Corojo used to be the whole story of great Cuban wrappers, then disease and easier hybrid seed pushed it off the farms that made it famous. One family in Honduras never got the memo. This cigar is what that stubbornness tastes like, and it costs $8 and change.
The Camacho Corojo Robusto is a 5×50 Honduran puro, meaning every leaf in it, wrapper, binder, and filler, comes from one country. All of it is Authentic Corojo, original Cuban-seed tobacco grown by the Eiroa family in Honduras’ Jamastrán Valley, and the wrapper comes off the fifth priming, the sun-hammered leaves near the top of the plant. It is rolled in Danlí at Davidoff’s Honduran factory, ships in boxes of 20, and runs about $10 at full retail, usually $8 to $9 on the street. Full strength, no apologies, and it has smoked this way since the current blend launched in 2013.
- Camacho Corojo Robusto, a 5×50 all-Honduran puro. Authentic Cuban-seed corojo wrapper, binder, and filler from the Eiroa family’s Jamastrán Valley farms, rolled in Danlí, Honduras. Around $10 retail, $8 to $9 street, boxes of 20.
- Black pepper, leather, and cedar out front, a creamy middle with roasted nuts and a sneaky molasses-and-dark-fruit sweet side, then the spice comes back hot for the close. Full strength, medium-full to full body, 75 to 90 minutes.
- BLC Rating: 85/100. A loud, honest, everyday Honduran that over-delivers under $10. Not for mild smokers, absolutely for anyone who wants to know what real corojo tastes like.
FROM THE PORCH
Dallas and I took off a little early and headed for the deck, one of those days that looked custom built for a cigar. I have always been a Camacho fan, they hold nothing back. Bold and full-bodied, and that was exactly the kind of day I felt like having.
The last time I lit a Corojo I was in New Orleans, in a little shop just outside the French Quarter that looked like old Havana had been picked up and set back down in Louisiana. I was there alone. The fellow beside me loved his cigars too, and a three-hour conversation went by like twenty minutes, we swapped information at the end of the night like friends of thirty years. That is what I love about this culture, it hands you people. That is why the Corojo is welded into my memory. Dallas missed New Orleans, but he supervised this one from the deck, so we will call it Dallas-approved. My notes are below.
BEHIND THE BLEND
Camacho started in 1962 in Miami with Simón Camacho, a Cuban exile, but the cigar in your hand belongs to the Eiroa family. Julio Eiroa, a Cuban-born grower who resettled in the Jamastrán Valley, bought the brand in 1995 and kept farming true Cuban-seed corojo at Rancho Jamastrán while nearly everyone else moved to easier hybrid leaf. His son Christian turned that harvest into the original Camacho Corojo in June 2000, the first modern premium built as an all-corojo Honduran puro, the cigar that made corojo a category again. Davidoff bought Camacho in 2008 and relaunched everything in 2013 as “The Bold Standard,” and that red-banded relaunch is the cigar reviewed here.
BLC BLEND BREAKDOWN
BLEND SPECS
THE VITOLA LINEUP
| VITOLA | SIZE | FORMAT |
|---|---|---|
| Robusto, reviewed | 5 × 50 | Parejo |
| Gordo | 6 × 60 | Parejo |
The 2013 relaunch renamed this size from “Monarca” to plain Robusto, which tells you everything about the rebrand’s attitude. The Robusto also ships in a tubo version for travel, and there is a box-pressed BXP line that adds Pennsylvania broadleaf to the filler. The BXP is a different blend, not a squared-off version of this one. This review covers the standard parejo, parejo just meaning a straight-sided round cigar, so if the shop hands you a tube or a pressed stick, you are holding a cousin.
THE COLD DRAW
The wrapper is dark, oily corojo, and the band is impossible to miss: a bright red strip running the length of the cigar with CAMACHO in tall black caps and a tiny “INFAMOUS SINCE 1962” line above it. Flat two-color print, no gold, no embossing, no crest. Most bands try to look like currency, this one looks like a warning label.
That fifth-priming wrapper is worth a sentence. Primings are the levels a tobacco plant is picked in, bottom to top, and the fifth sits near the crown where the leaf takes the most sun and builds the most strength and oil. The pre-light aroma off the foot runs earth and sweet tobacco, and a straight cut gives a cold draw of leather with a faint salted sweetness. It reads strong before you ever light it.
BLC CIGAR PROFILE
Burn: quick-paced but even, with a firm pale ash that holds its shape past the safe point.
Draw: clean and open off a straight cut, heavy smoke, no plugs, no fights.
Here is the shape of it: pepper and leather open loud, the middle creams out into cedar, roasted nuts, and a quiet sweet side of molasses and dark fruit, then the spice comes back hot for the close. It is not a subtle cigar and it is not trying to be. What surprises people is that sweetness, the molasses-and-raisin undertone is what keeps an hour and a half of Honduran pepper from wearing you out.
THE FIRST THIRD
The first light is a pepper tingle that practically fizzes on the tongue, backed by salt, dry hay, and cedar. The leather from the cold draw walks straight in behind it, and underneath everything sits a tease of sweet tobacco, the blend showing you a card it plans to play later. The retrohale, drawing smoke out through the nose, runs red pepper, sharp but fair. This is a full-strength opening on an honest Honduran engine, eat something first.
THE SECOND THIRD
The middle is where the Corojo earns the money. The pepper steps back and the smoke turns creamy, buttery cedar and roasted nuts up front, tan leather behind them, and the promised sweetness arriving as molasses, raisin, and a flick of orange peel, almost baked-pastry sweet in moments. The body keeps climbing toward full while the flavors soften, which is a neat trick, strength and smoothness moving in opposite directions. Late in this stretch a burnt-wood edge creeps in and tells you where the last act is headed.
THE FINAL THIRD
The close is the loud part. The spice ramps back past the opening level, bold pepper over charred wood and sweet earth, and the finish turns hot and palate-drying, the kind that appreciates a cold drink within reach. Keep the pace slow and it stays just this side of harsh, push it and it will push back.
Total time runs 75 to 90 minutes depending on how hard you drive it, and the firm ash holds its shape the whole way down. If you have ever wondered what original Cuban-seed corojo actually tastes like, this last stretch is the lesson. The first third gets your attention. The last third explains the whole brand.
OVERALL RATING
BLC OVERALL RATING
An 85 from a guy who will never stop buying them, that is the honest number. The Corojo is loud, consistent, and exactly what it promises, a full-strength Honduran puro with no interest in subtlety. It does not chase complexity and it does not need to, it holds nothing back and never has. Some cigars you score with your palate, some you score with your memory. This one splits the difference and still earns its seat on the deck.
WHO GRABS THIS CIGAR
This is a cigar for the full-strength crowd, and for anyone curious what corojo actually means beyond a word on a band. At $8 to $9 on the street it is an easy stick to keep stocked for the end of a long day, big flavor without a big decision. If your rotation leans Nicaraguan pepper, treat this as the Honduran answer, same volume, different accent.
Skip it if you live in mild Connecticut territory or you are early in your smoking life, this one will run you over, especially on an empty stomach. Grab a five-pack if pepper, leather, and a hot finish sound like a good evening. Some cigars are built to impress strangers. This one is built to be smoked.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Common questions about the Camacho Corojo Robusto 5×50.
