its conventional behavior. It’s now planted firmly in the middle of my tongue, where it gently pulses.
I can still detect several secondary flavors, but they’ve become like whispers as the cedar chars and the rest of the core steps forward. The eucalyptus from earlier dots the profile and gives it some emotional lift, but things are mostly quiet.
Nicotine finally arrives and strength ticks up, but still falls short of medium-plus.
At the nub, the profile is unchanged from the last inch, though the darkened, oozing caramel now floats around the periphery, providing some lift along with the spice, which has detached from my tongue.
I just ride this out.
Here’s the part I can’t quite wrap my head around: This cigar sells for under $10. With a Page Plus membership, it’s $7.45 a stick, or $145 for a box of 20. Even without the membership, the price per stick is just above $9.00.
That puts it in budget territory.
But it doesn’t smoke like a budget cigar. Not even close. This feels like something that should cost two or three times as much.
The blend says it all. The Cameroon wrapper gives me the wood and that gentle spice. The Nicaraguan tobacco provides the structure, while the Dominican tobacco brings the rich aromatics and much of the flavor complexity. And the experience that results from this combination is incredible.
This is a cigar envisioned and created by two people who spent five decades working with tobacco, and it shows.
And this is the root of my mental disconnect.
Here you have a cigar produced by people with five decades of genuine industry creds, selling at a price that puts it firmly in budget territory, with its US distribution handled through what’s essentially a high-volume discount retailer.
Don’t get me wrong. I love that I can easily get a bunch of these. But the way it smokes signals $20.00+ cigar, not $7.00.
Then to add to my internal conflict, they’re as tight-lipped as Curivari. And the only marketing to be found, if you can call it marketing, is on Instagram. Even Curivari has a website!
I really should just calm down, but I’m like an android whose positronic brain is trying to process conflicting directives. So, I’ll just accept rather than fight it, like I’ve come to do with Curivari.
Cut. Light. Enjoy.
The only place you can buy these is at Cigar Page. If you happen to be in the Dominican Republic, they’re in lots of shops.
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