Diamond Crown Julius Caesar Et Tu Brute

By Tony Casas | May 31, 2022

I hope you all are having a great and safe Memorial Day! This week, I celebrate those who gave the ultimate sacrifice (including many of my family members) with a Diamond Crown Julius Caesar Et Tu Brute paired with a bottle of The Bruery’s B A N A N A S Imperial Stout Beer.

The Good Stuff:

The Diamond Crown Julius Caesar Et Tu Brute was released to celebrate two milestones for J.C. Newman. First their founder, Julius Caeser (J.C.) Newman, founded the J.C. Newman Cigar Company on May 5, 1895 — 127 years ago. Secondly, May 26th would have been Julius Caeser Newman’s 147th birthday. The coffin-boxed, 6 3/4 x 54 “Shark” box-pressed torpedo format is usually only released inside the “Toast Packs”. The blend features an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper over a binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic. This is an extremely limited run and each stick runs $24.99 per.

• Size: 6 3/4 x 54
• Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
• Binder: Dominican
• Filler: Dominican
• Body: Medium/Full
• Strength: Medium
• Price: $24.99
• Pairing: The Bruery B A N A N A S (Imperial Stout 13.3%)

Prelight:

The Diamond Crown Julius Caesar Et Tu Brute is laid within a beautiful black coffin box. Once removed the cigar showcases a beautiful and extremely consistent medium brown wrapper. The first obvious characteristic is the hard box-pressed body which leads up two a round, tapered torpedo cap. The wrapper’s texture is slightly toothy with a ton of oils coating it. The wrapper feels very hard and dense and the cigar as a whole is pretty hard and packed well. The cigar is polished off with the standard detailed gold, blue, white and purple band we commonly find on the Julius Caesar releases.

The wrapper on the Diamond Crown Julius Caesar Et Tu Brute gives off strong cedar and cashew aromas while the foot of the cigar is much more musky with lots of dirt and earthiness. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces strong notes of musk, honey, and natural tobacco.

First Third:

The Diamond Crown Julius Caesar Et Tu Brute starts out with notes of cedar, cashew and honey over lighter notes of maple, graham cracker, and loads of mossy earthiness. The draw is great as each little puff kicks out huge clouds of thick white smoke which really stick around for some time while the cigar releases only small amounts of stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is crazy thin leaving behind a compacted trail of medium gray ash which held on for almost an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Diamond Crown Julius Caesar Et Tu Brute and the flavors are now focused heavily on the earthiness and honey. There are lighter notes of cashew and cedar underneath while the retrohale brings the maple back out of the cigar. The cigar is still burning great and I close out the second third with not signs of nicotine.

Finish:

The final third of the Diamond Crown Julius Caesar Et Tu Brute is where the cigar really shines. The musk, earthiness, and honey have taken over the flavor profile and have broth the cashew and maple up along with them. It took me about two hours to smoke this cigar down to the nub. I experienced no harshness nor any extended heat. I close out the cigar with no nicotine kick. I did want to mention how awesomely comfortable this box-pressed torpedo format is in both my mouth and hand.

Overview:

The Diamond Crown Julius Caesar Et Tu Brute is a great cigar and a classic example of how much a vitola change can make a cigar extra special. Anyone knows how rare shark formatted cigars are. The cigar is a bit on the milder site as it features a subtle bit of complexity that could easily be overlooked. The burn and construction were perfect. While I do get that its a cigar created to celebrate the company’s heritage and J.C. Newman’s birthday I do think the cost of the cigar prices it out of most people’s consideration.

Pairing:

The Bruery’s B A N A N A S is a 13.3% ABV Rum barrel-aged imperial stout with graham crackers, bananas, brown sugar, milk sugar, and Tahitian vanilla beans. The beer leads with heavy amounts of natural banana, roasted malt, sweet vanilla, maple and honey with an incredibly thick and stick mouthfeel before finishing with more banana, brown sugar, vanilla, and cocoa. I’m surprised that the banana and brown sugar comes through as much as they did. There is a nice little rum aftertaste that doesn’t come through other than the aftertaste. The beer added a level of sweetness that I felt the cigar really needed to comfort my palate. I have been huge on banana in stouts the last few years and this is a great example of banana done right.