A.J. Fernandez Updates Look of San Lotano

A.J. Fernandez is updating the look of the San Lotano boxes very soon. The packaging is redesigned from the simple plain boxes to a more traditional dress box. The packaging is the only thing that changes says AJF Cigars. The rings and blends remain unchanged.

Before and after. These San Lotano Requiem Connecticut cigars went from plain, solid-colour packaging (left) to the detailed, dress-box style shown on the right.

The last redesign of the boxes came in 2017, seven years after the line debuted. Back then Fernandez changed the design to be prepared for big ugly warning labels but after a win from the cigar industry against the FDA, that doesn’t seem to be an issue anymore in the USA which is the biggest cigar market in the world. AJF Cigars ignores the rest of the world with this decision, where large warning labels are still an issue,

The name San Lotano comes from the first farm Fernandez bought in Estelí back in 2006. It is named after San Lutano, an old Cuban brand owned by Fernandez’s grandfather. That name is Cuban slang for people from San Luis, the hometown of the Fernandez family in Cuba. That the U turned into an O is because of a mistake at the trademark office.

There are four blends in the San Lotano series: Requiem Habano, Requiem Connecticut, Requiem Maduro and The Bull. There used to be other blends such as the Dominicano, which was a collaboration with Jochy Blanco but those are all discontinued.