AGANORSA Leaf, Aoki Group Collaborate Again

Last year, Aoki Group commissioned AGANORSA Leaf to make a batch of branded cigars for its restaurants. A few weeks ago, the second vitola of that blend went on sale at the company’s restaurants.

The Aoki Reserve Connecticut was introduced in a 5 x 54 double robusto vitola, but the newest size is a 5 1/2 x 50 robusto extra. Blend-wise, it uses an Ecuadorian Connecticut-seed wrapper over Nicaraguan tobaccos from AGANORSA. It is made at AGANORSA Leaf’s factory in Estelí.

At the Miami-based Aoki Teppanyaki, it is priced at $17 per cigar or $150 per box of 10 cigars. Production was limited to 200 boxes.

Aoki Group is the parent company for Kevin Aoki’s various restaurants. The group has 13 concepts, most of which are in Hawaii, though there are locations in Las Vegas and Miami. Aoki is the son of Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki, who is best known as the founder of Benihana, though he was also gained fame for his participation in extreme sports like powerboat racing and joining a four-man crew that became the first to successfully cross the Pacific Ocean via air balloon. Benihana is not part of the Aoki Group.

Steve Aoki, the music producer, is Kevin’s brother.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.