Initial Thoughts
The story behind the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser is pretty enticing and gives us a nice look into the J.C. Newman legacy. This cigar is created to honor the founder of J.C. Newman, Mr. Julius Caeser Newman himself. As the story goes, on his entrance into the United States he was required to offer up a middle name for record keeping purposes. He couldn’t think of a middle name after his long travels from Hungary and asked for help from the local attendant. The attendant offered up the name Caesar, as in the great roman emperor. However, because of a spelling error the name was recorded as Caeser and the name stuck with him throughout his life. Pretty incredible story behind the name I think. It makes sense to honor the founder of the company which such a memorable name, even if it’s spelled incorrectly. Let’s hop into the cigar and see if it stands up to the legacy of the name.
Looks
Taking a look at this Diamond Crown Julius Caeser and you instantly know this is a special cigar. It has a big bold band that has a light blue background with gold trimming all the way around. In the middle of the band is an embossed stamp of the emperor Julius Caesar draped in a purple robe. Below the image is a white Roman column with the imprint of the name Julius Caeser on it. On the sides of the bands there are numerous medallions that are too small to determine what is contained inside of them. I’m sure each one has a specific purpose, but I can’t determine what they are.
Taking a look up and down the barrel of the cigar the Ecuadorian Havana-seed wrapper it is a beautiful dark milk chocolate color. Not quite a maduro but dark enough to make you look twice. There are tons of oils just oozing out of the wrapper and it looks absolutely delicious. The cigar looks like an ultra premium cigar, and the price tag confirms it.
Function
Rolling the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser through my fingers I can’t find a soft spot anywhere. The foot looks well packed and evenly dispersed. There are no noticeable veins running through the wrapper, it’s incredibly smooth yet thick.
I decided to go with the ole double capped back cutter to nip the cap off this cigar. I tested the dry draw and it was absolutely fantastic. Just enough resistance to not choke you when you pull the air through the barrel, but enough to get a good sense of the flavors awaiting us.
Smoking
After putting some fire to the stick it started pouring out smoke. A nice thick cloud of heavy gray smoke was circling around me. It was very rich and thick. Just how I like the cigar smoke to be. It took a few gusts of wind to whisk away the smoke from my area, leaving me replacing it with another dose.
The first third burned absolutely perfect all the way through. I held onto the ash for just over an inch. Then I decided to let it go. This was the common theme throughout the cigar. It burned perfectly and the ash held on as long as I wanted it to. Can’t beat that. Puff after puff it continued to burn and smoke phenomenally. I couldn’t have asked for a better smoking experience with this cigar.
Flavor
Now to the all the important flavors of the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser! Right off the bat when I was nosing the foot I picked up a sweet cocoa bean note. Followed by some hints of molasses that thick, rich and sweet note, it’s hard to miss. Moving up the wrapper I picked up a solid spice note that was jumping out as a black pepper flavor.
On the dry draw I picked up a couple of interesting flavors that I wasn’t expecting. I got a good dose of herbs and a bit of a hoppy note. Never really experienced that on the dry draw, but it was very interesting to say the least.
Once I got some fire to the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser it started producing a nice rich spice to it. That floral note was still present on the retrohale alongside the spice. I also picked up a nice citrus note towards the end.
The second third brought out more spice, but balanced it out with a nice hickory char note. It was a great combination, there were hints of cocoa and coffee bean in there, but more towards the back end of the flavors. The spice and hickory notes were the dominates notes through this section.
The final third was similar to the 2nd third. Lots of spice, that black pepper really kicked it up some and was making it over take the more subtle hickory notes. I was still getting a bit of that coffee bean, but again it’s toward the back end of the flavor profile.
Just a delicious, creamy, rich cigar with a great flavor profile. I would put this in the Full Bodied category. Even after smoking it on a full stomach the strength of the flavors and nicotine hit me pretty hard.
Would I Buy It Again?
Absolutely, it’s a special cigar though. So at around $17 a stick it’s gotta be for a special occasion.
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
Not for me, but maybe one day.
Would I Buy a Box?
If the price is right for a box purchase I don’t think you can go wrong.
Conclusion
Really enjoyed this Diamond Crown Julius Caeser, yes it’s fairly expensive, but it’s worth even penny. To me it’s similar to the Davidoff Nicaragua in that sense. You get what you pay for, it’s like drinking a 17 year single malt. It just has something special to it that the others don’t. So do yourself a favor and try at least 1 to see for yourself.
