Exciting news from Kafie 1901: From Honduras to the Dominican Republic
Kafie 1901 before…
I first stumbled across the Kafie 1901 cigars when I was restocking my humidor from Boutique Smokes way back in mid 2020. By this time Dr Gaby Kafie had been in the cigar industry for 7 years already, making cigars in his family’s home country of Honduras.
The first of his cigars that I smoked was the Kafie 1901 Ecuador Sumatra Toro Bello. I loved it! The flavours, the construction and the company with which I smoked it were spot on. After that it was the San Jeronimo Habano Natural Torpedo. For me, this was another home run cigar, and I couldn’t wait to savour the delights of the San Andres Robusto Largo – I wasn’t disappointed. It wasn’t long before I had restocked on all three of these cigars, along with my first ever Culebras.
After a miserable Wednesday I decided to crack open the Kafie 1901 Culebras and smoke it with the lovely ladies of WiCC (Womens International Cigar Club). I have never in my life smoked such a fun cigar! Right from the start I was a giggly school girl as I carefully un-plaited the cigars and then picked one out to enjoy.
Kafie 1901 today…
Fast forward to late 2021 and Dr Kafie announces that he will no longer be producing cigars in Honduras. This came as a bit of a blow to me as this news came not long after I had discovered my favourite herfing cigar – the Kafie 1901 Liga de la Casa Maduro. Was he selling up and joining a different company? Was he planning on quitting the cigar business altogether? The answer was no. Just moving production from Honduras to the Dominican Republic. What would this mean for the cigars though?
Hopefully only good things. I had the privilege of chatting to Dr Gaby Kafie on one of my Instagram Live shows recently and he told me that Kafie 1901 as a cigar producer had outgrown not only what his factory in Honduras was able to cope with, but also the infrastructure of the cigar industry in the country itself.
Because of this, if he wanted his company to continue growing, he had to move production and he found his perfect partner in the La Aurora factory in the Dominican Republic. This move not only meant that he could increase production of his current core lines, but also look to bringing out new lines in the future. Over the next 18 months, he spent his time tweaking and improving the blends and as of September 2022, he was ready to launch his “new” cigars with their refreshed branding, starting with the Liga de la Casa.
As previously mentioned, this is my go-to herfing cigar and I always keep a good stock of them. Previously only available as a Maduro with mixed filler left over from his other long filler cigars, this cigar has probably had the biggest makeover. It is still going to remain a budget cigar (hopefully) but now it will have long filler and be available with a Connecticut and Natural wrapper alongside the original Maduro. Not only that, but each blend will also be available as a Robusto, Toro, Churchill and Gran Toro!
The future for Kafie 1901
Another exciting piece of news that Dr Kafie mentioned during our chat was his Tenth Anniversary project. I asked him if Kafie 1901 would ever look to releasing either a Lancero of Perfecto cigar. Gaby’s answer was an emphatic “Yes” to both, with the hope of a lancero coming to market some time in 2023 in readiness for the company’s Tenth Anniversary.
Needless to say I am very excited to try the re-releases of the Kafie 1901 cigars as well as the new blends both current and future. Watch this space for my reviews hopefully coming soon. If you want to watch my full chat with Dr Gaby Kafie click here.
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