Cayman Cigar Company Sovereign, Monarch and Diplomat Cigars

I recently received a sampler from Cayman Cigar Co., located in the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands is a British territory south of Cuba and west of Jamaica. It looks like the sort of place I’d love to visit about this time of year! The Cayman Cigar Co. donates 100% of their net profits to charity, and they seem to be working on actually growing tobacco on the islands, there isn’t any Cayman tobacco in their blends. It seems like the cigars are rolled there, and they are rolled very well, all five samples I smoked burned perfectly. Of course, I smoked these in a logical order, but, at least in the Sovereign series, they seem to be named a little out of order. All five were a 5¼” x 50 robusto vitola. I started with the Sovereign No. 1. This has a Brazilian Bahia Sumatra wrapper, over a Broadleaf binder, with Criollo and Brazilian tobacco in the filler. The Criollo is a constant in four out of the five blends, according to their literature. This is a medium bodied cigar, with a very interesting sweetness. The flavor was mouth coating, almost cloying. I was quite impressed with this cigar.

I moved on to the Sovereign No. 2, of course, the mildest of the set. Why the No. 2 is the mildest and not No. 1? You’re guess is as good as mine. It might be the only thing that bothered me about these cigars. This seems like it’s the same makeup as the No. 1, without the ligero, as there was a very similar cloying sweetness, along with a bakers spice of some sort that was both familiar, but I couldn’t identify. I’ve said it many times, I’m a picky eater, so my reference group of flavors is fairly small. Again, this was a nice smoke, accessible to the novice or experienced smoker alike.

The Sovereign No. 3 has a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper, over what I assume is the same bunch as the No. 1. This is supposed to be the boldest of the three Sovereigns, and must be front loaded with the ligero, because it started out with a sharp bite. It quickly settled and had that cloying sweetness that the other two had, along with that baking spice, and some espresso. Despite being numbered out of order, which is more of a me problem, these are all very unique and interesting cigars. There’s definitely a common thread amongst the three.

The next cigar I smoked was the Monarch. This cigar also has a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper, over an undisclosed blend of fillers. It must have been the Brazilian fillers in the other three which gave them the sweetness, because this one was more on the savory side. It actually started out on the harsh side, I was concerned, but it smoothed out. There was a hint of the spice that the others had. So far, my least favorite of the three, but not a bad cigar by any stretch.

Finally, the Diplomat. I failed to take good notes on this one, except that it started out bold. This one they call “the ambassador of cigars. Representing the balance of strength and sophistication…”. It has the Arapiraca wrapper used on the Sovereign No. 3 and Monarch. The binder is a San Andrés, and what they refer to as “our most robust long leaf filler”. This cigar was the most full bodied of the range, and quite delicious. It had some espresso, as well as that signature spice that runs through the portfolio. All five had a perfect burn and draw, as I said at the beginning of this piece, very well made. I just took a look at their website, and see that this sampler sells for $96, so they darned well should smoke perfectly. These are priced high, but that’s not awfully uncommon with cigars made in atypical locations. Costs of importing all the tobacco, labor, etc. are all much higher. I would assume they are buying small amounts of tobacco that’s already processed and ready to go, which is more expensive. Considering that they were very unique, and of good quality, I’d smoke them again. the presentation was very nice as well. Maybe I’ll get to visit one of these days, it seems like a nice island. Many thanks to Scott Hough, one of the founders of the company, for allowing me to try these.