For those of you that don’t know…

During the middle of the Cigar boom of the 90′s (1996 to be exact), the J.C.Newman Cigar Company introduced the Diamond Crown brand of cigars to the world…The 2nd line in the brand, the Diamond Crown Maximus was introduced in 2003…

At the IPCPR Trade Show in New Orleans last year, the newest line in the Diamond Crown brand was introduced, the Diamond Crown Julius Caeser…Named in honor of the company’s founder, J.C. Newman (the J.C. stands for Julius Caeser, if that was not obvious), the new line will be produced at the Tabacalera A. Fuente…

The Julius Caeser will consist of 4 different sizes when the full line is released to the public sometime in 2010, but the only vitola that anyone has tried is a huge Double Corona…This cigar was supposedly to be released in late 2009, but so far almost nothing has been heard…

But enough of that, let’s get down to business, shall we?

• Cigar Reviewed: Diamond Crown Julius Caeser
• Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
• Factory: Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia
• Wrapper: Connecticut seed Ecuadorian Sun Grown
• Binder: Dominican
• Filler: Dominican
• Size: 7 5/8 inches
• Ring Gauge: 49
• Vitola: Double Corona
  
• Est. Price: Unknown, but it will not be cheap
• Date Released: Most likely 2010 (sometime)

Make no mistake, this is a LARGE stick, yet another sacrifice on the alter of the “Big Ass Cigars”…The wrapper is a light reddish brown and smells only of tobacco (and only faintly at that)…It is a fairly firm cigar when squeezed, and almost feels like it is overfilled…Taking all these things into account, I was thinking it was going to be a fairly mild smoke…

Right after lighting the cigar, I got a nice amount of spice up front, but it quickly faded into the background (and almost disappeared)…At the same time,  I was tasting a Strong Leather flavor, mixed with cedar and just a touch of sweetness (almost but not quite like caramel)…

Around the start of the Second Third (roughly), the spice started picking up, and while the cedar remained (mostly in the background at this point…in fact, it almost seemed like the spice and the cedar flavors switched places), the sweetness from the first third was gone, replaced by a (very) faint earthy note…

The Final Third is where this stick really fell apart…We were rolling along fairly well, then it almost seemed as though someone turned off the Spigot named “Flavor”…the spice disappeared, the leather disappeared, the cedar disappeared, and all I was left with was an almost annoying bland flavor of tobacco that, while not horrible by any means, was exceedingly boring…It continued that way until the end, and the cigar did get a bit hot at the end, but not enough to really bother me (but it WAS enough to mention)…

Final Thoughts:

• I was honestly expecting a better cigar then this, especially considering that it is supposed to be honoring the founder of the company…
• Don’t let the press release (when they get around to releasing it) fool you, this is a Medium - cigar strength wise AT BEST…There is some spice in the smoke, but it stays in the background for pretty much the whole stick, and is never a major factor…
• As you may or may not know, I recently reviewed another new Fuente release, the Angelenos…This was a better smoke then that one (at least in the first 2/3rds) but honestly, only marginally…I would still take a Hemingway Classic Maduro (for example) any day of the week…
• Having said the above, there is a slight twist in the story…While I am one of the first to smoke this cigar, I am not THE first, and the reviews before mine have been fairly similar…However, when someone mentioned their disappointment with this cigar on the Fuente’s Forum, he had this to say…It is possible that the prerelease sticks that I smoked were part of this batch, and that they are holding back the release for this reason…(of course, it is also possible it is a crap blend, and they are trying to do damage control…so believe what you will): “As I believe Rich mentioned at the CFC, the JCs that were handed out were way too young to be smoked. Several thousand of the ones that were initially rolled earlier this year had to be thrown out because the blend was wrong. Consequently, the ones that were passed out were just a few weeks old — too wet and without enough time for the flavors to marry.“
• The Burn was perfect for the entire stick, but the draw was way too loose…(Which I found odd, considering the fact that it seemed overfilled when squeezed…)
• The Final Smoking Time was 2 hours and 5 Minutes (which I think is actually a bit fast for a cigar this size)

The Bottom Line: There is really not that much that has not already been said above…This was a Too Large, Too Mild and Too Boring cigar that was never came close to being anything other then (barely) average…and I am sure it will be Overpriced as well…Oh, and if you see any of the Fuentes, tell them I want the Two Hours of my life that it took to smoke this back...

Final Score: 80