PCA 2023: DBL Cigars

Last year at the 2022 PCA Convention and Trade Show, I first covered DBL Cigars, the official and shortened name for Dominican Big Leaguer Cigars. I met founder Francisco Almonte, and from the few minutes I spent with him, I got the sense that he is a naturally friendly individual who is very passionate about the cigar industry.

This year, I was running up against the clock and was visiting the DBL booth shortly before the show closed for the day. Despite having all the display boxes put away, Almonte was happy to take them back out and talk about his new cigars debuting at the show.

As you can tell, the booth looks a little empty, with nothing on the shelves and reps’ bags packed, ready to leave for the day. This was not the case during the day, with cigars on display and retailers in the booth chatting with company reps. I liked the upgraded booth structure this year, with lots of large branding making it easy to find and a nice booth layout, with a couple of tables for meetings along with display shelves all along the front of the booth.

DBL 10th Anniversary

Celebrating the company’s 10th anniversary, Almonte created two separate blends, using the same binder and filler but featuring two different wrappers. The box comes with 15 of each blend, which judging by the missing cigars from the Maduro’s side, seems to indicate which caught more interest from retailers.

• Wrapper: Mexico (Arapiraca) or Ecuador (Oscuro Cameroon)
• Binder: Dominican Republic (Habano)
• Filler: Dominican Republic (Corojo 99)

• DBL 10th Anniversary (6 5/8 x 52) — $13.50 (Box of 30, $405)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: July 2023

DBL Nicaragua

Just before the show, Almonte was asked to change the name of this cigar as it infringed on a previous trademark from another company, so the name was changed from La Unión to DBL Nicaragua. While I understood the concept of the union between Nicaraguan tobacco and a Dominican-based factory, DBL Nicaragua is a much more descriptive name for this Nicaraguan puro. It will launch in two sizes, with the Robusto Gordo being a box-pressed shape.

• Wrapper: Nicaragua (Habano)
• Binder: Nicaragua (Criollo 98)
• Filler: Nicaragua (Estelí, Jalapa, Ometepe)

• DBL Nicaragua Robusto Gordo (5 1/2 x 54) — $9.50 (Boxes of 20, $190)
• DBL Nicaragua Toro (6 x 52) — $10.50 (Box of 20, $210)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: July 2023

DBL La Tabla

This large, box-pressed cigar is called La Tabla, Spanish for the board, and is an appropriate name for the large, flat-sided cigar. Almonte noted in the press release that he didn’t see a lot of large ring-gauge, box-pressed cigars on the market and wanted to fill that gap. La Tabla is only currently being released in a single size.

• Wrapper: Mexico (Arapiraca)
• Binder: Ecuador (Cameroon)
• Filler: Dominican Republic (Corojo 99) & U.S.A. (Fire-cured, Pennsylvania Broadleaf)

• DBL La Tabla (7 x 64) — $11.50 (Box of 24, $276)

Production: Regular Production

Release Date: June 26, 2023