AJ Fernandez Cigars.
AJ Fernandez built the company on direct-to-consumer Nicaraguan craft — bold, full-flavored Nicaraguan blends produced in his own facilities with tobaccos from his own farms. The house style favors medium-to-full body, Cuban-derived blending tradition (the Fernandez family blends pull on multi-generational Cuban knowledge), and aggressive value pricing. The New World line in particular is designed to deliver complex Nicaraguan flavor at price points well below most established brands, positioning AJ Fernandez as the value-tier answer to brands like Padrón while offering blending sophistication that rivals premium-tier competitors.
House Story
AJ Fernandez Cigars was founded by Abdel J. Fernandez, a third-generation Cuban tobacco grower born in March 1979. The Fernandez tobacco legacy traces back to Abdel's grandfather, who established the original San Lotano brand in San Luís, Cuba before the Cuban Revolution. Armed with knowledge passed down from his father and grandfather, AJ Fernandez left Cuba in 2003 and settled in Nicaragua, beginning Tabacalera Fernandez in a decrepit facility in Estelí with just six rollers.
Fernandez first established his reputation as a manufacturer producing cigars for other companies — including the Rocky Patel Summer Blend 2008 (made at Fernandez's Tafenic factory) and the Man O'War and Diesel brands sold by Cigars International. By 2006, Tabacalera AJ Fernandez S.A. was producing 4 million cigars annually. In summer 2010, AJ Fernandez revived the long-discontinued San Lotano brand that his grandfather had originally produced in pre-revolution Cuba. The New World line, launched in 2014 as a tribute to Fernandez's grandfather, became one of the brand's defining own-name releases.
Today, the company is one of Nicaragua's largest premium cigar operations: more than 100,000 cigars are rolled by hand each day across Tabacalera AJ Fernandez de Nicaragua S.A. in Estelí and the San Lotano factory in Totogalpa to the north. AJ Fernandez also continues to manufacture cigars on contract for other major brands, including selected Rocky Patel and Macanudo lines.
- AJ Fernandez New World
- AJ Fernandez San Lotano
- AJ Fernandez Enclave
- AJ Fernandez Bellas Artes
- AJ Fernandez Hour of Need
Our AJ Fernandez Cigars Cigars
1 AJ Fernandez Cigars cigar in our collection — every one of them eligible for custom banding.
Custom-band AJ Fernandez Cigars
Pair our hand-band program with the brand you trust. Most orders ship in 4 to 6 weeks.