This year’s Ilja series commemorative cigar has been made by Joya De Nicaragua.
The 7x 52 stick is a unique size for JdN and has been specially created to honour the memory of Ilja van Horssen, brother of New World cigar fanatic, Sasja van Horssen.
The van Horssen family owns The Longfiller Company in Holland and runs several cigar specialists in the country. Sasja van Horssen is the man behind ambitious plans to open ‘Cigaragua’ megastore in Amsterdam – dedicated solely to handrolled sticks from Nicaragua.
Sasja’s brother, Ilja, died in 2006 aged just 36 and last year’s release in his memory was an A-sized cigars from My Father Cigars (9 ¼ ins x 47 Ring Gauge). In recent years there have also been three different Opus Xs, an Oliva Serie V torpedo, a Padron 1926 80th Anniversary Maduro and a Liga Privada in the Ilja Series.
‘We were honoured to make this cigar for Sasja,’ says Juan Martinez, Executive President of Joya de Nicaragua.