The Particulars

This LEGACY review for the AJ Fernandez 20th Anniversary - Toro (6 x 56) is based on the journal entry dated 2024-12-13.

Note: My original review format only had a single overall score of 1 to 5 with the “Buy it Again?” value assessment.  This mean’s there’s no sectioned scoring for different factors and I didn’t capture data for my flavor wheel, which may be blank.  If I have journaled the cigar again since I began capturing flavor wheel data, that data will be present.  If the cigar is still available to me, I will eventually replace the legacy review with one in the current format. 

AJ Fernandez 20th Anniversary. Well, I bought a box, and one was damaged in shipping, so I figured there was no point in letting this one rest for too long. However, it does look like shit because it needed a heavy glue repair for a split wrapper. Then, using the punch, the cap didn’t want to come off, so I had to use the guillotine to take it off, making a very ugly cut and splitting the wrapper again. 🤦🏼‍♂️ But it shouldn’t affect how it tastes, right? 😅

This is a Nicaraguan puro using—Gordon Ramsay voice—the MOST AMAZING aged tobacco from AJ’s farms. And that’s all the detail we get. It’s a beautiful dark chocolate brown with few veins, tight seams, and a triple cap. It’s oily and mottled with a LOT of tooth. It looks like they put their best rollers on these. It’s an amazing-looking cigar with the ornate and embossed black and gold foil double label.

The cold smell is sweet with a bit of cocoa and pepper. Lit, ooof, immediate 🌶️💣 blast. There’s a lot of flavors going on here: pepper, chocolate, sweet molasses, baking spice, hickory, earth, leather, and more I can’t identify but are all in beautiful harmony. It’s toasty and creamy at the same time, spicy but smooth. AJ definitely brought the heat on this one. It’s a fucking delight and everything you expect from an AJF blend, but extra nice. 😎

The draw was great and the burn surprised me. Lighting the cigar, the wrapper cracked AGAIN at the foot. 🙄 It started very uneven because of that crack, but the cigar said, “Fuck you, Jobu, I do it myself,” and self-corrected beautifully. By the end of the first third, it was nearly dead even 🤯, and if it hadn’t cracked, it probably would’ve been the entire time. And good lord does this create a bright white ash and smoke. It’s a beautiful ash, embedded with all those white oil crystals, and it stacks. Even with all the wrapper issues on this one, it’s one of the nicest ashes I’ve seen.

So what I struggle with is: is the juice worth the squeeze? I guess we’re lucky AJF is only selling these for $25 apiece if it’s a truly limited, one-time release of 7,500 boxes worldwide. I got my box at a 20% discount so they’re still $20 each, and by far some of the most expensive cigars I’ve purchased so far. Is it good? Absolutely. Is it twice as good as the well-loved cigars from My Father, Drew Estate, or AJF’s other blends that go for half the price? 🤷🏼‍♂️ And at the time of writing this review, I haven’t smoked many other cigars at this $20+ price point, so I really can’t draw a broad comparison to those.

I’m finding that cigars are like wine. There are so many good mid-priced options that you get diminishing returns on the higher-cost ones. So, while they are good, they’re not twice as good when they cost twice as much. And hell, if your budget only allows for Two Buck Chuck and that’s what you like, enjoy it! But if you have the means and are an AJF fan, then this is certainly worth grabbing if you have the opportunity. No regrets here! 🔥

Review Base Rating (0-5):

5.00

Would I Buy It Again?

Without a doubt (box worthy)

Review Final Score (0-10):

10.00

Postscript

At the time I wrote this review, I was still a bit earlier in my journey and didn’t have a lot of context for other cigars at higher price points.  Since then, I’ve definitely broken into that level and the AJF 20th still is still fantastic for the cost.  Over a year later, with a couple hundred cigars under my belt, this is still a favorite.

Overall Score and Individual Journal Entries

While the review is based off one instance of journaling this cigar; there’s a number of reasons you can have different experiences smoking the same cigar multiple times. A blend can evolve with age (for better or worse), palates evolves, preferences change, and sometimes you just get a bad example!  This section captures the ratings from each journal entry and the related journal photo.  Below you’ll find an aggregate score based on every time the cigar has been journaled. Unless it was a gift or on-off smoke, this section will be updated every time I journal this cigar!

The Flavor Wheel

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.