There’s something unmistakably bold about a cigar named after a street taco. It doesn’t whisper sophistication or hide behind stuffy tradition — it wears its inspiration on its sleeve (and its colorful band). The Rojas Street Tacos Cinco de Mayo is the second installment in what creator Noel Rojas has built into an annual tradition, each year featuring a different blend that honors the spirit of Mexican cuisine and the celebration of May 5th.
Rojas Cigars launched the Street Tacos Series in 2021, naming each blend after a classic taco filling — Barbacoa, Carnitas, Breakfast Tacos. The Cinco de Mayo edition came as a limited annual release, with the inaugural 2024 version selling out in under 48 hours. That kind of demand tells you something: Rojas struck a nerve. The 2025 edition came in at a slightly larger 6 x 54 Toro and carried one of the most significant blend changes in the series’ short history — swapping the original light Habano wrapper for a richer Habano Maduro from Ecuador, and replacing the Pennsylvania inner filler with Connecticut Broadleaf aged seven years. It’s a bolder direction, and whether that boldness lands depends heavily on what you want from a smoke.
Visually, these are striking cigars. The mottled reddish-brown Habano Maduro wrapper has a pronounced tooth and prominent veins that give it character — not a pristine commercial sheen, but something that feels alive and handcrafted. The colorful bands are eye-catching without being gaudy, and the covered foot is a nice touch that speaks to the care put into the roll.
At the factory in Estelí, Nicaragua — housed in a converted movie theater, no less — construction is solid. The draw gives excellent resistance, and smoke production is consistently thick throughout the experience. That said, the ash tends to be flaky, so keep it away from anything you care about. Burn corrections were needed on about half the samples reviewed across sources, nothing catastrophic, but not perfectly self-correcting either.
Here’s where things get interesting. The cold draw on the 2025 edition is a sensory rush — dark fruit sweetness, gritty earth, creamy oak, a touch of cinnamon, and something almost salty that calls to mind a bag of kettle chips. It’s an unusual but compelling start.
The first third builds on that foundation with anise and spice leading the charge, supported by almonds, powdery cocoa nibs, and sourdough bread. Retrohaling delivers a heavy dose of black pepper — satisfying if that’s your thing, borderline overwhelming if you prefer a more delicate profile. The second third settles into a meatier register: pepper-crusted steak, creamy oak, leather, and mesquite BBQ sauce notes that fade in and out. There’s a horchata-like sweetness that acts as a counterbalance to the earthiness — one reviewer described it as “savory and sweet with malted milkiness,” and that’s a fair assessment.
The final third is where the Connecticut Broadleaf really makes itself known. Dark chocolate, charred BBQ hardwood, and mocha notes emerge before the band, but once you unband the final stretch, the sweetness drops off sharply. What remains is sharper, earthier, and a touch harsh — a reminder that this is still a young smoke that could benefit from some additional time in the humidor.
Comparing directly to the 2024 edition is instructive. That version was sweeter, creamier, and more refined — think flan rather than charred meat. The 2025 leans into earth, leather, spice, and mesquite. If the 2024 was a fine dining experience, the 2025 is a taco truck at midnight — bold, unapologetic, and built for a specific palate.
At $12.50 per cigar, you’re paying a modest premium over the 2024 MSRP of $12. Given the production increased from 35,000 to 50,000 cigars, scarcity shouldn’t be as much of an issue this year — though the 2024 sellout suggests demand outpaced even that. Whether the 2025 profile is an improvement is genuinely debatable. The consensus leans toward the 2024 being the more balanced, refined smoke, but the 2025 has its own rough charm — especially if you lean toward fuller, earthier cigars.
The real question: do you want refinement or character? The 2025 edition has plenty of the latter.