Tasting Note

When the JFR line came onto the cigar scene in 2005, it was intended to be sold only in retail shops. The letters J, F and R stand for Just For Retailers. The JFR Lunatic is an extension of the original JFR line and brought to us by Aganorsa Leaf. Released in 2014, Lunatic was so named because, according to Aganorsa, "You need to be a little crazy to smoke these cigars." Some of the cigars in the line are rolled as thick as 80 ring gauge. Crazy? Maybe a little extreme perhaps, but the JFR Lunatic Short Robusto seems to be a much more rational approach to smoking, with a ring gauge of 52 that's outright slender by comparison.The brand is produced at Aganorsa Leaf (formerly known as the TABSA factory) in Estelí, Nicaragua. Besides the Ecuador Habano wrapper, all of the tobacco in Lunatic comes from Aganorsa, an agricultural conglomerate that owns and operates an impressive collection of tobacco plantations throughout Nicaragua. Both the factory and the growing operation are owned by Eduardo Fernández.The cigar is profoundly nutty (no pun intended) with precise notes of cashew and walnut wonderfully layered atop a core of coffee bean. At under $6 per cigar, the only thing insane here is the price.