Diamond Crown Maximus #4 Toro

The J.C. Newman Cigar Company was founded in 1895 by Julius Ceasar Newman, who rolled his first cigar in his family’s barn in Cleveland, Ohio after emigrating from Austria-Hungary that same year. Once he discovered his passion for cigars, he moved his family down to Tampa and quickly had a world-class reputation for producing high-quality premium cigars. One hundred years later, his son, Stanford Newman, to honor his father and his vision, created a cigar that was like no other, the Diamond Crown, which was officially released in 1995 at a star gala in Beverly Hills, California.

For the company’s 110th anniversary, Stanford wanted to create a more hearty and robust cigar to complement its wildly successful counterpart. In order to achieve such a task, Stanford enlisted the help of not one but two very successful and very well-known cigar families, the Olivas and the Fuentes. Together the three families created the Diamond Crown Maximus which, like its counterpart, has received numerous 90+ ratings. The Maximus starts with a unique and gorgeous chocolate brown Ecuadorian El Bajo Sungrown wrapper from the Oliva family’s farm, which secures a Dominican binder and expertly aged Dominican long-fillers. Full flavored and bold, expect medium to full-bodied notes of cedar, espresso, and earth with a sweet finish. Pair this stogie with a barrel aged stout.

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.