This Julius Caesar is from Tampa.

We have all seen those pictures from the late 1800’s – well-dressed men smoking “fine” cigars wherever they were. Cigars and brandy in the drawing room after dinner was a social tradition. Back then Tampa was the cigar capital of the US. Meanwhile in 1895 in Cleveland, Hungarian immigrant JC Newman was rolling his own brand of cigars for the locals. Then in 1954 he moved the operations to the big time in Tampa where J.C. Newman Company remains as the last operating cigar manufacturer in Cigar City.

J.C. Newman has a super-premium brand called Diamond Crown and to honor both its founder and 115^th anniversary of the company, Newman released its Julius Caesar 1895 Perfecto under that brand. The 1895 Perfecto is 5 X 52 with an unusual shape and foot (see the picture). The “open” foot appears to be unfinished but that is actually to add to the flavor of the cigar. The 1895 is made in the Dominican Republic for Newman by A. Fuente and it has Dominican binder and fillers that are aged five years and finished in an Ecuadorian Havana seed wrapper.

I was given an 1895 Perfecto at the 2013 IPCPR to review. I was drawn to its unusual shape and finish. It was firm but not overly so. It took me 35 minutes to smoke it and I noted a sharp peppery taste that later included nuts and cedar. There was an under taste of sweetness. The draw was average, as was the smoke output but the ash was above average. This cigar is available only in Diamond Crown lounges so it is difficult to opine on the “value” this cigar represents. The appearance and construction were first rate, the flavor about average but without an MSRP I can only rate is 3.5 out of 5. However, its exclusivity and shape make it an interesting stick to hand out to important friends.