Theme Week 15 = Fonseca
(Before Purchased by My Father)
This 'theme' week will feature Fonseca products between 6 and 15 years old. Fonseca is one of the oldest names in the business, though ownership has changed hands over time. Most of my Fonseca cigars were crafted by the Quesada family (who controlled the brand for 45 years before the Garcia family took over the brand in December 2019).

Of course, the brand was the product of an old Cuban family's blood sweat and tears poured into their land before the murderous communists in Cuba confiscated everything they had worked for and stole their assets and fortunes. Its founder, Don Francisco E. Fonseca was born in Manzanillo, Cuba, in 1868 (there are variations in birth years across documents). In 1892, he established both a factory and his cigar brand in Havana. He officially registered the brand under his name in 1907.

This brand, though kept alive by Quesada, and now by My Father, is one of many where the families never really recovered from the Cuban Communist Murder and Theft Regime.

I have a dedicated desktop humidor for this brand which has a beautiful black body with stunningly beautiful Maple burle inlays and highlighted trim to honor the distinctively unique taste of the cigar line and the very real tragedy suffered by the family (and so many others) at the hands of the murderous Castro and Che regime.

EDIT TO ADD (https://gab.com/jdburney1/posts/113091732935275665 )
As I am now finished with my Fonseca 'theme' week, I ended it (beginning my My Father 'theme' week = https://gab.com/jdburney1/posts/113091050909276504 ) by sampling both the My Father Fonseca Cosaco and Cedros. For those who have enjoyed the pre-My-Father Fonseca cigars, NEITHER the My Father Fonseca Cosaco nor the Cedros preserve the truly unique, distinctive flavor profile of the Fonseca 7-9-9 or 2-2, nor of the Vintage, nor even the slight variations of the Vegas de Fonseca Belicoso and the Cubano Viso Fuerte Belicoso. Fortunately, I still have 141 cigars (between 6 and 15 years old) pre-dating the My Father acquisition of the Fonseca brand, thus for many years to come I can still choose to occasionally enjoy the original flavor profile.

I will add a few of the My Father Fonseca cigars to my Fonseca humidor because they are quite good and enjoyable, but it seems the only thing that's been preserved is the name brand but nothing about the brand's historically unique taste. Although enjoyable, I am disappointed to learn that the truly unique, distinctive flavor profile of the original Fonseca cigars was NOT preserved. It seems that flavor profile has now been lost forever.

One can only hope that one day My Father will release a Fonseca that will bring that distinctive taste back to those who always enjoyed pre-2019 Fonseca cigars.