Diploma Habano Robusto

Diploma Cigars are an expensive boutique brand coming out of the Dominican Republic. These handmades are created by some of the best and most skilled torcedores (rollers) in the industry. The Diploma Habano in your shipment has a toothy Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, a Dominican binder, and vintage long-fillers grown throughout the Dominican Republic. Medium bodied, this smoke is balanced throughout, offering notes of oak and rich tobacco, while a peppery sweetness from the wrapper completes each puff. Each cigar then is given a gentle box press and laid down for a nap. Well-constructed and cool to the nub, enjoy it with a Laphroaig 10 or your favorite single malt.

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.