“Every time I’m in Nicaragua blending a cigar, working with tobacco, I am in Nicaragua, but my mind goes back to Cuba. Goes back to Havana, where I’m from. So that’s what you see with HVC—my heart, my Havana soul will be there.”
-Reinier Lorenzo for Privada Cigar Club, which offers its cigar community rare, aged, exclusive cigars, including these HVC blends
Take a trip to Cuba in less than five minutes with HVC founder Reinier Lorenzo. See first editions, Cigar Aficionado top cigar of the year and more as Reinier opens up his personal humidor to reveal his Cuban cigar collection. Reiner founded the small-batch cigar house HVC in 2011, as a homage to hand-made cigars from Cuba’s capital city, Havana. Filmed on location in Miami, Florida with Box Press host Rob Gagner. Full interview with HVC Reiner Lorenzo is coming soon.
WHAT’S IN YOUR HUMIDOR ALONG WITH BOVEDA?
If you smoke Cubans or other cigars with oily wrappers, you can customize the moisture in your humidor with Boveda. Cigars like these do best at slightly lower relative humidity with Boveda 65% RH. (65% RH is great for aging premium cigars, too.)
Read Full Interview: Video Transcript
– [Rob] There’s a story inside every smoke shop. With every cigar and with every person. Come be a part of the cigar lifestyle of Boveda. This is Box Press. [Rob] So, we’re digging through Reinier’s personal humidor, which is a giant humidor filled with Boveda and other great Cubans. And he’s got some great stuff in here.
– [Reinier] This one was number one of the year in “Cigar Aficionado.”
– [Rob] Yeah, Bolivar.
– [Reinier] Years ago, the Belicosos Fino, yeah.
– [Rob] The Belicoso, that is, to me, one of the most flavorful Cuban cigars on the market. These are great. Great cigar. If you’re looking for traditional Cuban tobacco, great flavor. It’s gonna be stronger than maybe some other Cuban tobacco but it’s well-balance, it’s great.
– [Reinier] And this is the Cuaba one. I like this, too, I like the size a lot. It’s beautiful.
– [Rob] This cigar is my favorite Cuban cigar, because of its shape.
– [Reinier] The Divinos.
– Of the shape?
– [Rob] It’s always a Salomon.
– [Reinier] Yeah.
– It’s never in any other format.
– They are little.
– [Rob] And then they make it really tiny.
– Yeah.
– And all the way, I smoked one that was like this big, like the big, giant-
– The big one.
– Like 8, ten inches, but what’s… Okay, so, somebody told me way back when I first started smoking cigars that this cigar, technically, doesn’t have the cigar aftertaste that most cigars have. Do you know if that’s true about that cigar?
– I mean like, they say everybody have a different palate.
– Right.
– And to me, I have been smoking, you see the box, I have been smoking a few. And to me, it’s quite like, I would like to say mild to plus, or even a medium body cigar.
– Right.
– But the aftertaste, it was like almost nothing.
– Yeah, to me, it was like zero aftertaste.
– Yeah, it’s something like that and I really like-
– It smells amazing in there.
– And this one probably is one of my favorites from Cuba.
– Which one’s that?
– This one is the Ramón Allones Superiores Exclusive Casa Del Habano. You can buy only in Casa Del Habano. I brought this one in November 2017, when I was there in Havana. Yeah, it’s a new box, I haven’t opened it yet.
– That’s fun, though.
– Yeah.
– That’s the fun of collecting some of these, because it’s like, well, you sit on them and age them.
– This one is more like, I like the size too, a lot, the Habaneros, the Partagas Habaneros.
– That’s that one.
– Yep, that one right there.
– Beautiful cigar.
– Yeah. You know, when you don’t have a lot of time, or want to go for an easy chat.
– Right.
– And this one, probably, was-
– Like, that’s morning coffee cigar, right there.
– This is a really old box from us. This was the first HVC Vieja Cosecha with Viejas aged tobacco, so the tobacco is from 2009. In Miami, we are in 2022 right now, so look. Probably I’m not gonna smoke them ever.
– No?
– No.
– [Rob] How come?
– I don’t have anymore boxes, this is the last box I have. So, I want to keep it forever. I have a box of everything for the first production, right. So, when I go down there, I say, “Well, let me pick one for the first production and let me smoke now to see how it is.” Yeah, I do that because, it’s like to me to see how… You know, I was working in genetics, right?
– Yeah.
– It’s most like, “Let me see how these are for so many years, how come-” That’s what I say. There is some tobacco that don’t age well and there’s other one when they are ready, they are ready to smoke. Got more than 3,000 here, really old ones.
– [Rob] Where did you get the book?
– From Havana. I have one of my friends is a collector there.
– So, did it come with all of these?
– Yeah, and he sent me this from Havana, yeah.
– [Rob] That’s awesome.
– [Reinier] This is like, all really all the stuff that Cuba does.
– [Rob] So, do you get inspiration for some of your bands from these types of archives?
– Oh yeah. I like to go way back and look how really those things was made. Because, I mean, today, really, you don’t see a lot of stuff now anymore. You know, look at this, look at this one here. This is beautiful.
– Right.
– You see, I like to look back and say what I want to pick here, what really like, let me go back where I’m from. Let me go back to Havana, the old days. So, yeah, for sure.
The Best of Cigars From Cuba:
- 00:56 What’s the most flavorful Cuban cigar on the market?
- 01:21 What is Rob Gagner’s favorite Cuban cigar?
- 01:49 Is it true that this cigar has no aftertaste?
- 02:30 What is Reinier Lorenzo’s favorite Cuban cigar?
- 02:54 What’s a good Cuban cigar with morning coffee?
- 03:14 Is there a stick in his Cuban cigar collection that he WON’T smoke?
- 04:02 3,000 archival Cuban cigar bands!
MOST ICONIC CUBAN CIGARS:
Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill
MUST-TRY CUBAN CIGARS OFF THE BEATEN TRACK:
Ramón Allones Specially Selected (50 Cabinet)
Bolívar Belicoso Fino (25 Cabinet)
El Rey Del Mundo Choix Supreme
Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure No. 2
