Bill and Darrell visit Noel Rojas at his Richardson Texas facility.
The Cigar
Rojas KSG and the Osok / Rojas Los Tejanos
Rojas KSG is a limited edition cigar that is a Lancero 7 1/2 x38.  Most of the filler and binder tobacco comes from the Somoto region in Nicaragua with a wrapper of Ecuadorian Maduro. MSRP $12.
Osok / Rojas Los Tejanos. It is a colaboration between Noel and Edger Hoill of OSOK (One Shot One Kill) Cigars. The cigars just came in and they are selling out. These are good cigars and you need to get some and try some.Â
The Liquor
A variety of Balcones Whiskey. Noel Rojas and Balcones have teamed up. So we taste a sampling of the Balcones offerings with the KSG. The Fr.Oak, Single Malt, Lineage, and they Rye.
The More
A little bit about Noel Rojas
Noel Rojas was born and grew up in Cuba. As a kid, he would worked in the tobacco fields while in school. We will call it part of a work program.Â
Noel came to the states about 13 years ago. Found employment with Pepsi Co with Frito Lay in Florida. After about 4 to 5 in Florida, he followed his dream of cigars moved to Nicaragua.Â
It was in Nicaragua where Noel met his mentor, the Master Blender Arsenio Romas. Arsenio was the master blender for Casa Fernandez. Noel would roll cigars and present them to Arsenio to sample and receive feedback from Arsenio. Noel had access to a great wealth of knowledge in Arsenio and soaked it up.Â
Noel started by rolling cigars in his house and in a year had started a factory. There was some learning curves and struggles that he went through with that first factory.
Noel has a thirst for knowledge and a is a great teacher himself. We learned a lot from him. If you get a chance to meet him, you will want to spend some time, ask some questions and listen to what he has to say. He spend a couple of years talking with the consumers and retailers from all over to find out what it is they really wanted. Once he had a good idea of the need, Noel rebranded and started the Rojas line. As Noel says, “Simple message . . . with purpose, Small Ring Guages Only that deliver the bigger amount of flavor”.
Learn More:
Listen to the show to find out more about Noel. Among them why Noel loves it here in Texas!!
Somoto, Nicraragua
Somoto does not have a lot of water, but a friend of Noel’s there thinks the soil is something special. His friend spent time digging wells to find water. Once they did a drip irrigation system is used on the plantation. No tobacco has been grown in this region before. For Noel there is something special about that first tobacco. So he set aside bails of that first harvest to be used for special and limited releases editions of the Rojas line. In this case right now, is the KSG (King of the Small Gauge). As the tobacco ages, you know it is only going to get better over time. We can’t wait to try the cigars that will use this tobacco years from now.
Rojas and Balcones
Noel and Balcones are good friends. They enjoy cigars as well. “The Rojas brand is a Texas brand and what better to go with a cigar like this that is a Texas brand, than a Texas Whiskey” says Noel. These go very well together.Â
Small Ring Guage Cigars
Small ring guage cigars are the most difficult to make, but are the most flavorful. Since so much flavor comes from the wrapper, you get more wrapper to filler ratio. Do to the size you don’t have the space for the air flow to move. This is why the construction is so important. Unlike a large ring guage cigar, if a small ring guage cigar is plugged on one side of the cigar, you don’t have all the room to continue the burn as there is not much mass to burn. Â
For the construction, the weight of the tobacco is very important and not as much room for error on either side of the target weight. It takes longer to create a smaller ring guage cigar than it does to make a larger ring guage. The attention to detail is extremely important.Â
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Training Rollers:
Noel has been spending time teaching rollers the technique to be able to roll the small guages. If the roller learns the right way to make a smaller guage cigar, then they can make any cigar. It is a more precise skill set that is needed. It seems that the way Noel is teaching rollers could change the way that others are teaching rollers.
Cigar Specialist:
Noel is going to be coming out with program called: The Cigar Specialist. This program will teach you the tastes of individual tobaccos that go into making a blend of cigars. Once you have the knowledge of what kind of tobacco you like, it helps you in selecting your own cigars. Not only that, but you will not be lead astray by some advertising, you will know what is good.
Each product will be from a tobacco growing region. Within the box, you will get three cigars made from the top, middle and bottom leaves on the plants. With this you will learn how each part of the plant from a particular region has it owns flavor profile. With that understanding you can develop the knowledge of what notes you are getting from each part of the a cigar. Along with it, Noel will be releasing a video series to walk you though the process. Each product will have enough tobacco for up to three people to learn.
This is something that Darrell and I are definitely going to do. We highly recommend that as soon as these products are available, you get them too.
Check out Noel on Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/nrojascigars
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rojascigars/
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Some pictures courtesy of Rojas Cigars
