Diamond Crown Cigars

Julius Caesar Newman was born in a small Hungarian village and came to the United States from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1895 to seek the American Dream. He was a strong-willed man who, when he arrived on Ellis Island and was told he needed to have a middle name, reached for the strongest middle name there was: Caesar. He started the Newman Cigar Company in the basement of his family’s barn in Cleveland, Ohio. The young man quickly expanded into a successful tobacco empire and relocated in 1910 to Ybor City, Florida, where a flourishing cigar industry was being born. Today, in its fourth generation, J.C. Newman Cigar Company is the oldest family-owned premium cigar manufacturer in America but sells in 80 countries worldwide.

A century after J.C. Newman started that business, the founder’s son Stanford Newman decided to honor his father with a line of cigars that he dubbed the Diamond Crown.

Stanford Newman wanted the cigar to be manufactured by the master rollers of Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia and in 1991 he began discussing his vision with Carlos Fuente Sr. For Stanford Newman, the price or the length of time in achieving the cigar wasn’t the most important factor. He wanted to make the best cigar to honor his father and to give it the Diamond Crown name. He wanted it made with the finest aged tobacco using the highest quality standards. They wanted to set a new standard for excellence.

In 1992 they began planning this epic cigar. Newman and Fuente knew they wanted to make as full-flavored a cigar as humanly possible, and for this they knew they needed to make it a thick cigar. This was a risky move as it went against the conventions of the time. But the gamble paid off in a cigar of unparalleled flavor. All of the Diamond Ring Classics are made with a full 54 ring gauge, which allows the cigar to be made with six to seven leaves, which creates an uttermost full-flavored and complex smoking experience. This is true from the 8 1.2” Robusto No. 1 on down to the Robusto No. 8.

The cigar features the renowned “Connecticut Fermented Wrapper,” which is made with a multiple fermentation process that results in a sweet, rich, earthy flavor that is nevertheless smooth and cool, with hints of burnt spice and nutmeg.

They brought the Diamond Crown Classic to the market in 1995. Introduced with a star-studded gala in Beverly Hills, the Classic was a hit from the beginning, even thought at first it was only available on the U.S. West Coast. Because fine tobacconists reordered the cigar at a higher than expected rate, it didn’t expand as quickly as anticipated to the East Coast. The cigar has remained an exclusive, limited edition brand that is only available at the finest appointed distributors.

In 2005 the Newman Cigar Company decided to introduce a cigar that would be a complement to the Diamond Crown Classic, the Diamond Crown Maximus. Once again Stanford Newman turned to the Fuente family, but also enlisted the Olivas, another storied cigar manufacturing family. The cigar features Oliva grown wrappers from Ecuador. It provides a smoke of amazing smoothness and long tight ashes that can reach two inches or more. Some smokers have tasted a creamy, buttery flavor with almost imperceptible cedar aroma at the beginning and hints of almond and cinnamon with spicy notes toward the finish. It has a super smooth, creamy texture, with sweet wood and metallic pepper notes. It has a perfect draw with a smoke texture that is as silky as a cloud.

In 2010 to celebrate J.C. Newman’s 135th birthday and the company’s 110th anniversary, the Newman Cigar Company introduced the Diamond Crown Julius Caesar, which features a full-flavored Ecuadorian Havana seed wrapper and a blend of tobaccos from Central America, aged for five years. The cigars are meticulously hand rolled in small batches. This gives them a bold, rich, distinctive flavor. One reviewer described the Julius Caesar cigar as having an “epic” two inch ash. Once lit, the cigar offers rich, nutty, milk chocolate and leather flavors that mellow during the second third into smoky wood, activating bittersweet chocolate and butterscotch notes, with mild spiciness appearing toward the end.

In 2015, J.C. Newman unveiled the Diamond Crown Black Diamond, which features five-year old aged tobacco grown only for this brand on four acres of the Fuente Farm in the Dominican Republic. Once again it features the exquisitely flavored Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper that is as dark as chocolate and which brings together the bold, rich Dominican binder and filler tobaccos. The Black Diamond starts off with a good profile of cocoa, hickory, coffee and dry oak that gets even more enjoyable for the final two thirds of the smoke. You will be drawn in by the complexity of flavors and impressed by the large amount of smoke output. This rare treat combines leathery notes of dark cocoa to unveil spice that will remind you of hazelnut and cedar. Smoking a Diamond Crown Black Diamond is the height of indulgence.

All Diamond Crown cigars are made by the highest skilled hand rollers who are paid the top rate and are only allowed to make a fixed number per day, assuring quality over quantity. The Diamond Crown line uses tobacco aged a minimum of five years employing a proprietary process that combines barn aging with aging rooms where the temperatures are strictly controlled and oak barrels from Bordeaux, France. This is an interesting feature since the same types of barrels are used in making some of the finest wines in the world. In this case, however the charcoal of the toasted barrels absorbs ammonia and other byproducts of tobacco fermentation.

All of the Diamond Crown cigars are among the highest rated of all premium cigars, consistently scoring in the low to high 90s. The cigar remains highly elusive and exclusive. If you can find a fine tobacconist who carries it, consider yourself lucky.