Initial Thoughts
The Diamond Crown Julius Caeser is an interesting cigar. It made it’s way onto CA’s Top 25 list in 2011. I picked this cigar up probably 6 months ago and it’s been resting in my humidor just waiting for the perfect moment. I’m not sure if tonight was the perfect moment, but hey it was good enough for me!
I was doing some research online to find out more about this cigar when I came across the Diamond Crown website. The Julius Caeser is actually a very cool story. They made this cigar is 2010 to celebrate the 135th birthday of their founder J.C. Newman. Yes the J.C. stands for Julius Caeser very cool! J.C. Newman Cigar Company has been around for 115 years making cigars and is still family owned. Thats very impressive to me. They make a couple of cigars that were my first ever go to cigars the Brickhouse and the El Baton. These are great inexpensive cigars.
After finding all this out about the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser needless to say I’m pretty excited to smoke it. I remember picking this cigar up at my local B&M because it was in a zip lock bag with about 10 other sticks that they had put together to make a ‘Top 25 of 2011’ package. You could get all 10 sticks for $100, well I didn’t have $100 to drop on it so I picked out a couple that I wanted to try thats where my AB Prensado came from as well. So how about we get to that review?
Looks
If you’re trying to find the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser in your local shop it shouldn’t be too difficult just look for the purple. The band on this cigar is beautiful. It’s big and bold. The main image is supposedly a picture of J.C. Newman and with a little work he has been dressed as the infamous Roman Emperor. The band is trimmed in gold and has some great detail and with little gold medallions on each side. They are too small to really figure out what they are, but hey they look pretty sweet. One of my favorite things are the roman numerals around the band. I’m sure if I took the time to count I would figure out that it was a year probably 135 years ago and 2010. That would be my guess, but I didn’t take the time to count. I love the over all theme of this band everything has a very roman esque feel to it and it’s very cohesive A+ in my book!
The wrapper is Ecuadorian Havana seed and it just glistens in the sun. It’s a light colorado brown wrapper that is incredibly smooth and placed perfectly. There is one large vein that runs down the wrapper, but other than that this wrapper looked flawless.
Function
Since it had been awhile from when I picked this cigar up I wanted to check it out and make sure that the filler was firm with no soft spots. The only issue I found on the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser was near the head under the band. There was a small soft spot, but nothing I was too worried about because by the time the burn got there chances are it would be too hot for me to hold anyway.
The weight of this cigar was very light, judging by how packed the filler looked I assumed it would be more dense similar to the Tempus. I’ve been using my V Cutter a lot lately. Honestly, its my new favorite cut. It’s not the cleanest cut, but man it makes a big difference when smoking, at least I think so. Since this is my site what I say goes… Ok that’s not very nice, but I do believe it makes cigars smoke a lot better. So I take a nice wedge out of the head and test the dry draw, wow this Diamond Crown Julius Caeser pulls fantastic. I picked up a good amount of flavor just by pulling air in over the leaves in the filler. One of the easiest draws I’ve had in awhile. Ok ok ok I’m getting anxious I’m ready to light this thing up!
Smoking
No matches! I know I know, I’m letting a lot of you down by not using matches and going all ‘new school’ on you and using a lighter. But hey I got this new Xikar Stratosphere lighter (I’m going to be reviewing it soon) and man does this thing kick ass! I still love my matches but its hard not to love something that gives you instant fire. I started toasting the foot of the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser I wanted to make sure and get a really even toasting to get this thing off on the right foot (see what I did there, foot of the cigar, and on the right foot, don’t worry you’ll get it later). Then I started puffing away on this thing and holy white smoke all of a sudden I was engulfed in smoke. It was glorious! Wow, definitely didn’t expect that to happen.
The draw on this stick was fantastic which made smoking it an absolute walk in the park. I kinda wish I actually walked in the park while I was smoking it so that I could test that saying, but I didn’t so I can’t. I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever seen a burn as even as this cigar had on the first third. It must have been from that great toasting job, that really got things off on the right FOOT (get the joke yet? Ok good). Seriously though when I read other blogs and even this one that say this cigar had a laser straight burn. Imagine if you could have something straighter than that. That’s for you guys to figure out I’m just a writer blogger, not a scientist.
The Diamond Crown Julius Caeser burned perfectly all the way down to the nub. I didn’t have one issue whatsoever. I touched up the burn one time just because I’m a pyromaniac and wanted to use my lighter. I didn’t need to touch it up, I just wanted to shoot a flame at something and I chose the cigar over burning my arm hair. I think I made the best decision. One thing I did notice when smoking this thing is after I took a couple of big draws I thought I saw the wrapper ‘dancing’ some. Almost like the heat was flowing through the barrel and turning the wrapper different shades of darkness. I was honestly amazed and I was like I’ve never seen that before! But then I realized it was a shadow from the tree behind me… I’m an idiot.
Flavor
I’m sure all of you are saying I just wanna know what it tastes like, ok maybe none of you have read this far. To be honest after all this I was hoping the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser would deliver big bold flavor. I was a little let down, this is a great medium bodied cigar, but it doesn’t pack much in the way of flavor. I always say there is beauty in simplicity, actually I think thats the first time I’ve ever said that. I was able to pick out some flavor from this cigar but nothing that was overwhelming. It was blended very well and incredibly smooth which by now you know that I love a smooth cigar, but I was expecting to be able to pull some more flavor out of it.
On the dry draw I was able to pick up light notes of coffee with some sweet notes. On the foot I was able to really pull in some molasses and it the sweet part of my palate. I was hoping that once I lit it up I would be able to pull in some stronger coffee notes. I couldn’t get much flavor from the wrapper either usually I’m able to pick out some flavors when licking my lips, but it just wasn’t there.
This flavor profile stayed very consistent all the way through. Along the way I could pick up hints of woody flavors that would switch to light notes of sweet. Not much spice though on this cigar I could retrohale very easily without any issue. Just smooth and savory. So if you’re looking for a big blast of flavor this isn’t the cigar for you.
Would I Buy It Again?
Ehhhh it’s a possibility. I don’t feel like there is a whole lot more I can get out of this cigar. It had a great burn and very easy to smoke, but I don’t think there is much complexity in the flavor and at the price tag its hard to spend that again on something that doesn’t wow me.
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
Yeah if you’ve got the coin. It’s a very consistent smoke and if you feel like shelling out $15 a pop then you could buy it and smoke one everyday. But for me thats too much money when I can get two sticks for the same price and be just as happy.
Would I Buy a Box?
Personally I wouldn’t, for me it was a great one time smoke. I mean I wouldn’t turn down a box, but I wouldn’t go and seek one out either.
Conclusion
Overall the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser was a great smoke. But for the price tag I expected some more flavor and some more body. A great draw and an even burn is something that I automatically expect from a cigar in this price range. However, I also expect to be wowed a little with the flavor profile. I’m not saying you have to flip flop flavors the whole way, but I want to be able to at least taste a little more than I did on this stick.
