Crowned Heads La Careme Robusto

Crowed Heads is a brand that doesn’t do it like everyone else, nor do they plan to. They believe in continuous improvement and in a marriage of tradition with innovation. According to them: “Crowned Heads is influenced by a time when quality, pride, and integrity mattered. We strive to bring our vision to reality and invite you to live in our world. We are not here to do it like everyone else. When the rules don’t make sense to us, we carve our own path.” With their strict attention to detail, the path they carved is a path you will want to follow. This tasty smoke is named after a pioneer in French cuisine, specifically for popularizing the soufflé, Marie Antoine Careme. The La Careme has a dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper which hugs an Ecuadorian Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan fillers. Medium in body, you’ll find notes of earth, rich fruit, nuts and cocoa with black pepper. Reminiscent of a chocolate soufflé, pair this tasty morsel with a stout or a porter.

Though tobacco is indigenous to Hispaniola, the tobacco industry in the Dominican Republic existed in the shadow of Cuba’s dominance through the 1960s. When the exodus of Cuban cigar makers began in the wake of the revolution, many decided the Dominican Republic would be ideal for the resumption of their livelihoods. Unrest in Nicaragua in the 1980s fueled the Dominican cigar industry further. The country now makes more than half of the premium cigars imported into the U.S.

The Cibao Valley and the nearby city of Santiago are the center of cigar production in the Dominican Republic. Three main varieties are grown here: the mild and native Olor Dominicano; the intense Piloto Cubano, brought from the Vuelta Abajo of Cuba; and San Vicente, a milder and more acidic Piloto hybrid. Dominican puros were once unheard of as it was widely thought impossible to grow quality wrapper leaf on the island, but new growing techniques are now allowing some exceptional puros to be produced.