Featured Cigars - July 2018

The man behind the highly rated 601 brand, Erik Espinosa, is back! To say he knows cigars is an understatement – to say the least – as he’s worked with Alec Bradley, Gurkha, Rocky Patel, and Drew Estate, just to name a few. Born in Cuba, Erik is one of the best in the business and has just about mastered every aspect of the cigar industry while earning high ratings for his impressive creations. This month’s psychedelic creation lets his innovation...

ACID cigars have been gaining legions of fans for well over a decade. If you’re not familiar with ACID cigars, they are uniquely infused and handmade at the legendary Drew Estate factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. Unlike other infused cigars that use scraps of tobacco from other cigars, making them overly sweet and quick burning, ACID uses premium, top quality, long-fillers making every cigar smooth, cool, and delicious. The ACID Shorty was named after...

Hailing from the Dominican Republic, this smoke received a 90 rating from Cigar Aficionado and we wholeheartedly agree with that rating. This cigar features tobaccos from three countries, starting with Dominican and Nicaraguan long-fillers, followed by a Nicaraguan binder, and finished with a well-aged Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. Suspenseful, complex and medium to full in body, this smoke starts with bold and meaty flavors that evolve into...

The Toraño Hogshead may have an interesting name, but the name actually makes perfect sense. Besides thinking of an actual hog’s head with an apple in its mouth being served at your next medieval-style feast, the term hogshead refers to a large wooden barrel that was used to store tobacco or alcohol, and to make transporting these items easier back in the colonial times. Since transporting items back in that era took days or even months, this...

Legendary cigar maker Manuel Quesada has been in the cigar business his entire life. In Cuba, the Quesada family worked as leaf brokers for everything from cigarette tobacco to cigars, and was one of the major exporters of Cuban tobacco to the world market. When they were forced into exile in 1960, they transferred their entire business to the Dominican Republic, where they had been buying and selling tobacco for years. It didn't take long...

The boys at Drew Estate have caused quite a stir in the cigar industry in the last few years. With the release of a multitude of unique brands, they're quickly becoming known for producing high quality, premium smokes – including the Undercrown which is in your shipment today. The Undercrown started when the rollers who were responsible for rolling their ultra-high end Liga Privada #9 were told to stop smoking the blend as the cigar production...

As the second-largest grower of tobacco in Nicaragua, the Oliva family's generations of experience in the industry has served them well. They grow some of the finest crops in the world and are known for using the most skilled rollers and blenders in the country to create legendary cigars. Every year, the family cultivates a limited amount of rare, fine tobaccos for one-time run, ultra-premium cigars. The blends of the cigars are solely...

Villiger Sons Limited was founded by Jean Villiger in 1888 in the small Swiss town of Pfeffikon, where their headquarters remain to this day – we think it’s safe to say that after 130 years they know a few things about crafting high-quality cigars. Back in 2007, Villiger released the La Flor de Ynclan with limited fanfare and limited success, and it was eventually discontinued. Villiger knew they were on to something so they enlisted the skills of master blender...

You may or may not know Steve Saka. If you don’t know him, allow us to introduce him. Up until 2013, he was gaining legions of fans with Drew Estate when he decided to retire. But in 2015 he started Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust and he was back making delicious top-shelf cigars, including the top rated and hugely popular Sobremesa which we featured last year. Meaning ‘my mistress’ in Spanish, Mi Querida is the second release from Saka...