This week, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. is shipping the final release of the year of its Yagua and Diamond Crown Black Diamond cigars. A total of 1,720 boxes of Yagua and 520 boxes of Diamond Crown Black Diamond are being shipped to 412 premium cigar retailers in 46 states.
“It continues to shock me that Yagua has developed a cult-like following,” said fourth-generation owner Drew Newman. “I didn’t make Yagua to sell. In fact, I didn’t think that cigar enthusiasts would like Yagua because it breaks all of the cigar-making rules. Yagua is misshapen and unattractive. We roll it with underfermented tobacco, and no two Yagua are alike.”
Shortly after being rolled, 20 Yagua cigars are bound together while still wet using a Yagua palmiche palm leaf. Each box of Yagua contains a bundle of 20 cigars still wrapped in the palm leaf. Yagua cigars measure 6×54.
“Yagua is a difficult cigar to roll because we use an under fermented Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, blend the filler tobaccos differently, and do not use the usual tools and techniques of a cigar factory,” said Newman. “As the wrapper is not fully fermented, we have age the cigars for a full year after they are rolled.
Diamond Crown Black Diamond Cigars are the pinnacle of J.C. Newman’s Diamond Crown cigar brand. First introduced in 2016, Diamond Crown Black Diamond cigars are hand rolled in Tabacalera A. Fuente in the Dominican Republic. They feature an Connecticut Havana wrapper with a blend of aged Dominican binder and filler tobaccos.
“My grandfather, Stanford J. Newman, told me that his father, J.C. Newman taught him that we should aim to do something better every day,” said Drew Newman, general counsel, and fourth-generation owner. “Although our Diamond Crown Black Diamond cigars have been savored by cigar enthusiasts around the world for six years, I was not satisfied and wanted to make them better.”
