Do you like Maduro cigars?

Do you like Corojo cigar wrappers?

Ever wished that you could have the best of both in one cigar?

If so, then you are going to love the latest news from Camacho Cigars. Thanks to an exceptional harvest of cuban-seed Corojo tobacco, all of their popular Camacho Corojo cigars will now be available in Corojo Maduro.

That’s right. Corojo Maduro.

The Eiroa family, owners of the Camacho brand as well as Baccarat and La Fontana, are also major growers of Honduran cigar tobacco. Their tobacco is grown in Honduras in the Jamastran Valley, near that country’s border with Nicaragua.

Corojo tobacco takes its name from the Santa Ines del Corojo Vega, a plantation near the town of San Luis y Martinez in Pinar del Rio in the heart of Cuba’s famed Vuelta Abajo tobacco-growing region. Diego Rodriguez began renting the farm from its owner in Spain in the 1920’s, and worked for years to select and develop a superior wrapper tobacco for Cuban cigars.

Between 1930 and the late 1990’s, all cigars from Cuba — regardless of brand or factory — used Rodriguez’s Vuelta Abajo grown Corojo tobacco leaves for their wrappers. The spicy quality and peppery smoothness gave the leaf that unique Cuban “punch” that connoisseurs came to associate with authentic Cuban cigars.

The only problem is that true Corojo tobacco is also delicate and hard to grow. It requires just the right soil, rainfall and weather conditions. It is extremely susceptible to blue mold and black shank disease.

Cuba stopped growing it for that reason.

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Today is Independence Day in the United States, and as part of a commemoration of that holiday I am doing a week-long series of the top ten “Made in the USA” cigars. The series continues today as we look at two cigars made outside of Florida.

One line is made in a city that in symbolizes in many way an America of times gone past. It has a unique culture produced by a unique coming-together of people from many countries and many different ethnic groups. It has produced a unique cigar.

The other is made in a city that has no past. Or at least, not a past that stretches back very far. Calling the culture of this second U.S. city “unique” really would not do justice to it.

But enough preamble. Today’s entries in these reviews of the best premium cigars made in the United States start below the fold.

The order in which cigars are presented in this series does not indicate relative quality or rating. It is not a top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top list. All cigars in this list are quite good, all are quite different, and each one is a #1 cigar in its own way.

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Let’s be honest. When most people think of premium cigars, they do not think of “made in the USA.”

Everyone knows that the best cigars in the world come from Cuba.

…or from the Dominican Republic.

…or from Nicaragua, or from Honduras, or from the Bahamas, or…

Well, you get the idea. Best is always a matter of taste and opinion, and it varies from person to person even though we can usually agree on some general guidelines. What is best for one person may be last on the list for another. The best cigars in the world, however, are usually not thought of as being made in the United States.

In fact, a lot of people assume that the only cigars made in the USA are ones that you buy at gas stations and convenience stores.

If that is what you believe, then prepare to be enlightened. You might have been missing out on some world-class smokes.

Tomorrow, we celebrate Independence Day in the United States. I couldn’t think of a better time to highlight some of these special cigars made in America cigars than during this U.S. holiday season. So, I have come up with a list of ten top cigars that are home-made even if they are not completely home-grown and will focus on two each day over the next week.

Some of the cigars chosen for the top ten list will be familiar to you. Some of them you may not know about. All of them are worthy of your consideration for a place in your humidor.

The order in which they are presented is not a top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top list. These cigars are all quite good, all quite different, and each one is a #1 cigar in its own way.

Also, since this site is international in scope, with readers on every continent except Antarctica, some of you may find these American gems hard to get. Now you know how we in the States feel when we hear you wax eloquent about Cuban cigars.

And on that somewhat ironic note, let me share some U.S. treasures with you.

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CAO has announced a new cigar line called Vision that will launch at next month’s Retail Tobacco Dealers of America annual convention and show in Las Vegas. The CAO Vision is the first Dominican-made CAO cigar.

The Vision will be available in three sizes: a 5×50 Robusto, a 6×50 Toro, and a 6.25×52 Torpedo. The cigars sport a Dominican Corojo wrapper, and a Dominican Piloto Cubano (cuban seed) Binder. The filler is a blend of Dominican, Nicaraguan and Brazilian tobacco. I’ll be posting a review of the cigar as soon as they are available for sampling.

Along with this being CAO’s first Dominican release, it is also being packged in an innovative way. What could be special about the way a cigar is packaged? CAO has another surprise for us.

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Summary:

A mild to medium-bodied, maduro cigar with a rough-appearing and veiny wrapper that is oscuro-dark black. Those looking for a “wicked touch of spice” in their cigars should probably look elsewhere however…and that probably explains why this cigar has gone from being a promising devil to a ghost of Halloween past.

Those of you familiar with my cigar reviews should know that this one is a bit different. The Diablo line has been discontinued by the manufacturer due to low sales. If you want to try this cigar, you will have to hurry, search out the few suppliers who still have it in stock — and it will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for you.

So, why the review?

As I said, I’m doing something a little different here. This review is the first installment in a two part series. The first part, which you are reading, will review the cigar independent of its marketing campaign and hype. Think of it as similar to a blind tasting — or as similar as I can possibly make it.

The second article, which will follow, will focus on the question of “what went wrong,” and I frankly find that question quite interesting. Hopefully, so will you.

When the Diablo line was introduced, there was much fanfare and a well-coordinated guerilla marketing campaign that a lot of time and effort went into. The cigar was created by a really talented blender, and is really not a bad cigar at all. Despite that, only a little over a year later, the cigar is history. Considering that it was backed by one of the major companies in the industry, I think that the Diablo story deserves a second look.

So, enjoy the review today and come back for the post-mortem soon.
 

Background Information:

A medium-bodied cigar with an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, an oily Connecticut Broadleaf binder, and a filler made of a blend of Nicaraguan and Dominican Piloto Cubano (cuban seed) Ligero tobacco. From cigar master-blender Daniel Nuñez, and manufacturered by General Cigar at their Dominicana factory .

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Tabacos de la Cordillera™ has introduced its new Variety Sampler, with 3 each of its flagship Cumbres de Puriscal™ premium cigars in Gold, Silver, and Emerald bands. The cellophane-wrapped mini-bundles of 9 cigars are available in 2 of the most popular shapes … Robusto (5″ x 50) and Torpedo (6″ x 52).

Company Director John Vogel states, “Cigar lovers now save 40% off the cost of buying 3 of the regular 5-packs of each of the Gold, Silver, and Emerald lines. Being new to the market, we want to make it more attractive for smokers … especially those who favor Cuban cigars … to discover our unique and incomparable cigars.” The breakout company is the world’s only cigar maker to grow tobacco from “ancestral” pre-Castro seeds that date as far back as 1945, to Cuba’s Golden Age of cigars. Vogel, a graduate agronomist and 40-year genetical researcher in the premium cigar industry, grows all the tobacco naturally on Tabacos de la Cordillera’s 65-acre farm near the Costa Rican mountain town of Santa Marta de Puriscal.

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