Raíces Cubanas Liga de Reyes Salomón

About 15 years ago, Raíces Cubanas might have been the hottest cigar factory in the industry.

While halfwheel wasn’t around then, readers of its two predecessors—Smoking Stogie and TheCigarFeed—would have known Raíces Cubanas because it was the factory making Illusione and, at the time, the majority of Viajes. A different sort of cigar consumer might have found out about the Honduran factory in 2011, when the Alec Bradley Prensado finished first on Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list that year.

Fast-forwarding to the present time, many things have changed. Illusione and Viaje have moved lots of their production to other factories, while Alec Bradley has been sold and is introducing new cigars from other factories.

From the Raíces Cubanas side, the most notable change is that the factory—which for decades served as a contract manufacturer for other companies—now has its own eponymous brand.

Raíces Cubanas Cigars USA Inc. launched in late 2024 with four different regular production lines. One of them is Liga de Reyes—Spanish for line of kings—which uses mostly Honduran tobacco. Earlier this year, the company announced that it would add a 6 1/2 x 58 salomon vitola to the line, the first limited edition in the company’s portfolio.

While the Liga de Reyes Salomón is a limited edition, it uses the same blend as the rest of the line: a wrapper from Trojes, Honduras and dual binders from the Jamastran Valley in Honduras and another leaf from Estelí, Nicaragua. It has four fillers from the regions of Jamastran and Trojes.

In total, the line is offered in six vitolas:

• Raíces Cubanas Liga de Reyes Robusto (5 x 52) — November 2024 — Regular Production
• Raíces Cubanas Liga de Reyes Belicoso (5 1/2 x 52) — November 2024 — Regular Production
• Raíces Cubanas Liga de Reyes Toro (6 x 54) — November 2024 — Regular Production
• Raíces Cubanas Liga de Reyes Churchill (7 x 50) — November 2024 — Regular Production
• Raíces Cubanas Liga de Reyes Gordo (6 x 60) — November 2024 — Regular Production
• Raíces Cubanas Liga de Reyes Salomón (6 1/2 x 58) — October 2025 — 2,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (20,000 Total Cigars)

• Cigar Reviewed: Raíces Cubanas Liga de Reyes Salomón
• Country of Origin: Honduras
• Factory: Fábrica de Tabacos Raíces Cubanas S. de R.L.
• Wrapper: Honduras (Trojes)
• Binder: Honduras (Jamastran Valley) & Nicaragua (Estelí)
• Filler: Honduras (Jamastran & Trojes)
• Length: 6 1/2 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 58
• Shape: Round
• MSRP: $13.50 (Box of 10, $135)
• Release Date: October 2025
• Number of Cigars Released: 2,000 Boxes of 10 Cigars (20,000 Total Cigars)
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3

This is not a full-size salomón; rather, it’s a bit shorter and thinner than what I think of when I hear the vitola’s name. The wrapper is quite dark with some prominent veins and black spots throughout. There’s some visible oil, but when I touch the wrapper, it feels drier than it looks. The aromas from the wrapper are sweeter than average, though the type of sweetness seems a bit different. In order of the cigars smoked: milk chocolate, red apple, and grape. Beyond that, there’s woodiness and plenty of classic tobacco notes, including ammonia. The bottom of the cigar is just large enough for me to smell it without being concerned about sticking the cigar in my nostrils. The first cigar is quite sweet and has some mint, the second cigar smells pretty similar to the first cigar’s wrapper, but the third cigar is quite lifeless. Cold draws are consistently Cuban-like. That’s due to some classic twang sweetness, which is joined by sweet citrus, leather, berries and oak. The cold draws are medium-full and awesome.

After sweet-tasting cold draws, each Liga de Reyes Salomón starts very woody and with little in the way of sweetness. The first cigar has some white wine-like sweetness, but even that’s subtle. Instead, the woodiness is joined by leather, black pepper and minerals. Each cigar starts medium-full and quite dynamic. That combination sticks around throughout the first third, though there are added secondary characteristics, including saltiness, dry pretzels, and some other types of starchiness. The largest variable is the amount of tartness: the second cigar is the most tart, the first cigar is the least tart. During the finish, the pepper picks up, while there’s also oregano, wheat beer and some additional tartness. Speaking of tartness, that really picks up with each retrohale. That said, the rest of the profile is much different: nuttiness and starchiness take over for the wood, with white pepper, minerals and lemon in the background. The finish gets drier, though slightly creamier as well. The dryness seems to help the pepper isolate itself a bit more, though there’s still a minor amount of woodiness. Flavor is full, body is medium-full for the first two cigars and full for the third, while strength is medium-plus. Construction is awesome, the only thing I’d like changed is that the first bit of ash falls off in the first few puffs.

While the profile of all three cigars soften a bit, which makes a difference, my notes don’t show a lot of consistency with the individual flavors, at least not the new ones. The core flavor of the first third is still around, but the accenting notes are different. The first cigar has nuttiness, grapefruit and a couple of puffs that remind me of barbecue Lay’s chips. The second cigar adds more saltiness and nuttiness, while the third cigar has floral flavors and some dry crackers. The toastiness really ebbs and flows, sometimes dominating puffs but barely a secondary note for the majority of puffs. The finishes are more similar to one another: burnt flour, burnt wood, saltiness and pepper. Retrohales aren’t as exciting as I found them in the first third. The first Liga de Reyes Salomón provides leather and oak, while the second has a similar flavor to the main profile, but the floral and toasty flavors are more isolated. A roasted mushroom flavor in the third cigar provides the most interesting retrohale flavor, joined by oak, creaminess, leather and tartness. The finish brings out more of the roux flavors with a zesty white pepper, starch, minerals and even some alcohol burn. Flavor is full, body is medium-plus to medium-full, and strength is medium-plus. Across all three cigars, construction has been and remains excellent.

There’s a lot more leather on the first and second cigars, with wood, nuttiness, saltiness, tartness and white pepper rounding out the rest of the core profile. The third cigar has most of the same flavors, sans leather. While the leather would help, I really miss the tartness and mushroom flavor. I get that, together, that’s a weird combination, but in a cigar that has been pretty monotonous, these details go a long way. During the finish, the tartness returns, though isolated to the sides of the tongue. Woodiness, white pepper, hay and leather round out the list of flavors, though the finish is getting harsher. Retrohales are much saltier than before. Most of the flavors present are the same—leather, toastiness, woods—though there’s some added creaminess and floral flavors, though neither of which is strong. While the finish of the main flavor was harsher than when the smoke was in the mouth, the finish of the retrohale brings out lots more saltiness to the sharper flavor profile. Flavor is full, body is medium-plus or medium-full, and strength is medium-plus for the first two cigars but surprisingly full for the third cigar. From the first puff to the last puff, construction is excellent.

Final Notes

• While I found the flavor profile to be really dynamic, a touch of sweetness or acidity would have really pushed it into the next level of complexity. A minor quibble, but the best moments of the cigars were the second third, when there were some flavors that were outside of the wheelhouse of the core flavor profile.
• I was completely caught off guard by how much stronger the final third of the third cigar was compared to every other section of the three cigars. It was the only time the nicotine reached aggressive levels.

• The first cigar had a noticeable patch near the foot.
• The first bit of ash at the tip of the cigar is very fragile. While smoking the third cigar, I went to take what was probably the fifth puff, and while the ash held on as I lifted the cigar towards my mouth, drawing on the end of the cigar was enough force to knock it off.
• Raíces Cubanas Cigars USA advertises on halfwheel.
• The cigars for this review were purchased by halfwheel.

• These cigars are listed as 6 1/2 x 58 salomónes. The dimensions listed above are those I measured for the three cigars smoked for this review. Because of the taper, I did not measure the ring gauge.
• Final smoking time was two hours and 25 minutes on average.

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.