A wonderful evening with two Ambassadors
It isn’t every week I travel from one end of the country to the other for an evening event, but when Rosalie and James Barber from James Barber’s Tobacconist extended me an invitation to their cigar event on 26th November 2021, I couldn’t say no. This wasn’t just any cigar event though: it was the closing celebration for Central America’s Doscientos – 200 years of independence from Spain.
Throughout the summer, Tor Imports had been encouraging the cigar community to join in the Doscientos celebrations. James and Rosalie had won the privilege to host this finale as a result of their ongoing social media promotion and support and the cigar of the night would be the Joya de Nicaragua Numero Uno l’Ambassadeur. This was doubly appropriate as we were to be joined by a special guest, Her Excellency Guisell Morales-Echaverry, the Nicaraguan Ambassador to the UK.
The l’Ambassadeur Numero Uno started out life as a diplomatic gift to showcase the best of Nicaraguan tobacco and the skill of their top torcedores. In 2019 it was finally released to the general public having garnered various accolades in 2018 when it was given out at the PCA event. It is still a limited release cigar with only 1500 boxes being released globally per year, so I can’t think of a more perfect cigar for an event such as this.
The last time I smoked this cigar it was paired with a couple of cocktails, both of which I felt overpowered its delicate flavour nuances. On this occasion, I enjoyed the cigar mostly on its own with a little nugget of pure Nicaraguan chocolate. This pairing was so much better, allowing the gentle but typically Nicaraguan flavours to sing. Whilst I still think that the cigar is a little on the light side for my pallet, it is a great cigar for introducing people to the wonderful hobby of cigar smoking.
Despite the temperature rapidly heading towards freezing and an incoming snow storm, turnout for the event in Harrogate was excellent. I got to meet long-term friends from Instagram including Ray Prodanoff and Ricardo Carioni as well make a raft of new acquaintances. Perhaps my highlight of the evening though was having a lovely conversation with the Ambassador about women in the tobacco industry and how to level the playing field for cigar smoking women, not just here in the UK, but around the world.
If you would like to read my full review of the Joya de Nicaragua l’Ambassadeur Numero Uno, click here.
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