Aladino Cameroon Robusto (5×50)

The story of the Aladino Cameroon starts with a contradiction. Cameroon seed is famous for being nearly impossible to grow anywhere but Africa. The climate, the soil, the specific conditions of that region produce a character in the leaf that growers in Central America have tried and failed to replicate for decades. Julio Eiroa decided that was someone else’s problem. After sourcing seed from an international leaf broker and spending years growing, testing, and rejecting blends that did not meet his standard, he arrived at a Honduran-grown Cameroon wrapper that Cigora called the work of potentially the only company to have mastered the feat outside of its home continent.

In this 5×50 Robusto, that wrapper is aged over two years and then paired with Authentic Corojo binder and filler from the JRE farm in the Jamastrán Valley. What you get is forty-five minutes of cedar, roasted nuts, a gentle natural sweetness, and a salty, tea-like complexity on the retrohale that is distinctly and unmistakably Cameroon. Under nine dollars. Twenty-four to a box. One of the most interesting smokes in the entire Aladino lineup.