Gurkha 130th Reserve Churchill Tubo

The Gurkha legend comes from when colonial soldiers, at the height of British rule in India, started making their own cigars from local tobacco, some of which was produced in the Portuguese territory of Goa. Expatriates from Britain who were still living in India continued smoking the cigars, but eventually the cigars began to wane into history and legend as did the rajas’ rule. Today the Gurkha brand stays true to the original essence of those first cigars made so long ago, so the legend will live on.

Gurkha is world-renowned for their extensive collection of cigars, and founder Kaizad Hansotia has upped his game with the Gurkha 130th Reserve. Styled in the same fashion as their famed HMR (which are the most expensive cigars in the world at $750 a stick), Kaizad enforced the strictest quality control protocols to ensure that only the best leaves make it into each stick. After carefully opening the wax-sealed glass tube, this top-notch handmade features a stellar Ecuadorian Habano wrapper that covers an undisclosed binder and bevy of undisclosed long-fillers. Complex, aromatic, and smooth, expect this beauty to have medium to full-bodied notes of coffee and nougat with a spicy-sweet core. Exquisite from foot to cap, enjoy this smoke with a single malt scotch.

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.