Although Arturo Fuente is known for a plethora of special cigar projects, this one — the Rare Pink series — is near and dear to the heart of Fuente family boss Don “Carlito” Carlos Fuente, Jr.
Not only does the color take its inspiration from the consciousness-raising 1960s — the decade of Carlito’s adolescence — but “the theme is pink,” explains Carlito, “…it’s a gift for my daughter [Liana Fuente, who serves as Arturo Fuente’s vice president of brand development], and my mother, and my sister and all the women in my life.”
The impetus for the project was Liana’s loss of two of her close family members — her grandmother and her aunt — to breast cancer, the second-most common type of cancer in the United States and one that kills at least 40,000 women per year. To honor their memory, the Fuente family will donate $13 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for every bright-pink box of Rare Pink sticks the firm sells.
Since Arturo Fuente doesn’t do anything by half-measures, with this line, Carlito decided to take his company’s very successful and highly acclaimed Hemingway line of smokes and modify it, using Oliva wrappers from the famed Ecuadorean farm known as La Mecca, along with filler tobaccos from the Fuente family plot in Estelí, Nicaragua.
The resulting slow-burning, lush-drawing and firm-ash-forming cigars are gloriously complex, medium-to-full-strength, flavorful and delicious. Prominent notes of mixed nuts, coffee, baking spices, molasses, orange peel, graham crackers, gingerbread, leather and hickory emerge to tease the senses, while the long finish is reminiscent of ginger and sourdough pretzels. Two vitolas of the Hot Pink line scored a 93 rating from Cigar Aficionado in 2021, while two others achieved a 92 rating the same year.
If you want to not only get exquisite cigars to smoke but contribute to a worthwhile cause, buy a box of Rare Pinks today to help support the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and give something back to the women in your life.