I recently hopped on a video call with Henderson Ventura of ADVentura Cigars to chat about the exciting release of the Smokingpipes exclusive ADVentura Blue Eyed Jack's Revenge Patapalo, the first Lancero in the brand's popular line, available now in limited quantities.

[Shane Ireland]: Hey, Henderson. What's up, man?

[Henderson Ventura]: How are you doing, man? I'm very good. Just excited about this, man. Patapalo, an exclusive cigar for Smokingpipes. This has been a special project that we've been holding onto for a while.

[SI]: Me too, man. This feels like a very personal project for me. The first time I came down to the Dominican Republic to visit you and the rest of the family, we had dinner at your parents' place, we were sitting outside in the garden, and you gave me a sample. At that time, that was the original Blue Eyed Jack's Revenge Corona size, and it was before the release had happened.

I remember smoking that cigar and really falling in love with it immediately. I told you that I thought it was my favorite blend that you had produced so far. I'll always remember that. It was the first time that I was down there in the DR, and the cigar stuck with me a lot. We've smoked a lot of 'em and we've had a lot of success with the Blue Eyed Jack's Revenge, and so have you, so being able to offer this is very special.

Blue Eyed Jack's Revenge Blend

Can you tell us a little bit about the blend, how that process got started, and what makes it different from the approach that you've had with other blends? Then we'll talk a little more about the Patapalo specifically.

[HV]: The Blue Eyed Jack's Revenge blend was created basically from a flavor profile. I had an idea to create a blend that was medium bodied, smooth, richer in flavor and sweetness, and not spicy. I wanted to create a blend for people who enjoy smoking both full-bodied and more mild cigars.

Man, it took me a while because mostly we work with Cuban and Dominican seeds which can be spicy. I spent about two years just trying different prototypes of the blend with my guys, and one day with the right modifications of more seco here, and so on, I tried it and finally achieved the experience I was looking for.

Sometimes a blend comes like a light into my brain where I just have an inspiration about something and understand it. In this one especially, it took me a long time. I shared this blend with some of my close people and everybody went crazy about it.

[SI]: Yeah, man, I'm really excited about it. Here at Smokingpipes, we've said this for many years, we love small ring gauge cigars and Lanceros. I was really excited that you had been playing already with this blend in that format.

Patapalo Lancero & Age

What does Patapalo mean?

[HV]: Patapalo means a wooden leg, pretty much.

[SI]: Yeah. A pegleg. Like a pegleg pirate. We thought that was fitting for the Lancero size, the Pegleg name.

What's the average time a cigar ages in the aging room before it hits the market?

[HV]: Normally from ADVentura, everything ages mostly for a year. There are maybe one or two blends that can age between six months to a year, but mostly a year. And this special edition was aged for longer at a little over two years.

[SI]: What kind of impact does that age have on a cigar like this?

[HV]: Sometimes when you create a great cigar, it's just great from the beginning. I will say what changed the most is the aroma.

When you light this cigar, from the aroma you get, you know it's something special, and that comes from the age of the tobacco. We aged the tobacco a minimum of four years before rolling, and then another two years post production. You have a total time of six years of aging for this cigar. The more you age the cigar, the more aroma you get.

[SI]: Yeah. Also, for this particular blend, I'm curious to hear what you taste compared to the other Blue Eyed Jack's Revenge and when this cigar was younger. For me, the flavor becomes very elegant. Yes, there's a little spice, it has a lot of flavor, a lot of complexity, and the retrohale and aroma are crazy. But the whole experience and the finish are very clean. It has a lot going on in terms of richness, some baking spices, and a lot of depth of flavor.

[HV]: For me, the difference in the flavor profile from the regular Blue Eyed Jack with the age is that the aroma is way more bright. There's a vanilla sweetness, and the aftertaste is very particular. It also has some cedar notes on the taste that the regular Blue Eyed Jack doesn't give you. The age makes it more refined in the flavor profile than the original ones.

[SI]: Yeah, for sure. It's an easy-to-enjoy cigar. There's a lot of complexity if you wanna really pay attention, but the experience is just pleasant.

[HV]: Normally in a regular cigar, like a Toro, I use a seco, viso, and ligero. On this Lancero in particular, I did not use a ligero because it can be a lot of maintenance for smokers. A lot of people do not enjoy Lanceros because sometimes it can feel like work to enjoy the cigar, with relighting it and stuff like that.

With this special size, what I tried to do was use more seco and viso priming tobacco. Those are tobaccos that have a higher combustion, so you don't need to relight the cigar that often. You can light the cigar, hit the road, and enjoy the rest. I think that makes a big difference in the Patapalo. We're trying to execute Lancero with excellence in Blue Eyed Jack. If you want to have a great experience with a Lancero, this is the one you need to grab.

[SI]: The burn is effortless. No retouch or relights are necessary. It's a very forgiving cigar. And the flavor's incredible.

[HV]: Also, the retrohale is so crazy.

[SI]: And it's like you said about the aromatic quality, even just the smoke in the room is very pleasant. I feel like you can get away with this in mixed company.

Manufacturing Lanceros

What about manufacturing? You touched on the fact that combustion and construction of the cigar can be problems. It's a difficult format to get right, so what does that look like in a factory like yours? How do you approach manufacturing a difficult vitola like this?

[HV]: I use the old Dominican style of bunching that was taught by my dad. It's folded in an accordion style, so you use more dried filler tobacco for more consistency on the draw. In our factory, part of the quality control that we have has been scaled so we have no problems with it being too loose or overweight. That can put you in a better position professionally when you're making a bunching.

I also have a lady who bunches the cigars and she is the most experienced of the rollers in our factory. She's so good with rolling the Lanceros.

[SI]: Yeah, the construction really is phenomenal.

[HV]: Man, I smoked hundreds of those Lanceros. How many are we releasing right now?

[SI]: A little less than 5,000 total cigars.

[HV]: We made 6,000 of those cigars. We're missing like three boxes because I smoked all of those cigars, pretty much, and very few I shared with some friends who I know appreciate cigars. I never had a single problem with this cigar.

[SI]: That's crazy. That's good quality control, for sure.

[HV]: Good quality. Yeah, I did my job there. My pleasure.

Smokingpipes Exclusive with ADVentura

[SI]: I really want to thank you for choosing to partner with us on this project because, like I said, we were a big fan of the blend from the moment that you were ready to release it. The Patapalo Lancero is a perfect size, in our opinion, and it's the kind of project we love to do.

I think a lot of people out there still, when they think of Smokingpipes, they mostly think of pipes and pipe tobacco, but we're big cigar smokers too and our cigar business is growing. So I really appreciate you working with us on this one, 'cause it's a special project.

[HV]: I also want to thank you. For us, it is also an opportunity to have that kind of relationship with a company like yours. You're amazing people. I really respect what you guys do a lot, and I appreciate every conversation and every cigar that we get to share.

ADVentura does special projects like this with companies that support and love our brand, and I will say, in the last two years, you have been one of the biggest supporters for ADVentura. This is a way for us to say thank you and let's keep building our companies together. I think both of our companies became family. Thank you very much. Looking forward to seeing the reaction of the people when they try the Blue Eyed Jack's Revenge Patapalo Lancero.

I know there are some pirates hunting this cigar out there. Join our ADV Pirates group on Facebook. We have a big community on Facebook. Looking forward to seeing everybody there at PCA 2026. Very excited about the new stuff coming, but also the Patapalo. I think this is gonna be the Cigar of the Year. Enjoy, guys.

[SI]: It's getting really high ratings internally here with us so far and yeah, I'm absolutely in love with it. It's gonna be hard to share them all 'cause I could probably smoke a thousand too.

For anybody out there that has either been meaning to try ADVentura cigars, or maybe you've tried a couple and you're still exploring, make sure that you get the Patapalo if you're a fan of good cigars in general, San Andrés tobacco, Lanceros, and Dominican tobaccos, this is something you gotta experience.

[HV]: I'm very proud about this cigar right here.

[SI]: Absolutely. Henderson, thanks again, man. I really love this cigar. I'm so glad we're able to share it with the rest of the community.