New Look Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Arrives at Stores

Beginning late last month, the revamped Joya de Nicaragua Clásico is now back on shelves.

The Joya de Nicaragua Clásico is one of the company’s most important and oldest lines, though it hasn’t been sold in the U.S. for most of the last decade. The Clásico is a milder cigar that Joya de Nicaragua has been making for most of its 55-year history. In the 1970s, it became the official cigar of the Nixon White House.

It’s returning with slightly updated packaging—for example, the top of the lid is now white—and a name that includes “Original” part of the name. Blend-wise, the Clásico Original uses an Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers. The company says the wrapper is the same as Joya’s highly-rated Número Uno line, but the two blends differ in the internal tobaccos.

Clásico Original is offered in four sizes:

• Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Robusto (5 x 50) — $8.25 (Box of 25, $206.25)
• Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Toro (6 x 50) — (Box of 25, $218.75)
• Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Churchill (6 7/8 x 48) — $9 (Box of 25, $225)
• Joya de Nicaragua Clásico Original Torpedo (6 x 52) — $9.25 (Box of 25, $231.25)

Joya de Nicaragua used to offer the Clásico line to retailers but phased it out around 2008-2009. Since then, it has sporadically offered the Clásico to large catalog accounts but not to brick-and-mortar stores. Currently, the Clásico Original is offered to retailers that are part of the company’s Club de Amigos of Joya de Nicaragua, a retailer loyalty program.

“If a new smoker asks me ‘What cigar should I start with?’ I always suggest the Clásico,” says Juan Martinez, executive president of Joya de Nicaragua, in a press release. “It’s a cigar that welcomes you to this incredible world in the most delicate way. In fact, this was the first cigar I ever tried. In that vein, this is a gift to America’s new generation of cigar smokers, so they can begin to understand the legacy that this very special Nicaraguan cigar carries with it.”

Joya de Nicaragua is distributed in the U.S. by Drew Estate.