Gurkha Titan XO

The Gurkha brand is known for its ornate boxes and high quality cigars. The Gurkha Titan was created by Kaizad Hansotia who bought the Gurkha brand and its inventory from a man in Goa, India for $149 in 1989. Now Mr. Hansotia has one of the most well known brands in the world, and also has the claim to fame of having produced the most expensive cigar in the world called His Majesty's Reserve going for $15,000 for a box of 20! The reason it's that expensive? They infuse an entire bottle of Louis XIII cognac into each batch. The Gurkha Titan may not be $750 a stick, but this special edition is rich with flavor. This rich beauty starts with vintage Honduran, Dominican, and Columbian tobaccos which is secured by a delectable Nicaraguan binder – all of which have been aged in cedar for 5 years. To finish off this medium to full smoke, all the lush tobaccos are hugged by a Costa Rican maduro wrapper that was cultivated in 1996. This combination leads to extremely smooth flavors of pepper, cedar, toast, and herbs that will build in strength throughout the course of the smoke. Pair it with an Irish whiskey.

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.